He took what he learned from UM’s offensive line to help students succeed in school

As a high school kid growing up in South Miami, Alejandro “Alex” Pou’s house became a favorite hangout for many of his friends.

After all, there was a basketball court on the property and about 30 yards of space to play football. There were also Pou’s parents, Alfredo and Kim, who quickly realized some of their son’s friends needed extra help.

“My parents would feed them, give them clothes and help them with their academics,” Pou said. “My parents instilled in me that spirit of giving back.”

Pou’s parents didn’t always have it easy. Alfredo, an architect, was a political refugee who came from Cuba to the United States when he was 9. Kim, an accountant, grew up in foster care in Wisconsin. They met at the University of Houston.

Alex Pou went on to play on the offensive line for the University of Miami’s football team, 2002-2006. Those teams did a lot of winning, finishing with a ranking among the nation’s top-20 teams four times in five years, including No. 2 in 2002 and No. 5 in 2003.

While at UM, Pou said he was encouraged by the athletic department to get involved in community outreach, and he gravitated toward helping youth sports organizations. After college, Pou worked for a law firm as a litigation manager and in his free time was a volunteer coach for youth-football programs in Coconut Grove and South Miami.

But that didn’t last long. Pou was upset when he found out that the program was turning kids away who did not have a high enough grade-point average. Further, the program was not providing academic support to help those kids reach the GPAs they needed.

After talking to some trusted advisers, Pou started his own non-profit organization to help students with academic and emotional support, literacy and planning for college. Working with his former UM teammates Andrew Bain and Christopher Napoli, and his younger brother, Gabriel, Pou created The Home Team.

This fall, The Home Team is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Student at Boston College

Anisleidy Chavez, 18, is one of the people The Home Team has helped. Two years ago, when she was a junior at South Dade Senior High, Chavez began thinking about college.

“I needed to apply to colleges. I needed to write an essay. I was stuck,” Chavez said. “I didn’t know what to write about, and I knew I would be competing against kids who have had internships and experiences that I didn’t have at the time.”

Chavez was given Pou’s contact information. With The Home Team’s help, Chavez landed an internship, applied to colleges, wrote her essay and got a full scholarship to Boston College, where she is now a freshman.

Chavez, the first person in her family to attend college, plans to major in biology or bio-chemistry. Her ultimate goal is to go to medical school and become a doctor.

“I come from a low-income household,” Chavez said. “Before I started with The Home Team, I didn’t have the resources that other students have.

“But (The Home Team) connected me with tutors, and that was crucial because it boosted my confidence.”

Coconut Grove/Coral Gables/South Miami area

Chavez is one of many success stories for The Home Team, which works in partnership with public schools and community centers in the Coral Gables/Coconut Grove/South Miami area, including George Washington Carver Elementary; Francis S. Tucker Elementary; Ponce de Leon Middle School; and Gibson-Bethel Community Center.

Initially, Alex Pou worked closely with a Coconut Grove youth-football team, known as the Redskins, whose players were often poached by affluent youth-football leagues from outside the area.

“Coconut Grove has a strong sense of pride,” Pou said. “My goal was to support this program with the resources they needed so that the local kids from Coconut Grove could succeed and stay in that program. This is a program that has won national championships and has sent players to the NFL such as Frank Gore, Amari Cooper and Roscoe Parrish.

“These kids remaining in their original youth-league program is where I got the idea for the name ‘The Home Team.’”

Pou soon decided to quit his job as a litigation manager and focus full time on The Home Team. People – including some in his family – thought Pou was crazy because the job switch came with a 50-percent cut in pay.

Emotional support for students

But Pou persisted, and the deeper he got into the plight of these kids, the more he realized he had to expand beyond sports.

“We started as academic support for athletes,” Pou said. “But we quickly realized not everyone wants to play football. Some kids want to do robotics. Some kids want to do dance. Some may have trouble controlling their emotions.

“We have staff members, most of whom come from our local communities, and they are trained to handle these situations. Sometimes there’s a kid who is labeled a ‘troublemaker’ who just needs to be heard. Sometimes a kid may just be excited or angry, and we just need to help him channel his emotions into something positive.”

In its first year, The Home Team started working with about 130 kids. Now, Pou said, that number is more than 1,100 children.

Pou said it’s not a coincidence that Bain, Napoli and his brother were all fellow offensive linemen in college.

O-linemen, as football fans know, rarely get credit despite how they pave the way for others – quarterbacks, receivers and running backs – to be successful.

“In football, I used to protect the quarterback and help him succeed,” Pou said. “Now I’m doing the same thing for children.”

How to help

For anyone wishing to donate, volunteer or get more information on The Home Team, call 305-305-6093 or email info@TheHomeTeam.org

This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.