League Rules:

All our Youth Sport Leagues will follow IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletic Association) Rule books and will be modified depending on the league and expectations for participants in those programs.

RYSL General Information:

Our Recreational Youth Sport Leagues are a great place for all participants to learn the importance of team sports and competition. RYSL will be offered for 8U, 11U, 14U, and 17U, all age divisions will be Boys & Girls separate. This league is a Cross-Branch YMCA League. Meaning that all participants will practice at the branch they register at and play games against other branch teams at our new Sportscenter located in Crown Point. These leagues are meant for participants to learn and understand the competition of sports in a developmental environment and eventually one day compete in our Advanced Youth Sport Leagues as they get older or when they are ready. Score and team standing will be kept for these leagues. This league will finish with a double elimination tournament. During the registration process, you will be given the Youth Sports Parent Manual and will need to sign off on it before completing registration, please take time to read through this manual to acknowledge and understand all our policies and expectations for everyone involved. Please keep reading to find more information about Volunteer Coaches, Schedules, Skill Evaluations, Roster Formations, and Jerseys.

Volunteer Coaches:

All our youth sport leagues rely on the help of volunteer coaches. Your impact and importance on the development of our youth is of the utmost importance. Volunteer coaching sign-ups are done through separate registration. All children of volunteer coaches will be placed on their team. As a small token of gratification for your efforts and with met expectations agreed upon during the volunteer coach onboarding process, volunteer head coaches will have the opportunity to have their child’s registration fee credited back to their YMCA account after the conclusion of the season. Assistant coaches will have the opportunity to have 50% of their child’s registration fee credited back to their YMCA account.

Schedules:

RYSL will be an 8-week program. RYSL teams will practice for 1-hour during the week at the branch they register for. Games for RYSL will be played on Thursday or Friday evenings/nights at the YMCA Sportscenter in Crown Point. Schedules will be made and sent out no later than 1 week prior to the beginning of the league. With multiple teams in each age division and sport, time requests are not guaranteed, each week teams will play other teams at time slots that pre-set based on how many games we have each Thursday and Friday evening/night. The scheduling of game times is random for each week.

Skill Evaluations:

During the registration process, you will need to select a skill evaluation date for your child to attend. Skill evaluations allow us to make teams evenly and fair as possible. If you cannot attend any of the skill evaluation dates, please email your branches sports leadership.

Roster Formation:

For RYSL, Volunteer coaches will draft players once all skill evaluations occur. You can provide player and coach request; however, they will not be guaranteed. Once drafts occur, all rosters will be made available to participants and coaches will reach out to introduce themselves and give practice day and time information.

Jerseys:

Jerseys are included in the registration fee for the youth sport league, during the registration process please provide a T-shirt size for your child. We ask all participants to wear black, white or grey athletic bottoms with their jerseys on game day. You will have the opportunity to purchase black athletic shorts, if needed, during registration.

Communication:

You will receive first emails regarding youth sport league information at least 2 weeks prior to first practices/games. Please confirm primary member email, of the Crossroads YMCA membership account.