This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit with Cynthia Lee, Coordinator, and Yosephine Yao, Hub Leader, and see the amazing program that they do with Moresports, a community-based multi-sport program that has been under the radar screen mainly in East Vancouver since 1998.  Previously I shared insight on their program in “Youth Sports Organization that are Bucking the trends” after I initially connected with Yosephine at UBC’s career fair we were exhibiting at.

The program was started because a father took his kid to a local soccer field and was refused access as was not part of the local soccer association and was advised would need to sign up his son to play on the field as they were allocated by the city.  The registration fees for their family were too much (and that was well before the era of early sport specialization and the professionalism of youth sports and he decided to do something about it so could offer cost affecting community programming to kids in the area.

Since then, Moresports has blossomed into a program with 11 hubs that permit kids to participate in multi-sport programming weekly in fall, winter and spring (unable to run programs in Summer due largely to schools they run many of their programs close for the summer) but in the course of the few hours I was with Cynthia and Josephine I learned just how an organization could, in fact, provide programs for kids, especially those that are economically challenged, to be involved in various sports.

Below is a compare/contrast table that I put together after my visit that I will expand on below;

	Moresports	Other Sports Groups average
Coach Ratio Male:Female	20-25% Female, 75-80% Male	75-80% Male, 20-25% Female
Format	Community Not-For-Profit	Not-For-Profit or Private
Facilities	Parks Boards and schools	Parks Boards, Schools plus private facilities
Equipment	Moresports pays for and provides focus on ball sports (limited equipment)	Orgs plus individuals pay for (i.e. 300.00 bats, sticks)
Score/Timekeepers	None – non-competitive	Yes – starting at 8 yrs old
Age Groups	K – Grade 8 (5-12 yrs. Old)	K – Grade 12 (5 – 18 yrs. Old)
Location(s)	11 Hubs – Vancouver ONLY	Various across the country
Registrants Yearly	400 per hub, 4-5,000 annual registrations (no one turned away) ** Annual Soccer Jamboree	Varies, from 200- 1000+ but many sports suffering attrition rates
Fees	40.00/8 sessions (5.00 session) Waived if can’t afford	Varies (seasonal fees + equip) Camps 20.00 Session Average
Funding	Provincial/Municipal/Charity	Provincial/Municipal/BC Lottery/Bingo
Coaching Certification	High Five + NCCP (new) Subsidized	RIS / CRC / NCCP / Private
Officials	None (non-competitive)	Starting Age 8 (house or competitive levels)
Staffing	Coordinator, Hub Leaders, leaders, and coaches	Board members, coaches, officials, rec centre staff
Economic Status	80% Economically Challenged	20% Economically Challenged
Programs Run	Fall/Winter/Spring – No Summer	Year Round (with early sport specialization)
Sports Offered	Soccer/Basketball/Dodgeball/Spikeball Looking at Floor Hockey and others	Various – Single Sport orgs or multi-Sport Camps
Schools require custodians	No – Leaders have keys to access	Yes – Required
Parent Participation	Yes – First 15 minutes Free Play	No except Coach Parents
Community Leader training	Yes – Junior and Youth	No – only coach training
Established	1998	Various
Player attrition an issue	No – continue to grow yearly	Yes – 70% quit by 13
Coach Attrition	No – ongoing leadership ID and training starting at 12 yrs old	Yes – Volunteer Pool getting smaller and harder to recruit
Official Attrition	Not applicable (no officials needed)	Yes – 30% per year quit
Parent Behavior an issue	No – they get to participate then watch quietly	Yes – Vocal Minority (5-10%) spoil experience for others
Uniforms	Jamboree only – t-shirts sponsored	Yes (in fees)
Coaches Paid	Lead Coaches honorariums, leaders volunteer to gain experience	Head Coaches in many sports, plus TD’s + $50K per year

This is the epitome of social inclusion and social innovation IN ACTION, if more sports organizations recognized the importance of collaborating with all the stakeholders the issues, as Moresports is doing, they would be able to improve their programs to provide a quality sports experience.

The first thing that jumped out to me is the vast majority of coaches and leaders involved in the program are female, approximately 80%, most of which were former “campers” that participated in the various programs when they themselves were kids going back to as early as Kindergarten.  A TOTAL polar opposite from the various team sports that I have worked with across the country where even with all the initiatives in recent years and government funding to promote gender equality we still have so much work to do to get more female coaches, officials and board members.

