Sports Organized: Building Leagues Parents Trust

By Sean Fitzgerald

Youth sports has exploded in recent years.  This "industry" now rakes in billions a year, with traveling teams and personal coaches fueling the pursuit of college scholarships and, perhaps, professional careers. Still, the majority of leagues in which our kids play are run by local nonprofits relying on good-hearted, but often over-burdened, parent volunteers.  The results are often devastating, from embezzlement to loss of nonprofit status to fights on the sidelines. 

SportsOrganized is the first comprehensive guide to the organizational and financial challenges of running a youth sports league.  This book provides critical resources in the areas of financial controls, codes of conduct, data security, and many other essential aspects of running a successful sports nonprofit.  These "off the field" issues not only threaten a league's sustainability, but also directly impact the safety and enjoyment of players and parents.

Board members, coaches, and concerned parents will find SportsOrganized an easy-to-read resource guide that can be consulted time and again as your organization encounters challenges.  In addtition, SportsOrganized website provides additional resources, including easy-to-use templates.  SportsOrganized is truly an indispensable resource for youth sports leaders.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SportsOrganized
• Release date: Nov 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386848264

Sean Fitzgerald

Sean Fitzgerald spent well over two decades in nonprofit leadership, both as an executive and a board member.  When his sons began playing youth sports, Mr. Fitzgerald began applying that experience to the leagues in which they played, finding very few resources that could help volunteer leaders improve their organizations.  Mr. Fitzgerald’s first published work, SportsOrganized, attempts to fill that void.  Mr. Fitzgerald lives in Fullerton, California with his wife and his two boys, now 10 and 7 years old.  He serves on the board of local youth sports and education-related organizations, coaches both baseball and soccer, and cheers relentlessly, but usually politely, for his children’s teams.

Book preview

Introduction

I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED sports. I grew up playing in youth leagues and even a bit in high school, though I was hardly an All-Star.  And, of course, I’ve spent countless hours watching my favorite teams.  So, when my oldest son approached the age where he could begin playing, I mentioned to my wife that I might like to coach someday. 

As often happens around my home, things happen quickly when Jen is on the case.  Shortly thereafter, she arrived home and announced that she’d met someone associated with our local PONY baseball league and had committed me to coach a team!

Soon, I found myself running around a field after a band of 4- and 5-year olds.  Having never played organized baseball, I was ill-prepared to be sure.  Luckily, coaching T-Ball, as many of you know, often has little to do with baseball.  I was able to muddle through with the help of a couple of very helpful and patient parents.  In the end, we had some enjoyable nights and weekends out at the field and I was hooked.

Sadly, two years later the league skipped its playoffs because a single coach, who had responsibility for administering them, decided he didn't want to bother. That same season, the league somehow failed to provide trophies for the players. And the following year, the longtime President, who did everything from host opening ceremonies to run the barbecue out at the fields, stepped aside after several years of service. The league folded. That was the first time I realized that youth sports aren’t all pizza parties and T-Ball home runs. 

But hey, that’s just baseball, my sons like to play soccer too!  I joined the Board of our local soccer club soon after it was discovered that the former Treasurer had embezzled nearly $200,000.  I soon came to find out that the wife of the former President of the Board ran a sportswear business that had the exclusive license to sell the club's merchandise. The Board had also recently appointed one of its own members as General Manager with a six-figure salary, without so much as a job posting. And what’s more, we had a for-profit corporation being run under our nonprofit and many Board members didn’t even realize it!

We couldn’t even get our kids swimming lessons without being impacted by corruption.  Another hometown nonprofit had partnered with our city to operate a large, taxpayer-funded swimming complex.  Soon after our kids had ditched their water wings and kickboards, it was discovered that the nonprofit’s treasurer had stolen over $250,000.

All of these experiences happened in just a couple short years and all of them right in my own backyard.  I soon realized that our community was hardly an outlier; this kind of thing is happening all over the country.  I was really scratching my head.  How could adults so carelessly tarnish the experience of youth sports for parents and players?  Why was it so easy to misuse resources?  And more important, how could all this be prevented?  

I began to look for resources that I could use to help me and my Board colleagues improve our organization. What I found was that the resources available, whether from sanctioning bodies, nonprofit associations, or even consulting firms, focused largely on either on-field competitive balance or player safety.  Those are certainly important topics, but where were the resources to help with the back office tasks that help a youth sports organization operate successfully? 

Most youth sports organizations deal with many of the same issues as any small business, though with notable differences.  On the plus side, most youth sports leagues enjoy a fairly captive market of players/parents (if not a monopoly), a pool of volunteer labor, free or drastically reduced field/facility costs, and plenty of natural goodwill in their communities.  These are all advantages that are rarely, if ever, available to private businesses without significant investment.

It’s not all smooth sailing for youth sports nonprofits, however.  Unlike small businesses, youth sports leagues must also grapple with rapid turnover in leadership, lean budgets, and little or no paid staffing.  Oh, and let’s not forget that our youth sports leagues also need to ensure the safety of our children, develop their on-field skills and their character, and deal with all the emotion and energy that result from how we as parents approach both sports and our children.

This is a big job, and I think America’s youth sports organizations need help.  With very few exceptions, every youth sports volunteer I’ve met has been an honest, well-intentioned individual donating time they don’t have to help provide kids and parents with a memorable experience.  Still, there are all-too-frequent stories in the media of embezzlement, and a quick YouTube search will yield hundreds of videos of atrocious, and often violent, conduct on the part of parents, coaches and players. 

I believe that improving youth sports at the organizational leadership level can reduce waste, curtail damaging conduct, foster growth and, most important, provide a safer and more enriching experience for our children.

I’ve written this book to help further that cause.  I’ve also started a companion website dedicated to helping youth sports organizations thrive, while providing a place where parents can find information about the leagues in which their kids play.  At SportsOrganized.Com, you can find more resources related to the topics in this book, including how-to’s and articles on specific topics.  Thank you for reading!

How to Use This Book

WHILE I’VE TRIED HARD to make this book an engaging read from cover to cover, I fully expect that readers will visit and re-visit sections as they see fit.  This is, after all, a resource guide, and I’ve designed the material to be used in that way.

In each topic area, I’ve broken the content into four sections:

Background – This section provides an overview of the topic, why it is important, and how it connects to overall operational success.

Key Components – This section discusses the most important elements to consider as your organization addresses the topic area.

Why is This Important? – This section provides perspective on how an organization’s actions in a particular area may impact overall success.

Resources – Where I’ve been able to locate something