Engage Sports Blog Youth Sports Matters

SnapChat has launched a service called Geofilters, which location-based image overlays that users can apply to their Snaps. According to this site, SnapChat has become a major force in social media with over 100 million users sending over 8 billion videos views per day. SnapChat geofilters represent a branding and marketing opportunity for youth sports organizations, especially those that operate their own facilities or run tournaments. Learn more...

If you are tasked with cleaning up a sports website, there are 6 key areas that will give your sports website a fresh new look with the minimum effort and time involved.  We have compiled these sports website design resources into a 1-page Sports Website Cleanup Checklist which you can download here.  Your website is the front door to your organization and should be warm, friendly and welcoming. It's often not necessary to make a complete service provider change in order to get the new look you want. Download our Sports Website Cleanup Checklist and start making your changes today! 

If you are attempting to evaluate the pricing for an online sports registration system you are probably finding a wide variety of pricing terms and perhaps feeling a bit overwhelmed and confused. Your total cost will include service provider charges applied across a wide set of parameters plus merchant charges for credit card clearing houses such as Paypal and Stripe. As such, determining the true cost differential between providers can be a challenging task. This blog, and the accompanying Online Sports Registration Cost Calculator serves as your guide for understanding the pricing practices for online sports management services.

Many coaches and association leaders look to share useful parents do's and don'ts at youth sports practice to help create a better practice environment. The challenge is sharing such sports parent behavior tips in a supportive and no accusatory tone.  We  have gleaned tips from experts and resources across the web to come up with some of the most useful tips for parent do's and don'ts as youth sports practices. If you have more, we'd love to hear your comments and suggestions.  

When looking for a listing of youth sports tournaments, the easiest thing to do is start with an internet search but there are also many other ways to find great tournaments.  

Here's a tip off...there are a least 4 key tournament management tips that youth sports leaders can learn from the 2016 NCAA basketball tournament. 

If you are new to managing a youth sports organization or a veteran, implementing effective management strategies and techniques is essential to operating and growing your organization.  Volunteer leaders often feel overwhelmed given work and other life commitments. A youth sports leader may wear many hats: leader, finance wizard, grounds crew, weather forecaster, cook and peacemaker - all in the same day. As online sports management service providers, we feel your pain. Let us help you through the process with our aptly named free ebook "Effective Management Strategies for Youth Sports Leaders.”

Youth sports participation statistics compiled since 2009 show significant losses and gains across a wide spectrum of sports.  The best available data stems from a multi year tracking study done by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association from 2009 to 2014 which is presented and discussed herein. 

If you manage a youth sports website, one question you may have is how to make your youth sports website rank higher in Google.  You are not alone! The process of improving a sports website ranking is called SEO, or search engine optimization.  SEO is most commonly associated with business and eCommerce websites, however youth sports organization can benefit from improved website ranking by following the following SEO tips for youth sports webmasters.  

Youth baseball is losing young players and some feel that it is because youth baseball is too boring for today's kids. Nationally youth baseball participation has declined 4.3% from 2009 to 2014, according to a tracking study by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SIFA).  Contrasted with tackle football, which has declined a whopping 17.9% over the same period, baseball's decline looks comparably shallow. Football with its concussion and injury issues is perhaps more understandable, but baseball? Our national pastime?  Why would youth baseball show such a decline?  Is the pace of play and nature of the game turning kids off?