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The Future DirectionCommittee of the FloridaJaycees at its
Februarymeeting in Daytona Beach,authorized chapters inFlorida to
conduct community projects in cooperationwith the National
YouthSports Coaches Association.In order to fulfill the
Tony Lofaso requirements of acceptance,Tony Lofaso, past
President of the West Palm BeachJaycees accepted the position of
State ProjectCoordi nator.During the spring of 1982, the members of
theWest Palm Beach Jaycees accepted the NYSCA as acommunity program
and began immediately
planning a fund raising project.The NYSCA is a non-profit
organization with amission of training (certifying) volunteer
youthsports coaches through a unique six hour video tapeprogram.
This program is conducted by recreationprofessionals or
professionals in a related field whoare NYSCA Cert ified
Instructors.The NYSCA Volunteer Youth Sports CoachesCertification
Program has been adopted worldwideby the U.S. Air Force and Army.
The NYSCA worksin cooperation with the National Recreation andParks
Association and there are 316 OfficialTraining Centers throughout
the country and over10,000 volunteer coaches have completed
thetraining program.Realizing the need for volunteer youth
sportcoaches within their commuity, the West PalmBeach Jaycees were
determined to have a fundraising project to purchase the six hour
program forbaseball to be donated to the Palm Beach
CountyRecreation Department.The project selected to raise the
necessary fundsfor purchasing the tapes was a Class B
softballtournament. A field of 16 teams participated in theFirst
Annual West Palm Beach Florida JayceesBenefit Tournament held at
Okaheelee Park onSaturday, August 7, and Sunday, August 8,
1982.Team trophies were presented to the top three teams,as well as
individual trophies for the first place team.
After receiving the tapes donated by the WestPalm Beach Jaycees,
Kim Logan, Supervisor ofRecreation in Palm Beach County and a
NYSCACertified Instructor conducted numerous clinics tocertify
volunteer youth sports coaches in PalmBeach County.NYSCA will
present special awards to chapters
cooperating with NYSCA.How Can Your Chapter Help?As Florida
Jaycee Coordinator for the NYSCAprogram, Tony Lofaso encourages
each chapter toget involved in helping to provide the
necessaryfunds for this program to exist in your community.The
State of Florida has approximately 240,000children between the ages
of 6-14 participating inyouth sports. There are also 14,000
volunteers
acting as coaches for these youngsters. In order tofulfill the
needs of these coaches, the JayceesChapter in Florida must get
involved in providingthe NYSCA training program for your
communityyouth sports programs and to be identified withinthe
community as an organization who cares aboutproviding a positive
growth environment for thechildren participating in youth
sports.Some suggestions as to ways of promotingtraining of
volunteer youth sport coaches within ourcommunity are: Raise funds
to purchase the video tapeprogram to be used by your local
recreationdepartment (If tney are qualrfied NYSCA Instructor);
Raise funds to pay for each coaches NYSCAmembership certification)
fee of $10; Establish a "Volunteer Coach of the Year"award to be
presented to the volunteer coachwho exemplifies good sportsmanship,
goodleadership, teaching ability, etc. and is aNYSCA Certified
Coach.
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A Brief History -The National Youth Sports Coaches Association,
anonprofit program, was formed in January 1981, and isthe
officially endorsed program of the NationalRecreat ion and Parks
Associat ion, to t ra in volunteer
coaches in youth spor ts programs throughout America .The NYSCA
program is a national campaign to uniterecreation professionals
injoining forces to eliminate thepsychological and emotional abuse
directed at chi ldrenin youth spor ts by untra ined and unqual
ified volunteersacting as coaches in youth league sports. The
NYSCAstaff includes personnel with backgrounds coveringareas such
as spor ts psychology, pysiology and f irst a id ,but most
important, individuals whose backgroundincludes the day to day
experience in youth sports.NYSCA receives its basic support from
recreationdepartment memberships as Official NYSCA TrainingCenters
and the NYSCA Volunteer CoachesCertification program. In addition,
it is supported byfunds from its founding sponsors MacGregor Athlet
icProducts, Spanjian Sportswear and Puma. These threemajor
businesses were joined inprogram sponsorship inJune 1982, by
Stokely Van Camp, Inc., makers ofGatorade Thirst Quencher.NYSCA is
a 501(C)3 public, non-profi t organizationthat directs any revenues
toward development of theNYSCA program through the coaching
certification
program. The association returns funds to staterecreation
associations who are officiallyassociated withNYSCA.The basic
philosophy of NYSCA is that all childrendeserve a whole some expe
ri ence in youth sports. This
experience, NYSCA believes, can only result whencoaches and
parents are keenly aware of the Importantrole they playas
volunteers . NYSCA also believes that i tis the recreation
professional who must meet theresponsibi litie s to educate parent
s and coaches in theircommunity.
