Sports, Fitness and Recreation

Programs in this area develop fitness, positive use of leisure time, skills for stress management, appreciation for the environment and social skills.

Triple Play

FITNESS AUTHORITY

Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA

NFL Grassroots Football Program

Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)

Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)

Rookie League

The Golf Club

Triple Play
To teach youth how to make healthier choices, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) has teamed up with The Coca-Cola Company and Kraft Foods, Inc. to present Triple Play: A Game Plan for Mind, Body and Soul. This national program takes a holistic approach to educating boys and girls about good nutrition, making physical fitness a daily practice and developing individual strengths and good character. In addition to components for the mind and body, the Triple Play program gets at the soul of the Club experience – the gamesroom.  Each mind, body and soul program component can stand alone, yet integrating them allows Club members to reap more powerful, lifelong benefits. 

Mind                                  
Empowering youth to eat right is a generation-changing, life-enhancing program goal, and Triple Play’s nutrition component, called Healthy Habits, covers the power of choice, calories, vitamins and minerals, the food pyramid and appropriate portion size. 

Body
Taking a systematic approach, this component boosts Clubs’ traditional physical activities to a higher level by providing sports and fitness activities for all youth – boys and girls, athletically gifted and those talented in other areas, children and teens alike.   Daily Fitness Challenges: six challenges give youth at every age the chance to play longer and harder at different games – from jumping rope to basketball and creating games of their own.

• Basketball Challenge
• Jump Rope Challenge
• Get Fit Challenge
• Walk/Run Challenge
• Home Run Challenge
• Invent-a-Sport Challenge

Triple Play University: staff members will develop skills through one-day training workshops on organizing a comprehensive, daily physical education program; involving more girls in sports programs; and organizing youth sports leagues.

Sports Clubs: targeted to members 13-to-18, these year-round teen clubs develop members’ leadership skills; focus on community service and volunteerism; and offer Club sports, fitness, recreation and nutrition programs.

Sports Leadership Camps: three-day summer events on college campuses foster leadership skills while learning on and off the field of play; expose members to college life and financial aid opportunities; and introduce members to non-traditional sports and other teen leaders globally.

Triple Play Games: are inter-Club competitions in multiple team sports for boys and girls ages 8 to 18. Triple Play Games competitions take place between four or more youth teams. Teams may come from multi-unit Boys & Girls Club organizations or from other youth-serving organizations such as YMCA, YWCA, Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc. Complete details are in the Triple Play Games brochure.

Soul
This social recreation program includes a resource guide, training and additional tools to run a top-notch gamesroom and social recreation program in the Club. The Smart Guide to Social Recreation: Effective Gamesroom Management and Leadership provides strategies and tools for running a gamesroom program.

FITNESS AUTHORITY
FITNESS AUTHORITY promotes fitness in all youth through fun, engaging weekly activities and an annual competition with local, regional and national levels. The program features 12 weekly sessions for each of the three age groups. Club members play games and try new sports, and their fitness levels are measured with simple tests of endurance, flexibility and strength. The FITNESS AUTHORITY Web site, www.bgca.org/sportsauthority, allows Club members and staff to track fitness levels, rank fitness scores nationally and access other valuable health and fitness resources. The Sports Authority, Inc. underwrote the initial implementation of FITNESS AUTHORITY.

Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA
This program supports and enhances the quality of Boys & Girls Club youth basketball leagues, with high-quality, free resources for youth, parents, volunteer coaches and league administrators. Designed for youth ages 6-14, Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA has an “All-Star” component through which 10 boys and girls demonstrating the highest levels of leadership, sportsmanship and scholarship are selected from thousands of local level honorees. This representative group and chaperones attend the annual NBA All-Star Game Weekend as guests of the NBA.

NFL Grassroots Football Program
The program supports the growth of new and existing Boys & Girls Club flag and tackle football programs. Up to 150 grants of $1,000 each are awarded annually to local Clubs looking to start, expand or improve youth flag or tackle football programs. NFL Charities sponsors this program.  

Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)
RBI provides one-time seed grants and training to Clubs wishing to start or expand boys baseball leagues and girls fast-pitch softball leagues for ages 13-15. RBI teams representing Club leagues are eligible for sports clinics five regional championships and a national tournament (the RBI World Series) conducted by Major League Baseball every summer. Major League Baseball sponsors the RBI program.

Rookie League
This program provides a safer version of live-pitch baseball for players ages 9-12. The program uses a live pitching machine instead of a live pitcher, eliminating arm injuries among pitchers and reducing the number of players who are hit by errant pitches. Up to 60 Club sites are selected annually through an application process that starts in late fall. Selected sites receive a pitching machine, uniforms and equipment for up to eight teams and $250 for incidental league expenses and expenses to attend a mandatory pre-season training in early spring. Major League Baseball sponsors the Rookie League Baseball program.

The Golf Club
The Golf Club: A Resource Guide for Establishing a Junior Golf Program provides step-by-step guidance for organizing and conducting a junior golf tournament in a Boys & Girls Club. The guide includes practical tips and information on recruiting and teaching Club members ages 6-18 golf skills and etiquette, acquisition of funding and equipment, access to facilities and volunteers and working with other organizations.