Just a kid from New Jersey

My name is Garret James Hokr, and every week I write for the dreamers: those trying to break into the sports industry who maybe feel like they've got no real experience, no meaningful connections, no obvious way in.

I've built a dream career in sports. But I'll be honest…professional sports wasn't always the target. That came later, after a couple of career switches, some wonderful wanderlust, more mistakes than I can count, and a lot of amazing people I met along the way.

The passion for sport, though, that goes way back. To one day, in particular.

It was the summer of 2002. My family and I had finished an early Sunday dinner, sunlight still shining through the dining-room windows, when my mother reminded me we'd have to be up at 4:45 the next morning. I asked her why.

She smiled, looked at me, and said, "Because tomorrow is the start of the World Cup."

My mother, an immigrant from Colombia; my father, a New Jersey native with Neapolitan roots. Growing up in a big Colombian-Italian family taught me so much, and thankfully, it taught me early on that there was a whole world of places and cultures beyond the American suburb I was living in. When I woke up the next day and sat down for that early-morning match, a group stage battle between Brazil and Turkiye being played in South Korea, my understanding of the world would never be the same.

A South American powerhouse against a nation both European and Asian. Twenty-two players thousands of miles from their homes, a ball, some grass, a stadium packed to watch them...and me, just a kid from New Jersey, eyes glued to the screen sitting next to his mom. Brazil won 2-1, but it wasn't the result that stayed with me; it was my mother, the crowd on the television, the commentators, all reacting to the match as it unfolded. That something as simple as a schoolyard game could move people so deeply woke up a curiosity in me that still runs through everything I do. This sport had the power to unify people en masse unlike anything I had ever seen before.

I'd go on to live and work in Arizona, Spain (twice), New York City, Portugal, and Colorado. Throughout my late teens and twenties, I chased careers in whatever I was curious about: barista, bartender, bouncer, teacher, travel agent, tech salesman on Wall Street. Technically, none of these roles had anything to do with the business of sport. The only common thing between these roles? My willingness to stay curious and learn from the people around me: what their dreams were, why they loved their family, how they saw the world. It never occurred to me that I had no career destination in mind until the pandemic hit, and I realized I wanted to spend my life on the one thing I was purely passionate about: soccer.

So at 27, I decided I would start saving up for a master's program.

At 28, I found myself in a classroom again, elected to represent a cohort of 30 multinational students, while still doing the hard work sometimes left unseen: bartending to pay off tuition, volunteering at grassroots soccer events, working an unpaid internship at the United Soccer League, and eventually, applying to an inside sales role that looked nothing like the dream on paper…but ended up turning out to be the perfect place for me to be.

At 29, I landed my first real role in professional sports at the Colorado Rapids.

At 30, I started working for the exact kind of organization, in the exact sector of the industry, I had spent years trying to reach: Community and Social Impact at Gotham FC.

And today, at 31, I run a nonprofit called the 2631 Foundation, built around the attention of the 2026 World Cup, the 2028 LA Olympics, and the 2031 Women's World Cup, so that kids growing up around those moments actually get to benefit from the sport, not just watch it happen around them.

I write this newsletter, because the path nobody tells you about, along with its detours, its rejections, and its unglamorous jobs, is exactly the one that got me here. The choices that seem like detours are the ones that bring you to the right place.

If you're trying to navigate careers, pivot into sports, and go all in on the dream, I'd love to have you along for the journey.