Recreation leaders must be proactive and intentional
My dad used to tell me that if you can’t explain to someone what you do during a short elevator ride, your business is too complicated.
I’ve thought about that a lot over the years, and what I like to say about NAYS on an elevator ride is quite simple: We listen to recreation professionals—the ones responsible for the volunteers who run youth sports in their communities—and we build solutions to help them overcome challenges.
When we began this journey in 1981, we started with the most fundamental need: training volunteer coaches. It was clear that the most direct way to improve youth sports was to help coaches become the best they can be. After all, they spend the most time with the most important part of the program—the kids.
That’s why we launched what was initially called the National Youth Sports Coaches Association, built on the belief that better coaches create better programs. Training remains at the core of what we do—but over the decades, we’ve learned that training alone isn’t enough.