Beyond Sports was co-founded by two former college basketball teammates, Josh Erickson and Grant Leslie. After graduating from Willamette University, both Grant and Josh had unique international experiences in Costa Rica, coaching the Men’s and Women’s Costa Rica National Basketball and Men’s National Baseball teams and building connections with sporting communities abroad. They were inspired by the power of cross-cultural understanding through sports and wanted to create opportunities for student-athletes to travel abroad and create meaningful connections and unique experiences through their sport. While attending the “New Venture to Launch” MBA program at the Atkinson School of Management, Grant and Josh began bringing student-athletes down to Costa Rica for the first-ever Beyond Sports programs. 

Since 2010, Grant, Josh, and the rest of the Beyond Sports team have expanded program offerings from Costa Rica to 6 other countries (South Africa, Spain, Italy, Australia, Thailand, and Panama). We have hosted over 3,000 athletes from 500+ universities in our 9-year history in Beyond Sports Tours, Beyond Sports Team Trips, Student-Athletes Abroad Internships and Academic Programs, and our Beyond Sports GLASS. 

Our programs are created by athletes for athletes. We firmly believe in providing student-athletes with a balanced experience abroad. We achieve this by offering exceptional academic experiences, unique opportunities for engagement with local communities through our partnerships, daily workouts and sport-specific training, and plenty of time for exploring local attractions.