SPRINGDALE -- More than 2,000 kids played sports in the spring through the Parks and Recreation Department, records show. That's up from 1,921 in 2016 and 1,916 in 2018, both increases of roughly 4%.
Chad Wolf, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, thinks some potential athletes didn't register because of lingering doubts and confusion from the measures taken to prevent covid-19. And some sports weren't offered as the size of groups was limited.
The staff used virus downtime to create opportunities for participation -- in smaller groups. They added academies to the lineup, three- to six-week programs introducing specific sports or providing enhancement of a sport's more detailed skills, Wolf said.
"Playing a sport is not always about you're going to go pro," said Mayor Doug Sprouse. "Sports and recreational activities are good for us mentally and physically."
Sprouse said the city's recreational leagues offer families good, healthy options for activities for their children -- and maybe a break from video gaming.
Clay Galloway said playing sports teaches life lessons to children, like his 11-year-old basketball player Charlie.
"They teach you how to succeed, and if you lose, they teach you how to face rejection," Galloway said. "They teach you about overcoming obstacles and camaraderie."
The city's recreation program offers opportunities for people of all ages, Sprouse said. For example, seniors popped the pickleball back and forth across nets on four courts Wednesday.
"People vote to support building parks and ball fields because they know it's a good opportunity to get out," Sprouse said.
Springdale voters in 2018 approved a $19 million bond program that built the new Shaw Family Park in the northwestern part of town and renovated facilities at the Randal Tyson Recreational Complex. And it paid $2 million when an unexpected opportunity allowed the city to buy the 120,000-square-foot facility on Cambridge Street for its recreation center.
City Council member Amelia Williams in April 2019 presented her fellow members with a report on the number of children involved in basketball, baseball and softball programs offered by the city's Parks and Recreation Department.
She said participation had declined -- so much so city staff decided to cancel various age-level leagues when not enough children registered to fill teams. Williams' son was affected.
The decline in youth sports participation is part of a national trend with more families paying for their children to play as part of traveling teams in nearly every sport, said Stephen Dittmore, a professor of recreation and sports management at the University of Arkansas.
Dittmore in June 2019 led a needs assessment of Springdale parks, which included two public-input sessions.
Rogers and Fayetteville face similar competition for players.
"We're rec -- recreation, recreation, recreation," said Joe D'Amico with Rogers Parks and Recreation Department. He said the Rogers city programs want the youth who are not physically ready to play highly competitive club and travel teams, or those who cannot afford the costs of the travel.
Wolf presented the City Council members in April a spreadsheet comparing numbers of participation in the past six years. He was named director of the Parks and Recreation Department in 2019.
Williams was on vacation last week and declined comment during a phone call until she could review the data. The data Wolf provided showed the same numbers as did the information Williams presented in 2019 in addition to participation numbers for the years since, which were up overall.
Council member Mike Lawson said the purchase of the city's recreation center is paying off with more activities offered and more participation.
"But we could always do better," he said.
ACADEMIES
Wolf said his department has entered into partnerships with local cities for youth sports leagues. If Springdale doesn't have enough teams to make a league, the Springdale teams can play against teams from other cities, he explained.
And the sports academies offer a child another option for staying involved in a sport even if participation is too low for a league, he said.
Wolf noted his staff has worked to develop the programs and increased presence on social media as a way to promote the activities. The department also updated its website to include registration.
The city's new Recreation Center makes some of the new offerings possible -- such as adult indoor soccer, which has fielded about 60 teams in three-month sessions since renovations of the fields two years ago, Wolf said.
"We are the only city in the region that offers that," Wolf said. "We will hold two or three pickup games at lunch."
Sutton Meede, Miller Waller and Walker Frame, each 10 years old, shot basketball after basketball after basketball Wednesday morning into a new machine that offers practice in the same vein as a baseball pitching machine. The drill at the Recreation Center also incorporates catching and passing.
Miller noted the equipment requires a certain form to shoot it over a net and into the machine.
"The ball form makes you better," he said, mimicking the motion with his arms.
The lessons for the boys were private, with their instructor Mike Wright buying the court time. Wright will teach the same skills during shooting academies offered by the Parks and Recreation Department.
"It's not just your dad out there coaching," Galloway said about the shooting academy. "It teaches the fundamentals by repeated shooting. It's one more step to invest what he's done previously."
Lawson said the academies offer the kids an opportunity to play their sports year-round and in a setting that's not always a competition.
"You're going to learn dribbling and rebounding and how to block someone out -- all the things you're going to need to get better," he said.
Wolf said the three- to six-week academies provide youth with the opportunity for quality, small-group instruction for about $5 an hour, as opposed to paying more for private instruction.
A golf academy planned for fall with First Tee is full, and 80 participants registered within two hours for a horse camp offered recently with the Rodeo of the Ozarks, Wolf reported.
Spangler noted he worked with one kid from England, who played rugby there.
"He really knew the game and didn't play any other sports," Spangler said. "So he got a chance to play here, and he really helped us."
Partnerships with local organizations -- such as Wright's business -- clubs and schools and national sports associations have provided the clinics with qualified coaches, staffing and equipment, Wolf said.
YOUTH LEAGUES
The 2,000 young people playing spring sports this year in Springdale made up teams for baseball, softball and soccer.
The city also offers basketball, volleyball and flag football teams, as well as adult leagues in the fall and winter. The youth spring seasons were the first to open after covid-19, Wolf said.
The department reported 858 kids played baseball, up from 650 kids in 2016 and 693 in 2019. Teams were available to children ages 3-4 playing Blast Ball to 13- to 15-year-olds.
"That's the second-highest spring baseball registration we've had in six years," Wolf noted. "It's second only to last year when we had to refund all the registration money when the season was canceled because of covid-19."
The 2020 tally listed 875 registrants.
In comparison, Rogers had 460 participants in this year's spring baseball season, with children from ages 5 through 15, according to D'Amico.
Fayetteville's city department of Parks and Recreation offers only youth soccer and youth softball, and the spring's participation was still limited by covid-19, said Tiffany Hoover, assistant recreation superintendent.
The Boys & Girls Club in Fayetteville offers youth basketball and football, and the Fayetteville Youth Baseball organization fields leagues in that sport.
She said participation in the city's programs consistently grows a bit each year, although she did not have numbers immediately available.
Spring softball in Springdale was down to 220 this year from a high of 343 in 2018. The 2020 spring season had registered 197.
"The softball numbers have been dwindling over the past several years," Wolf said. "However, our 2021 spring numbers are the best in the past three years."
This year also reversed that decreasing trend with a rise in participants for the first time in four years.
Spring soccer for girls and boys was hit hard by covid-19, Wolf said. Registrations totaled 896, compared to 951 in 2016 and 917 in 2019. The 2020 season was set to be a good one, with 1,013 registrations before the covid crisis.
This year's registration is down by 12% from last year.
"The 2020 spring registration was the only time we have broken the 1,000-participant mark in the past six years," Wolf said.