Like many other sports organizations, Moresports buys the necessary equipment needed for their programs and then the hub leaders store on site for use during the weekly or weekend sessions.  As sports equipment has escalated in many sports, they focus on those that require minimal equipment, Soccer, Basketball, Dodgeball are core, with some hubs running baseball, spikeball and aspirations for floor hockey.

Unlike all team sports, Moresports does not have tiering for recreational or competitive levels, every kid that aspires to play, get an opportunity to do just that PLAY.

Uniforms are limited to t-shirts that are funded by the local Kidsports chapter in Vancouver, mainly for their one large event they host years, the soccer jamboree, where all hubs come to one facility to play games for a weekend.  Compare that to hockey where they have 85.00 home and away jerseys, even alternate travel, and practice jerseys, pant shells and so forth.

Another area where they differ from traditional team sports is the coaching certification that they do is high five, required for recreational leaders and incremental leadership training that is fully subsidized for the leaders, coaches as many of which could not afford if required to pay for out of pocket.

Hmmmm .. what a concept, provide FREE coach and leadership training so leaders are not out of pocket.  Many of the team sports do reimburse coaches for their NCCP and other training they are required to do, but not until well into or end of the season once they have completed their coaching certification requirements.  This has been one of the deal breakers for coaches that I have talked to who can be on the hook for hundreds of dollars until they recoup later in the season.

The best part that Cynthia and Josephine shared with me, is they have approximately 4000 kids participating in their programs annually and if they could scale up could accommodate more (scaling is contingent on funding and development of leaders/coaches).

Because their programs are non-competitive (no scorekeeping, scoresheets, rankings, banners) vs. organized sports, they don’t require officials but as fees are so nominal, even if they did have organized games based on the parents sitting quietly on a stage watching their kids play for an hour with HUGE smiles on their faces I suspect that official attrition would be WAY below what the average 30% is annually for organized team sports.

Many organizations that I have talked to have shared their pain points of recruiting coaches, due in part to out of pocket costs, due in part to time commitment, but also due in part to many don’t step up to coach as they don’t want to “deal with parents”

The other difference to Moresports vs. organized sports is they identify, recruit potential leaders who are participants in their programs starting as early as grade 7, then provide those that are selected free leadership training starting with the junior youth (ages 10-12) then youth leadership training (12-17).  Many of which become coaches themselves both for Moresports but then for other summer recreation programs to give back in their respective communities.

Hmmmm … what a concept, provide a fun environment to play various sports in then ID potential future leaders for the same program and beyond so in lieu of relying on the “help, we need coaches and taking any that put their hands up approach organized sports do” to identification, recruitment and training approach.

All of the hours that the volunteer leaders contribute is also tracked for their community volunteer requirements and other leadership opportunities.

All of the great programming that Moresports is providing would not be without their core and community partners

 

 

 

 

My overall observation was one that remembered all too well growing up as kid myself, all the kids that came to the K1 or 2-5 groups I had the opportunity to observe showed up with big smiles on their faces, smiled throughout and as they were leaving.

Why?

Because they had FUN.

All the volunteer leaders, head coach and Cynthia/Josephine did the same.

When I asked how they ID potential leaders or coaches they shared with me that they did not need to have the high level skill or playing experience in sports, the only requirement is that they had a true passion and cared for kids.

Hmmm … another refreshing epiphany moment when I heard that.

The #1 characteristic of the greatest coaches of all time is they truly cared about their players as people first.

I think all organized sports programs that are experiencing the challenges of high rates of attrition of players, officials and even coaches could learn from the great work and model of Moresports.

Make it Fun – Make it Safe – Teach Skills – Care passionately

And by doing so are not a kid’s last coach

Almost all of the kids that become participants come back for each session and for years.

Many of which as they have developed a passion for being active then move on to organized sports when they enter high school, the coach of the Saturday Session was one of those. She started in Grade 2 as a grassroots “camper”, then became a leader, coach and has lead many of the boys to provincials in high school.

For more information, visit their website www.moresports.org

I was invited to come out to their big event in June and looking forward to seeing many more kids smiles playing for the sake of playing, like our generation did and somehow we must find that happy medium and work together to bring the game back to the kids.

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