Starting a Youth Track Club

By: Jesse Y. Harris, PhD

There are many new youth track clubs started each year. In most cases the organizers are parents with some background in track and field and they now have children who show some interest and promise in the sport. Often there is not another club in the immediate area or the local clubs do not exactly fit the interests.

You should have a good idea of the goals of your club. Do you just want to do a recreational type program or do you expect to have athletes from your club participating at the regional or national level? From my experience and observations, even if you plan on just a local recreation type program, you will end up with some talented athletes who would like to proceed beyond that level.

A major concern when starting a team is insurance coverage. Most teams belong to the AAU or USATF or both. These organizations provide insurance for athletes and coaches and if you put on a meet, a sanction from either provides liability insurance which will be required for the site of your event. In fact, you may even need liability coverage for the practice facility that you use and your organization membership provides that.

Check the websites for these organizations at www.aausports.org  and www.usatf.org  You can obtain coaches and athletes memberships on-line from both organizations. You can also obtain your team membership on-line from the AAU but you can only download the USATF application which must be mailed in.

You will need to do some recruiting of both team members and coaches. Generally coaches can be obtained from the pool of parents. The best place to start the recruiting is at the local schools. If the middle school in your town does not have a team, there will probably be a lot of enthusiasm for your efforts. Perhaps your team could start out as part of the local recreation department. If so, you need to attend the recreation department meetings and try to get their support. They may have funds or equipment to help you get started. Send a letter to your schools and even put a notice in your community newspaper. This is free but it may take two or three weeks for your announcement to be published so plan ahead.

When you register your athletes, make sure to include a box for parents  to check off what responsibilities they will agree to such as coach, registration, transportation, photography, etc. If you don’t ask for help, don’t be surprised if you get none. Many parents just want to know what time to pick up the kids.

Uniforms of some sort will be needed. Starting out, you may just want to have t-shirts screened at a local shop. Look in the yellow pages. Depending on shirt color, how elaborate your design, the number of colors in your design , and how many you order, shirts may cost from five to eight dollars. For a team that plans to travel you may want to outfit your athletes better. I suggest as a start, you look at the catalog at www.eastbay.com  If you don’t see the items or prices you are looking for, at least you will get a good idea of what you might find else ware.

Once you get uniforms, the next thing you will need will be supplies.  One good source for equipment and supplies is www.mfathletic.com . They also have some great training materials such as books and videos. You may be able to use the equipment at your local high school which can be a big money saver. You should check out costs for uniforms, supplies, and equipment prior to making up your team application in order to determine the price you need to charge the participants.

Practice schedule depends on the level of competition you intend to participate at. If you are a recreation program, you may want to practice two days a week, while an elite team may practice five days a week. Participation in a competition can take place of one of the days. I have some exercises below that may be a useful routine at the beginning of practice and prior to the start of competition. I also have my athletes do these exercises on their off days.

If you practice five days per week, you probably want to alternate hard and easy days.  By all means, you want to have a relatively easy day prior to a competition. You will want to find meets that your athletes can participate in. I suggest that you check the Meet Schedules link in www.youthtrack.org . Also keep an eye on events listings in your local paper. If feasible, you may want to have your team host a local meet. My experience here also tells me that this is a great recruiting tool as well.  If there is no Hershey meet in your area, you may want to check on hosting one because the Hershey Youth track program provides almost everything you need including ribbons and detailed instructions on running the meet. You can find information at www.hersheystrackandfield.com . Even if you do not plan to host a Hershey meet, you may find the information in their rulebook and manual useful for hosting any meet.

Try to publicize the activities and performances of your athletes. The parents probably appreciate this more than the athletes. This may lead to more support for your program. Local papers generally like to have advance arrangements if you want them to cover one of your meets. They often will publish a summary of the local athlete performances if submitted on a timely basis. Check with them ahead of time to find out.

If your team is going to do some traveling, you may want to have a committee to work on fund raising. Good sources are to set up a donation table in front of a local supermarket if you can get permission, car wash, bake sale, candy sale and many others. The key is to get all team members to help.

If you are starting a team for the first time, give us some feedback, or if you have specific questions, we will try to help. Contact editor@youthtrack.org .