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Table of Contents
How do I find youth sports information?We realize how hard it is for parents to locate sports programs. Rarely can you find listings that contain all of the options that are available in your community. In the San Antonio area the Kids Sports Network tries to keep a listing of organizations to help parents. Even in our confined area it is a daunting challenge. Refer to our Finding Youth Sports article and the answer to question 12 for more information.
Back to TopAt what age can a child start playing organized youth sports?We do not recommend starting kids in organized
team sports before five or six. For more information on this subject
read our "When
should kids start sports article?" There are organizations
that start youth sports as early as 3 or 4. You will need to call
organizations
directly to learn what ages they accept. The Catholic Youth Organization
(CYO) does accept children at an early age. You may want to call
your
nearest Catholic Church to see what sports they offer and at what
age.
Back to TopHow can we train our coaches and become a Training Unit?There is no fee or test required to become a
KSN Training Unit - just a commitment to train your coaches. The
major benefit of our program
is that it was created by someone with over 25 years in the youth
sports field and that we provide direct and personal service.
We promise
that you will always be able to reach a knowledgeable and helpful
KSN staff member when you contact us. For more information check
our
Coaches' Training page.
Back to TopHow can my child or my organization join the Spurs Drug-Free Basketball League?Spurs Drug-Free League (DFL) exists in the San Antonio and other selected areas in South Texas. For a list of organizations in the DFL see the information on our Drug-Free League page. Contact the organizations directly to sign a child up for their basketball program which is part of the DFL. Organizations interested in becoming part of the DFL can contact the . Additional organizations are added from time to time as funding permits. Back to TopHow can I find a youth football team for my child?The links below will give you more information on the tackle football leagues in the San Antonio area. Pop
Warner Football (San Antonio) Pop Warner national site has the Official Rule Book online (PDF file), be patient the file takes a while to download on dial-up connections. North American Junior Football Federation
(NAJIFF) Mays
YMCA Northeast
YMCA Texas Youth
Football Association (TYFA) Flag football is played by Pop Warner, NAJIFF, YMCA and TYFA at the younger levels. Other organizations have only flag football programs including the San Antonio Community Centers. Texas Team Sports National Youth Sport Back to TopWhere do I find the youth cheerleading programs?For cheerleading you generally need to call the football teams listed on the football links above. You can also look under the cheerleading section in the Yellow Pages of your local phone book or visit Cheer Now, a San Antonio website with listings of area cheerleading squads and programs. One basketball program, the Harlandale Little Dribblers, has a Cheerleading program. Back to TopHow do I find a youth baseball program?Little League is the largest baseball organization in the city. San Antonio Little League is divided into District 19, North San Antonio and District 20, South San Antonio. Many other organizations have baseball programs. The usual baseball season is spring, but many youth baseball organizations now also play a fall and occasionally even a summer season. Competitive baseball programs may play competitive tournaments year round. Competitive play exists in many of the other sports also. Back to TopDo you help sponsor youth sports teams?No, as a nonprofit 501(3)c organization, we are unable to sponsor youth leagues, individual teams or individuals. One suggestion is to have your parents ask businesses they patronize to sponsor or help your team or organization in some way. Businesses with a connection to your team or its members just might help. We do have many other resources that may help your team or organization. We offer training to coaches and maintain an extensive library of information on individual sports and the organizational resources that a youth sports organization may need. Check out our library page for more information. Back to TopCan I check out items from the library by mail?Unfortunately we are not able to mail you videos or books. You must visit our library to check out and return items. Financially you would be better off purchasing the videos or books because mailing and handling costs back and forth would be more than half the value of many items. We now have a special page of Links to our sources for books and videos. If you cannot find a specific video or book you want, and we will try to help. Back to TopAre military youth organizations listed on your organization page open only to military personnel? For example, the Randolph AFB Youth Center.The military Youth Centers are open to family members of active duty military, military retirees and DOD personnel (civilians working for the Department of Defense) living in the area. Back to TopIs the Kids Sports Network only in Texas?Our only office is in San Antonio and a lot of what we do takes place in Texas. However, our Coaches' Training program is used by youth agencies in seven different states and overseas. If you are interested in the training, we can set your organization up as a Training Unit allowing you to conduct the training and certification of coaches yourself. In order for