🎄 Friday Fuel — A Christmas Thank You (and a Look Back at an Unforgettable Year).

As we wrap up the year, we wanted to pause, take a breath, and say a very heartfelt thank you.

This time last year, Ben casually approached me with what felt like a simple idea:
What if we created real food products to properly fuel youth athletes?

Fast forward twelve months… and wow — what a ride it’s been.

We’ll be honest: we grossly underestimated how quick or easy anything would be.
From buying (and abandoning) multiple domain names, to eventually landing on Fueling Youth Athletes, to starting with The Game Changer and then pulling everything together under the FYA umbrella — it’s been a year of learning, refining, and constant rethinking.

What we didn’t expect was how much we’d be learning at every turn — not just about sport and nutrition, but about patience, persistence, and building something properly from the ground up.

🎙️ A Huge Thank You to Our Podcast Guests

One of the biggest highlights of this year has been the conversations.

We are continually blown away by how generous people have been with their time, knowledge, and experience — every single guest joined us for free, simply because they believe in helping young athletes and families.

We want to sincerely thank:

• Anna Veale — Founder of Fresh Coaching, sharing powerful insights into coaching, communication, and athlete wellbeing

• Emma Humphries — Academy Director at the Wellington Phoenix, offering world-class perspective on youth development and environments

• Erik Panzer — Founder of Panzer Performance, bringing clarity to physical preparation and long-term athlete development

• Ben Sigmund — Former All White and Wellington Phoenix defender, speaking openly about pressure, identity, and the realities of elite sport

• Skye Eddy — Founder of Soccer Parenting, helping parents better understand their role in the sporting journey

• Katie Schofield — Sports nutritionist, PhD researcher, and former world-level track cyclist, sharing invaluable insights on fueling, REDs, and youth health

• Dr. Craig Harrison — Founder of the Athlete Development Project and global leader in youth athlete development

• Wayne Goldsmith — International coach educator and author, challenging how we think about performance, potential, and parents

• Zane Winslade — Elite performance coach, reminding us that courage comes before confidence

• Todd Beane — Founder of TOVO Academy, bringing a global lens on football development, decision-making, and environments

• David Galbraith — Performance and mindset coach, sharing lessons from decades in high-performance sport

• William Wadsworth — Researcher specialising in the science behind study success, sleep, and learning

🎥 Already Filmed & Coming Soon

We’re also incredibly excited to share upcoming interviews we’ve already recorded with:

• Dr. Camilla Knight — World-leading researcher in youth sport parenting and family systems

• Dr. Shannon Parker — Sleep specialist from SleepLab, unpacking recovery, sleep, and performance for young athletes

These conversations are gold — and we can’t wait for you to see them.

⚽ Fan Q&As — A Massive Highlight of the Year

Another standout this year has been our Live Fan Q&A events.

A huge thank you to:

• Francis de Vries — All White & Auckland FC

• Cam Roigard — Hurricanes & All Black

Both gave up their time freely to answer questions from young athletes, parents, and coaches — and the response has been incredible.

For each of these events, we had:

• Hundreds of people joining live on Zoom

• Many more watching live on YouTube

• Participants tuning in from Fiji, Japan, South Africa, The Netherlands, Singapore, and England

• Over 30 clubs and 20 schools represented, with some clubs hosting the Zoom together in their clubrooms

These events have shown us just how powerful connection and access can be — and we’re excited to keep building on this.

🔔 What’s Coming Next

• Jesse Randall — All White & Auckland FC player — is locked in for Sunday, 25 January

• We’re still waiting to hear back from Alex Paulsen (All White, AFC Bournemouth — currently on loan to Polish side Lechia Gdańsk)

• And we’re following up with a few other exciting potential guests 👀

Watch this space.

🧠 Behind the Scenes — The Real Stuff

To be honest, there have been plenty of nights this year where either Ben, me, or both of us have just been exhausted.

Working full time.
Juggling teenagers, sport, training schedules, and life.
Trying to build something meaningful in the margins.

Some nights, the best thing we could do was simply stop and rest — and we’re learning that looking after our own wellbeing matters just as much as preaching it.

🧃 FYA Products — Where We’re At

We owe a massive thank you to Katie Schofield, our partner at FYA, who has been absolutely instrumental in helping us develop the ingredients and concepts for our pre-, during-, and post-training fuel.

We’ve learned that staying true to our ingredients isn’t always easy. Finding a manufacturer who can support youth-specific products without changing formulations or driving costs sky-high has been one of our biggest challenges so far.

For now, we are focused on bringing the first of our nutrition products to you as soon as possible in the new year, while we prepare to launch our FYA water bottles with fuel compartments.

👉 Pre-sales will be opening in January, so keep an eye out.

💙 Thank You — Truly

Finally, to you.

Thank you to everyone who has:

• Liked a social post

• Shared a newsletter

• Subscribed to YouTube

• Sent a message of encouragement

• Joined a Zoom

• Or simply followed along quietly

It all matters more than you know.

This year has stretched us creatively, technically, and emotionally — but it’s also reminded us why this work matters so much.

We’re building something slowly, intentionally, and with young athletes at the centre of every decision.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

Wishing you and your family a safe, restful, and joyful Christmas.
We can’t wait to bring you more in the new year.

B & Ben
Fueling Youth Athletes
💙⚽🏆