Founding Goal

YLSA founders realized the need for youth organizations to look beyond the win/loss reflected on the scoreboard, and recognized the bigger picture of how sports can provide experiences that youth can use in all aspects of their lives, such as at school, at home, and as they enter the workforce.

In 2012, Club Hardball Baseball, YLSA's first youth sports club, was started by founding YLSA Board Member to provide youth an opportunity to learn the game of baseball, teamwork, respect for opponents and umpires, and responsibility to care for fields they used. The organization quickly realized that both parents and youth were wanting a sports organization that provided more than just playing a sport for trophies. The club quickly grew from one team to seven teams in 3 years and has continued to grow. Around this same time frame, another board member was impacting the youth by starting a baseball foundation that provided youth of several Native American Tribes the opportunity for youth to play baseball with fields, equipment, and staff to train and coach. The common vision of both these organizations of using sports to develop leadership, respect, discipline, resilience, work ethic and teamwork lead to the founders starting YLSA. YLSA supports multiple sports and organizations to provide youth an opportunity to learn skills for success in both their sport and in life.