SPORTS WRAP
Progress is being made.
Mark Arjes started Youth 1st 15 years ago to change the culture around youth sports. Despite his own history of coaching and officiating, he even found himself getting too emotionally wrapped up at his kids’ games.
“I think what’s happened as time’s gone on, we’ve become more and more invested in that process. So, we’re over-invested in our kids from a time and money standpoint in youth sports which makes it way more important than it should be,” said Arjes.
Youth 1st was created with good sportsmanship and positive conduct as its foundation. “We’ve just got to try to reclaim that role. What’s youth sports supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be about who our kids become through the process as a person first, and then maybe as an athlete, and then maybe as an athlete in a certain sport,” said Arjes.
“We’ve gotten to the point now where actually the environment that we have here as teams come in from out of town, they’ve started to see that. We’ve had comments from other places. And I’ve had umpires come in from other towns, saying, ‘Yeah, it’s way better here than where I live.’”
Arjes says they push the message out before the games heat up through signage and preseason presentations. They reward teams doing it the right way with tickets to Minnesota Twins, St. Paul Saints and Northwoods League games.
Creating umpires
For the last six years Youth 1st has partnered with officiating organizations to build a pool of umpires through the Behind the Mask program. “How do we get young people into officiating? Because everybody knows there’s not enough,” said Arjes.
He says they approach middle schoolers and recruit. “Year one, we get them out there on the field. We get them dressed up so they look like an umpire. We give them a little classroom training in the spring. Then we get them on the field in the summer at one of our tournaments with mentor officials.”
Arjes believes the retention rate is around 75%. He says about 90% of youth games this summer in Owatonna were umpired by kids who went through the program. Watch the full interview at OwatonnaLive.com.
Misfits success
The second annual Misfits Par 3 Challenge was a big success, doubling the amount of funds raised to benefit the Owatonna Golf Boosters.
Jon Weisbrod of the Mic’d Up Misfits on The FAN Owatonna radio show said 14 two-player teams participated at Havana Hills on July 26 – an increase from the inaugural event. Additional raffle items and a “generous group of golfers” added up to a prosperous day.
“We had another late surge of entrants and nearly sold out. It was an awesome day on the course, all the way down to the weather. We had a great mix of returning (players) and newcomers and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. There were great vibes on the course all day,” said Weisbrod.
Flight winners were Cooper and Danica Hager, Aaron and Alexie Olson, Danielle and Ava Hager, and Marcia Sanda and Joie Leiferman.
“The best part about that is that it’s cash and 100% of it goes directly to the golf booster club,” Weisbrod added.
Play (more) ball
High school softball and baseball teams may soon have a couple more openings on their spring schedule. The Minnesota State High School League is considering a proposal to count non-playoff tournaments as one event.
Teams could play up to three games over a one- or two-day tournament and only count it as one against their 20-game regular season schedule. They would be allowed up to two such tournaments a season. That creates the possibility of playing 24 games leading into sections.
The proposal will be an action item at the board of directors’ meeting on Oct. 2.