This Post was provided by Doug Patterson:
I am on the board of directors for the Sauk Rapids Youth Baseball Association(SRYBA) Currently we are a travel baseball program that serves kids 9-15 years old. We have tryouts and then place kids on travel teams. Our travel teams play in the gopher state league and travel throughout central Minnesota and the north metro towns. The rest of the kids play in an in-house league were we have the rest of the teams evenly split. The last couple of years we have had great numbers in our younger teams but have lost kids as they got older. Why do you think we are losing kids and what do you think we should do to keep our numbers growing? Right now the things we are looking at doing is making the whole association in-house playing local teams like Sartell, Cold Spring, Foley and Clearwater. Keep some combination of both or put all our kids on traveling teams. I have my own personal views on what we should do but interested to get feedback from other people.
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I really believe that creating a menu of options for kids and families to choose from is the best way to keep them involved over time. In other words, I believe you need something for the purely recreational player who is in it just for fun and something for the travel level player who wants a different type of competition. Reducing offerings to a "one size fits all" offering will likely alienate both groups. I know this may be a challenge in a smaller town, but you may need to develop cooperative agreements with other nearby communities to make it work. I really believe that the key to fun and success for kids in youth sports is putting them in a developmentally appropriate setting.
ReplyDeleteI believe that one of the biggest reasons you see a drop off in participation as kids get older, is predominantly High School athletics. I was a 3-sport athlete in high school which was only 5 years ago, and my junior year I attempted playing J.O. volleyball (traveling volleyball) during my Varsity basketball season. I would have school 750-140, then basketball practice 2-4 ish, then have to drive 45 minutes to get to volleyball practice. And forget having any catch up or rest on the weekends, because I was ALWAYS traveling for volleyball tournaments. I am not really sure if I have any suggestions to make the participation increase for the older teenagers, but possibly offering a travel team that doesn't travel very far. I feel like when kids get overwhelmed with practicing sports, playing sports, friends, school, homework, family issues, ect, they end up quitting something to create margin in their lives and lots of times that is sport that gets dropped. I am interested in seeing others suggestions, and kudos to being so involved with SRYBA, sounds like a great organization!
ReplyDeleteIn complete agreement with Kevin about eliminating the "one size fits all offerings". As we all know, not every kid has a competitive spirit some kids just love playing the game and thats all. I believe if you were to have options for kids that want to enhance their skills by joining a travel team would be wise. More in-depth, knowing that we don't live in a big town I would look to partner up with another league with efforts to starting a travel team or possibly start a competitive package for the players that want to enhance their skills.
ReplyDeleteI have experience in a couple of school districts and there isn't one that doesn't lose some kids as they grow older. Some kids find out they don't like the sports, some know they won't be successful, some like the idea of making money more than playing a sport, and some just want to have more time to spend with their friends. I think Kevin's idea of offering as many different types of levels for the students is big (I know in a small towns case you have no options because of budget but maybe SR does). Even in PE class I have students who will just quit an activity if it gets too intense for them or they get put with a group of athletes who are serious about the activity. My suggestion is trying to set something up where every student knows they will get to play alot, have fun, and they will be successful. If that means creating two, three, maybe four teams (depending on numbers), than thats what you have to do. Another thing you could do is see what level most students seem to drop out and why. Is it because of a coach, to intense for some, too much money or time for some? If you can pinpoint why the majority of kids are leaving than at least you can make some adjustments in those areas.
ReplyDeleteI am on board with Kevin and some others to give more options to kids. I am involved in the softball youth assn. in Elk River and they stop offering in-house after 5th grade. I think they should offer it up until the child gets to high school. Our problem is getting other teams to play. I also agree that as kids get older and start to figure out who they are, they move on to different things, so losing kids as they get older is ok, but possibly putting out surveys to the the kids 10-15 to see what would keep them there.