that to happen we will need to know who you are and/or what agency you represent (Parks & Rec, Boys & Girls Club, YMCA's, national or independent youth leagues, etc.) There is $100 deposit to establish a training unit, but this deposit is credited toward your first five coaches. We do ask for a commitment to train your coaches and certify (register) them with our organization. For more information send E-mail to: and check out our Coaches' Training information page. We also offer many resources through the Links pages of our site. Back to TopHow can I find youth sports programs outside the San Antonio area?We realize how hard it is for parents to locate sports programs. Rarely can you find listings that contain all of the options that are available in your community. In the San Antonio area the Kids Sports Network tries to keep a listing of organizations to help parents. Even in our confined area it is a daunting challenge. Often the most frequent information source is your local newspaper. Information on youth sports sometimes appears in the sports section or in any section of the newspaper containing neighborhood or youth information. Other sources are any free monthly youth magazines available in grocery & department stores. Many elementary schools will distribute flyers about youth sports programs. Schools are often a good source of information relevant to programs near the school. Middle or Intermediate schools are less likely to send flyers home. The number of students is often large and the percentage of students participating in non-school sports tends to drop off during these middle school years. Many youth sports organizations now have websites and voice mail containing information about their programs. Youth sports organizations now usually keep a phone numbers constant even when the leadership changes. Remember many organizations are run by volunteers. Your local telephone directory has listings for YMCA's, Boys & Girls Clubs and Parks and Recreation facilities as well as some volunteer organizations, Pop Warner, Little League etc. If you call a number listed in the telephone book but no one answers, you may have reached a field number answered only during game season. This is happening less frequently as most organizations now use answering machines and voice mail. Remember that the registration for many youth sports programs occurs months before actual play begins. For example youth football games start at the beginning of September but registrations may start as early as May or June. If you wait until you see teams practicing, it is often too late to find a place on a team. Many youth organizations now have national web sites which can help you find one of their organizations near you. Boys & Girls Clubs has a find a club page where you can search by city for a club. YMCA's home page allows you to search by zip, city or state for a Y near you. The Pop Warner national web site now has a league finder that can help you locate a team in your area. The Official Rule Book for 2005 is also available (PDF file), on their site. Little League's has a "Finding a Local League" link on the left navigation bar of their website which directs you to another page on that allows you to search for individual teams by state or zip code on Eteamz web site. Pony League's web site has a Contact|Search for Contacts link where you can look for your zone, e.g. South will give you the contact information for the southern region of the US. Babe Ruth League's web site League Membership Info page where you can request information. American Legion Baseball's web site has a page with Directory Info./ALB Web Sites. Eteamz provides team, league and organization Web sites and the publishing tools to create and maintain the sites. Free and paid sites are available. Eteamz also has a site finder that might help you find organizations in your area. If an organization has a Eteamz Web site, the site finder can help you find their site. Just enter your zip code for a list of baseball, softball, football, basketball, soccer and volleyball teams or organizations in your area. You can also look for events through Active.com. If you are looking for a competitive playing environment check the AAU website especially the find an event or a find a team page. US Youth Soccer has a national web site and a state directory page. SAY USA Soccer specializes in recreation soccer. American Youth Soccer Organization has a regional locator's page. The San Marcos Parks and Recreation department has a web page for youth sports. A list of the City of Austin Recreation Centers is also on the web. The page has links to more information on each Recreation Center. Also on the city of Austin website is a list of youth sports in the Austin area. Other useful Austin area resource pages are Lake Travis Sports and Town and Country Optimist Youth Sports. If you are not already familiar with the Google Search Engine, we highly recommend it. You can often find the smaller youth organizations by searching for youth sports and your city name. Back to TopWhat are the employment opportunities at the Kids Sports Network?The Kids Sports Network (KSN) is a unique organization and a fun place to work. All our employees are team players who work to accomplish our mission. Employment opportunities include project coordinators, clinic presenters with youth coaching and specific sports knowledge, all areas of office support and professional positions. The Kids Sports Network offers part and full time employment. We do hire students and also participate in Internship (links to 980 KB pps file) programs. Full time employees are eligible