Build It Like ISE: The Lacrosse Program That Went Viral | Yosef Ngowe Interview

I kept seeing ISE's content everywhere.

The pink uniforms. The sideline chaos. The mic'd-up clips. The kids losing their minds celebrating a teammate's goal while the whole lacrosse internet watched.

I had to know how a club program — no national brand behind it, no feeder system, no massive budget — built that kind of following from scratch.

So I sat down with Yosef Ngowe, the coach and content creator behind Inspire Success Early (ISE), to break it down piece by piece. What I got wasn't just a story about going viral. It was a blueprint. One that any coach running a local program can actually use.

Who Is Yosef Ngowe?

Yosef grew up in Atlanta, Georgia as a first-generation American — his father was born and raised in Uganda. He played four years of Division I lacrosse and represented the Uganda men's national team. After tearing his ACL in college and having his program shut down, he picked up a camera and turned that pivot into a career.

Today he runs ISE, one of the most talked-about grassroots lacrosse programs in the country. He also runs Athlete Classroom, a media company built around documenting the lessons sport teaches off the field. ISE raised money for breast cancer awareness, produced content that kids wrote their college essays about, and sent a player — the first ever from a village in Africa — to play NCAA Division II lacrosse.

He's not a guy giving theory. He's a guy who built something real and is willing to tell you exactly how.

The 3 Things He'd Do If He Were Starting a Local Club Today

I pushed him on this directly: if you had none of ISE's resources, none of the national platform, and you were starting a local club from zero today — what would you actually do?

His answer was specific. Three moves, in order.

1. Brand it to stand out. "I wouldn't want to have the same color ways as another local club. I'd want something completely different — maybe go purple, maybe go all black — something stylish that newer players to your program can have that look and feel good, play good reaction to."

Don't pick a colorway because it's easy. Pick one because nobody else in your area owns it. Your gear is the first thing anyone sees before they know your record, your coaches, or your culture. Make it memorable before they ever watch you play.

2. Promote every win — no matter how small. "When you get a new coach, when you get a director, when you get a sponsor — making that into a post and talking about things is critical."

Most programs wait until they have something "worth posting." Yosef's point is that momentum is built in public, incrementally. A new assistant coach is a post. A new practice facility is a post. A sponsor coming on board is a post. People want to be part of something that's moving — show them it's moving.

3. Capture everything at tournaments. "When you go to your tournaments, make sure you're getting and capturing that content any way you can. It goes a long way, especially if you beat another top program."

You don't need a professional crew. You need to show up with your phone, your parent with a camera, or a kid on your team who's been quietly editing videos in his bedroom. The content exists. Most programs just aren't capturing it.

Why Local Clubs Actually Have the Advantage

Here's where the conversation flipped on me.

I assumed local clubs were at a disadvantage when it came to content — that Yosef's setup (national-level talent, professional videographers, social media following already built) was the reason ISE's content worked.

He said the opposite is true.

"The advantage most club programs have that aren't nationals — they get their kids at practice every single day, or at least once or twice a week. So making sure you're documenting those stories of the players at practice, as well as at the tournaments. Doing interviews, post-game interviews, mic'd up clips — things that show how the program operates, not just the highlights."

ISE doesn't have daily access to its players. They meet at tournaments, sometimes for the first time, and have to build chemistry in a single weekend. Local clubs have something ISE doesn't: continuity. The story of a team developing over a full season is more compelling than a single tournament highlight reel. Most local programs just aren't treating it that way.

The $0 Content Hack

This one's worth stealing immediately.

"It doesn't all have to come from video. One of the things we did this year to help kids raise money is we made a graphic design template on Canva that any kid could take, put their own photo into, put the information in, and post it for themselves. We'll accept the collaboration on our Instagram as well."

Build the template once. Hand it to your players. They customize it, post it, tag you. You accept the collab. Your program's content doubles without a single extra hour of work from your staff.

This is also how you get kids bought into the brand — they're not passive recipients of content, they're making it. That ownership matters more than you think.

How He Builds Culture in a Weekend

ISE players often meet each other for the first time at a tournament. No months of practice to develop chemistry. No shared history. Just a zoom call, a playbook, and a team dinner the night before.

So how do you build a culture in 48 hours?

You make it a rule, not a value.

"I think a big way we emphasize that is by really hammering down on celebrating your teammates. If you're a ball hog, you're coming off the field. But if you're feeding the assist, or your teammate scores and you lose your mind celebrating on the sideline — you're staying in the game."

The key word is rule, not vibe. Yosef doesn't ask players to be good teammates. He enforces it through playing time. Ball-hogging gets you pulled. Losing your mind celebrating a teammate's goal gets you back on the field. The behavior he wants is rewarded with the thing every player wants most: more time.

Most programs preach good teammate behavior. ISE puts it in their pillars and then actually enforces it with consequences. That's the difference.

Showcases Are Underrated. Elite Camps, Less So.

Yosef had one of the more honest takes on the recruiting landscape I've heard from someone inside it.

On early elite camps: "Realistically, you could just go do a lot of those same drills watching YouTube and doing it in your backyard. Some of these camps are fishing for parents as a bit of a money grab."

On showcases: "Showcases are the most underrated part of sports. There's no A team, B team, C team. It's just a number on the field. Every kid is a blank slate. If you go and ball out there, it shows a lot more."

His recommendation: wait until high school (freshman or sophomore year) before investing in the showcase/elite circuit. Before that, replicate the drills for free. When it does matter for recruiting, showcases give underrated players a fair shot that club environments often don't — where word of mouth from a coach can make or break whether a recruiter even shows up to watch you.

The Through Line

What makes ISE work isn't the uniforms (though they help). It isn't the videographers (though they matter). It's that the program was built on something real — a cause, a community, a purpose beyond wins — and Yosef has been consistent about that from day one.

"Social media can be there to entertain, it can be there to inform, but also can be there to make an impact. When you try to do all three, it takes away that negative connotation and gives a reason to be promoting without being strictly self-serving."

That's the actual blueprint. Build something worth documenting. Then document it.

The coaches running local programs who are passionate about what they're building — who have that spark, that fire — already have the hardest part. Yosef's playbook just tells you what to do with it.

Listen to the full conversation with Yosef Ngowe on Clubhouse Talks — available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Follow ISE at and Athlete Classroom at .