Dick's Sporting Goods has proved a powerful storyteller with its latest ads out of Anomaly known for capturing the heightened emotion of sports, whether it's at the baseball diamond, on the golf green or on the football field. Its latest ads, however, hope to extend those stories into the real world by promoting the retailer's "Sports Matter" initiative, which aims to help fund financially-strapped youth sports teams. A pair of spots directed by Epoch's The Mercadantes, formerly part of the directing team Everynone, illustrate the struggles of a pair of young athletes, a baseball player who attends his grandfather's funeral and a young lacrosse athlete who's forced to squeeze her practice time between school, caring for her family and and working at a fast-food restaurant--where she's forced to endure heartless comments from her peers.

The ads direct viewers to dicks.com/sportsmatter, where students from Kindergarden through 12th grade can apply to the program and submit their fundraising goal. For those accepted, Dick's promises to provide half of that goal. Students are required to fundraise the other half themselves because Dick's wants to encourage the young athletes to create a sustainable program that will keep their teams going for the long-haul. Read more about the campaign on Adage.com.