ReplyDeleteThere could be a variety of reasons why these baseball players are quitting as they get older. If you want to try to keep more kids out, I think it is important to see why they are quitting. I agree with Stacey about sending out surveys to the kids. I would do it at the end of the year, and ask them a number of questions, such as: are you planning on playing next year? If not, what is the main reason? What are some improvements our organization can make for the following year? Etc. The surveys may lead to answers as to why kids are quitting, which will help you figure out ways to get them to stay aboard.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with most that the reason kids stop participating is due to a lack of interest in the more competitive programs. Additionally, and of greater concern, is the increase in the number of athletes who are suffering from overuse injuries. Children are becoming specialized into a specific sport at an earlier age and are thus more prone to overuse injuries. In addition, I believe many children become burned out from being so focused and consumed by a sport at such a young age. I also believe children drop out because they cannot live up to the pressure placed on them by parents. Mark Hyman wrote a book entitled Until it Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports (which was on our list) which I think points out some very interesting facts about the status of youth sports.
ReplyDeleteI can say that agree with everyone on here but I defiantly understand with what brsa0201 concerns with Injuries. I have seen it happen way to often in wrestling. Kids are pushed to hard and end up quit of becoming displease with the sport so they quit. But another note to add to this blog is small town life. Some of these towns do not have as many opportunities as Minneapolis of St Paul. For some towns its a way of life, it is what kids do for athletics.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with everyone so far. There is not a perfect solution to keep kids involved. Having as many options as possible would help. I also agree with the above comments about giving the players surveys. The best information comes right from the source.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, when it comes right down to it the kids are leaving because they doing other things. 15 years is about the age of high school and there are so many more options to them that they haven't tried before. But it could also be that the kids who do not make the "elite" team year after year, may just be tired of trying (this is not the fault of anyone). You can only try so many times and fail before you just decide you've had enough.
ReplyDeleteIn my home town we used to have a little league program with numerous teams from numerous towns. But as the years have gone by, the numbers keep dwindling and the teams keep disappearing. I think the loss of kids is normal.
I'm not sure what suggestions I could make to help to keep them involved. But I know that the more teams you can play, around town or different towns, will help. It gives the kids new opponents to see and more competition.
Let me ask you guys a quick question....one of our biggest complaints has been about how we form our teams. We use a two-day tryout that is scored and then our teams are put together based on those scores. Is this the best way to form teams or is there a better way?
ReplyDeleteKids today have so many options in regards to sports and activities. I would agree with the other posts that kids are leaving little league programs to try other sports and or become involved in high school athletics. As a gymnastics coach, if the girls are competing at a lower optional lever once the they enter high school we see many of them turn to their high school programs. They want to continue the sport however, feel the 25 hours a week is to much for their level of commitment. I also see many parents pull their kids out of the sports if the cost, drive across town, or family gets in the way. I think there has been a slight decrease in kids sports attendance.
ReplyDeleteI don't really think there is a good way to form teams. What you do is what so many other towns do, however try to pull in people to do the scoring from other towns that do no know your kids. In Elk River we work with Monticello and St. Michael and they provide people for our tryouts and we help them out so that there is not as much politics involved. With that being said, I wish you could do what we do in high school ball, which is pull kids up and down as we see fit. If they are doing well, they come up and so on, because two days is tough to see how a kids is really going to play.
ReplyDeleteStacey, I like your idea about bringing in evaluators from other towns or associations. We have been talking about paying a separate organization that specifically does tryouts and have them run them for us. At least that way we will help to minimize the perceived politics of tryouts. I don't think you can treat 9-14 year old baseball the same as high school though with moving kids up and down. That is why I am for having equal teams that play the highest level of competition are teams can compete at.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience with youth teams, parents get sensitive about the "try-out" approach in team selection. Some kid is going to be exposed, embarassed, and we all know how others treat those situations at that age. I feel it is a practical approach, from the coaches perspective, in dividing teams for the best and fairest level of competition. However, for the participants/parents who are in it for the "fun" of the game, this idea of competition can be forigen. Is there a way to divide these kids up in terms of there location within the community?
ReplyDeleteAgain, I agree with the current approach, but in looking at satisfying the complaints, could this be a possible approach?
I think that the best way to decide teams is to hold two day tryouts, and make the final decision based on individual scores, past playing time, dedication, ability to grow as a player, and the players attitude.
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