for a sick and vacation hours and the ability to contribute to a 403b7 retirement plan. We are always looking for talented people (578 KB pdf file). If you are interested in employment opportunities with KSN, we suggest you fax (210) 646-9977 or E-mail a resume to us. Please call us first if you wish to E-mail a resume. We do not open any messages with attachments that we are not expecting. E-mailed resumes must be in Word or Rich Text format. Interns support KSN programs and projects and help with general office work. They must have basic computer and keyboarding skills. Interns are exposed to office practices, management, staff meetings and given training in the use of computer programs to perform office duties. Hours can be adjusted to fit a student's schedule. Sports interest and coaching experience is a plus. Fax resumes to (210) 646-9977. Interns are encouraged to submit an Intern Form to . Fall Internships are available. Back to TopWhat is Adobe® Reader and why do I need it for some of the links on your site?Adobe Reader (formerly called Adobe Acrobat Reader) is a free program that allows you to open Adobe® PDF files. PDF stands for Portable Document Format and is just what the words state, a document format that is portable. The PDF format makes it easy to give a file to anyone regardless of what computer system, printer or programs they or you have. PDF files provide a convenient way of distributing electronic documents that retain their original fonts, formatting, colors, and graphics. PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended by anyone with an Adobe ® Reader. You may download a FREE Acrobat Reader directly from Adobe®. Click on the link below. You will need to know what operating system (platform - for example, Windows XP) is on your computer. Enter your platform information in Step 1 by choosing from the drop down menu. You do not need to complete Step 2. To complete Step 3 push the red download button. When you get the File Download dialog box click on the open button. This will install the program on your computer. Now anytime you try to click on a link to a PDF file or open a PDF file, the file will open automatically. Click on a desired document link. This should automatically open your copy of the Adobe Reader with the selected document. Some PDF files may be large and could take awhile to download, especially if you are on a dial-up connection. The PDF file may also be saved and viewed separately at your convenience. To save the file, right-click the desired link and select "Save Link As." Some form PDF documents on our site now have user rights enabled. This allows you to save the document WITH the information you enter. This is only possible if you are using Reader versions 7 or 8. Use the link below to download the latest version of the free Adobe Reader program. Click here to download Adobe Reader http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html Note: Acrobat is different from Adobe Reader and is not free. It is a full featured programs that allows you to create and edit PDF files. Sometimes people will refer to Acrobat when they really mean Adobe Reader. Adobe changed the name of the program to just Adobe Reader to help make this clear. Back to TopHow can we do background checks on our volunteer coaches and administrators?The Kids Sports Network now offers its youth leagues an easy and inexpensive way to conduct Criminal Background Checks on their volunteer youth coaches and youth league administrators. For more information visit our Criminal Background Check page. Back to TopHow can we get a Spurs player or the Coyote to appear at our event?The Kids Sports Network (KSN) partners with the Spurs on many
youth programs including the award winning Drug-Free Youth
Basketball League,
and Fan
Fiesta volunteers at all home Spurs, Rampage and Silver Stars games. Requests
for appearances by Spurs players, former Spurs players and the Coyote
must be submitted
in writing directly to the Spurs Community Relations Department
at least six weeks prior to the event. You can mail appearance
requests to: Back to TopHow can a league join the Spurs Drug-Free League?Organizations that would like to join the Spurs
Drug-Free League (DFL) should send a letter to the Kids Sports
Network requesting admissions to the DFL. Organization must complete
the Name of the league Information should be sent in August to be considered for the league starting the following December or January. Back to TopHow can I form a nonprofit youth sports organization?There is often a lot more to starting your own organization than most realize. We can help you with coaches and parent training and criminal background checks for all your volunteers. The state of Texas website is a good place to start researching how to form a 501(c)3 in Texas. One of the last paragraph on this page answers the question "Can Youth Athletic Organizations qualify for tax exemption?" Commercial sites (1) (2) (3) offer to help you form a nonprofit for a fee. Of course we cannot recommend the commercial sites as we do not have direct experience with them. Listed fees vary from over $100 to almost $1000. Two other resources are Idealist.org and The Foundation Center These books also might be helpful: Directing Youth Sports Programs and How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation. |
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Copyright © 1999-2008
A nonprofit organization promoting quality sports for kids.
8206 Roughrider, Suite #104, San Antonio, Texas 78239-2449. (210) 654-4707 [ Site Map ][ Links Policy ] |
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