The Purpose -Working in cooperation with participating
localrecreation departments, Boys Clubs, YMCA's, Churchrecreational
leagues, e tc., NYSCA provides va luableresource material to train
and educate volunteer
coaches and pa rent s on the important fac tors effectingthe
child in sports. The major NYSCA purposes are: To train and certify
youth sports coaches, so they
have a bett er unde rstanding of organization, teachingproper
techniques. safety, and to bring them up to amore knowledgable
level in the psychological andphys ical needs of dealing with young
ath le tes.
To provide leadership and education to fosteryouth sport
programs ina wholesome atmosphere underconditions which will assure
maximum athleticperformance through youth participation
andcompetent coaching. To conduct informative activities which
will
educate the general public about youth sports inAmerica. Foste
ring high standards of ethic s and sportsmanship among athletes,
coaches, administrators and the
general public. Promoting better understanding and
closercooperation among athletes , coaches, adminis trators,game
officials and the general public. To conduct and disseminate
research and
information in the operation of youth sportsprogramming.
Training Volunteer CoachesHow It Works
NYSCA trains volunteer coaches, through itstrainers, the
recreation professional. Mostcommunities across the country have
recreationdepartments which conduct various programs forchi ldren
throughout the year. I t is these depar tments andtheir concern for
the future of young athletes that arecalled on to conduct the NYSCA
volunteer coachcertification program.The program is simple in
scope, yet educationalenough to make a volunteer knowledgable and
more
unde rstanding of his re sponsibili ties in working withyoung
athletes.The NYSCA certification program can only beconduc ted by
an offic ial recrea tion department (Parksand Recreation, Boys or
Girls Club, YMCA, ChurchRecreat ion , e tc .) that has ful l t ime
s taff members .Working through coaches in their own program or
wi th local l eagues in their community, t he
recreationprofessional sets up a plan for scheduling
andimplementing the NYSCA cer ti fication clinic. To date ,many
communitip.s are making the NYSCA training
program mandatory for each coach to attend andbecome certified
before being allowed to use arecreation department facility. The
question is ...should volunteers be allowed to work with
youngstersbefore any training whatsoever?The professional arranges
to hold the NYSCA
program in the classroom of a local elementary or highschool, or
even at the local recreation department'sfacil ities if there is
adequate space . The ac tual t rainingprogram is only six hours
long, which is broken up intotwo three hour sessions, scheduled on
two separateevenings. Training sessions are conducted via a
uniquevideo tape system, with each tape covering a specificsegment
of the ove ra ll program. Of the six t apes, threeare basic and are
used at all t ra in ing sessions regard lessof the sport the coach
is being certified for. T hese arePsychology, F irst Aid
andPrevention of Injuries, __Organization of Practice . 'and a two
tape program onteaching children techniques of a specific
sportcover the remaining threehours of the NYSCAcer ti fication
program. TheNYSCA certificationprogram covers all majoryouth
sports.Following the completion
of the six hour program,each coach must complete as imple cer ti
fication exam-ination that provides him (orher) with information on
how well they understoodthe program. The final step in the program
is for eachcoach to sign a Code of Ethics P ledge stating his (or
her)promise to live up to the standards agreed upon whenentering
the program.When the course is completed, the volunteer coachpays a
nominal $10 ce rt ification fee to cover the cost ofmaterials which
includes:a. Quarterly Newslet ter on coaching tips.b. F irst Aid in
Sports bookletc. NYSCA certified coach patchd. Membership card in
NYSCAe. $300,000 liability insurance coveragef . cert if icate of
complet ion of the course .
Certificat ion of an NYSCA volunteer does not
denotequalifications to coach, per se, but moreso indicates abasic
awareness of the important role that each has onthe psychological
well being, safety and need for basi csports instruc tion of each
child in his (or her) care.
Serving Youth Sports in America. Through Education
