We are a youth sports organization dedicated to providing Brooklyn children aged 5 to 17 with the opportunity to play baseball, basketball and flag football in a competitive, but safe and nurturing environment.   We currently register over 2,100 children annually for the three sports.  To successfully run the league and keep fees low, we depend on volunteers to help with every facet of the program.

There are two primary classes of volunteers. TEAM VOLUNTEERS assist on the court or on the field while ORGANIZATION VOLUNTEERS assist with the many administrative tasks of the Council.  There are several different job descriptions in each volunteer class.  Click on the job title in the chart below for a more detailed description.  For more about our Programs and the Organization, click on the About Us link in the top banner of this page.

VOLUNTEERS
TEAM	ORGANIZATION
Head Coach / Manager	Sponsor Committee
Assistant Coach	Fund-Raising Committee
Team Administrator	Marketing/Public Relations Committee
Team Parent/Culture-Keeper	School Liaison
	Event Volunteer

TEAM VOLUNTEERS

Head Coach/Manager:  Head coaches/managers have the ultimate responsibility for managing a team during the season.  They should have knowledge of the particular sport equivalent to the age group being coached, and should be well organized.  Keeping up with 10 to 15 children, depending on the sport, requires that a Head Coach be prepared for both practices and games, preferably with written practice plans and game plans.  Most of all, they must enjoy working with all children, not just their own. 

Assistant Coach: Assistant Coaches provide on-court assistance to the Head Coach during practices and games, and provide a second adult presence for the team.  They must also be capable of stepping in to fill the Head Coach’s position if the head coach has to be absent from a practice or a game.  They should have some knowledge of the sport, but most importantly, be able to relate to the children.  Over the course of a season or two as an assistant coach, they can learn the technical aspects of the game and a variety of drills to position themselves for Head Coaching assignments in the future. 

Head Coaches and Assistant Coaches of players eight years of age and older must attend a free Positive Coaching Seminar (given twice annually), or take the course online, for a fee Team Parents should attend a free Sports Parenting Seminar (given annually) or take the course online.

Team Administrator: A team administrator should have excellent organizational skills.  They should take charge of communicating with parents regarding practice and game schedules.  Our experience has been that the best way to ensure that all players attend a practice or game is to email or telephone the parents a few days beforehand.  In the worst case, it allows a coach to know who is coming and who is not   Team Administrators track which children are attending practice and attending games.  While it is a given that children will occasionally miss practices and games, due to other commitments, the team administrator should be identifying trends early, and calling parents of children who are inconsistent in their attendance to identify the problems.    They should also ensure that team roster contact information is current.

Team Parents/Culture Keepers: Team parents/culture keepers should be level-headed individuals who fully understand and embrace the fact that the primary purpose of youth sports is to provide an opportunity for children to enjoy themselves and develop character, and that lessons come from both winning and losing.  They should feel comfortable in expressing that fact to other parents on the team. Team parents also assist in planning team events, such as pizza parties or outings.

 ORGANIZATION VOLUNTEERS

Sponsor Committee: This is one of our most important areas.  In this difficult economy is a challenge to obtain the many sponsors needed to support all of our teams.  Members of the sponsor committee, working with the Sponsor Chair, can help by identifying new sponsors, distributing plaques to current sponsors, and reminding sponsors when payments are due (sponsors can now pay online, but some still prefer to send checks).  Last year, in addition to having sponsors for all of our baseball teams, we were also able to secure sponsorship for the Clinic Division of our basketball program.  We hope to expand that to other basketball divisions in the Fall.

Fund-raising Committee: The 78^th Precinct Youth Council engages in a number of fund-raising activities during the course of a year.  Our annual Brooklyn Cyclones Outing has had over 600 attendees the past few years.  Our Team Picture Days, and the sale of hats, bat bags, and other paraphernalia also helps us to raise funds.  Managing these various activities, and identifying new ones, is the responsibility of the Fund-raising Committee.

Marketing/Public Relations Committee: As successful as we have been, we always encounter parents in the middle of a season, who tell us they wish they had known about our programs earlier.  We need individuals with solid writing skills, and knowledge of the various list-serves, and community papers, to help us continue to spread the word about our programs. 

School Liaison: Since all of our children are school age, we believe it is helpful to have a specific parent-liaison identified for each school; this individual can help to disseminate information about our programs and registration cycles.  Also, in the case of those schools where we have a basketball presence, they are able to give us advance notice if a PTA event may cause game cancellations.

Event Volunteer:  The 78^th PYC holds several major events annually; such as Basketball Championship Day and the Bulldogs Award Dinner, where many people are needed to collect tickets at the door, work the concessions, manage trophy distribution, take pictures, and organize the players and coaches.  We also do ticket distribution at Prospect Park and sales once or twice a year at Prospect Park.  For those whose schedule prohibits them from serving year-round, this is a way to help the organization by contributing a few hours at one of these events.