By Josh Throckmorton

Over the past several months, PYSC has partnered with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation to design and test models for accessible recreational sports programming across the city. These efforts—most recently the Octavius Catto Youth Baseball League and Red Ball Tennis—have united institutional partners (the Philadelphia Phillies and U.S. Tennis Association), PYSC members (The On Deck Circle, Anderson Monarchs, Mt. Airy Baseball, and Legacy Tennis), and city employees around a common goal: to learn how to work together to provide young Philadelphians and their families with safe, inclusive, and engaging opportunities to build positive, meaningful relationships through sports. 

With spring seasons now behind us and planning for fall soccer programming in full swing, we figured now’s the time to step back and reflect on what we’ve learned so far. Here are our big takeaways:

1)  Families want their kids to try new activities but are sometimes wary of the “intensity” of the youth sports. 

This spring, 75% of Catto League ballplayers and 88% of Red Ball Tennis program participants tried their sport for the first time. Feedback from parents and guardians registering their kids was consistent: these opportunities were appealing because they were local (at their neighborhood rec centers), affordable (pay-what-you-can, up to $40), and didn’t require a huge time commitment (1-3 days per week of no more than 75 minutes at the field or court). One Red Ball Tennis parent echoed the sentiments of others who responded to our post-season surveys when they said, “Since my child is young and doesn’t yet know what he likes, I liked that the season was relatively short, financially accessible, and helped teach him the fundamentals.”

2) Philadelphia Parks & Rec staff want to lead programming and will do a great job when given the resources to do so.

Similar to the young athletes, the Philadelphia Parks & Rec staff members who raised their hands to participate in these programs were new to their sports, too: 70% of Catto League coaches and 89% of Red Ball Tennis coaches reported that they had never coached—or even played—their sport before the season. To make coaching accessible, PYSC and our strategic partners at Parks & Rec, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the U.S. Tennis Association designed a coach development process to intentionally onboard coaches to their sport and empower them to take ownership of their programs. Together, we provided equipment and apparel, administrative processes, communication templates, in-person and online training, practice curriculum, and feedback to guide their learning. One Catto League coach wrote at the end of the season: “I honestly didn’t think I could coach, although it’s something I always wanted to do…I loved what this coaching experience has done for me as a whole. It even gave me more confidence at bringing different programs into the recreation center.”

Surveys collected from parents and guardians suggest the coach development model was a smashing success (tennis pun intended). 100% of Catto League families and 100% of Red Ball Tennis families who responded to mid- and post-season feedback forms reported that their child had a positive experience with their coach – and a combined 96% of families said they’d register for another program led by their Parks & Rec coaches.

3) Philly is proud of its communities and loves showing it. 

While we know Philadelphians love showing their pride in their sports teams, we admittedly didn’t anticipate just how deeply connected to their children’s teams the Catto League and Red Ball Tennis families would be. Across both programs, we saw coaches and families of young athletes print custom t-shirts and hats celebrating their rec center; design team logos and print stickers for their kids; and bring balloons in their team’s colors to community play days. This reinforced the importance of providing center-specific team colors and clothing to kids and their families, a lesson we’ll carry forward by allocating more resources towards apparel in the upcoming soccer season.

4) It’s not that expensive to fund affordable, well-resourced entry-level youth sports programming.

While we acknowledge that both the Catto League and Red Ball Tennis program received free access to field and court space, web hosting services, participant registration software, t-shirts, training curriculum, and dedicated staff time from our partners, big picture, neither program was particularly expensive to run. To train nearly 40 Philadelphia Parks & Recreation coaches to provide more than 250 young Philadelphians at 15 rec centers with 8+ weeks of entry-level sports programming, PYSC spent less than $50,000 on equipment, apparel, training contracts, child safety measures, data collection services, program management technology, and end-of-season program celebrations. If local proponents of youth sports want to fund thoughtfully planned, community-based programming, they can…without draining their personal, corporate, or government bank account.

These lessons are already shaping how PYSC, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, and our partners work together to create new opportunities for Philly’s youth to try sports in their communities across the city. As we continue this work, we’ll keep listening, learning, and building models that make youth sports more accessible, welcoming, and sustainable for every Philadelphia neighborhood.