Have more games and better quality places for practice to include room for parents

The experience has been great. We had a wonderful coach who really tried to teach and be fair to the kids. The only challenge was early practices. Nothing before 9am would be ideal!

It would benefit player development if the Refs called traveling or out of bounds occasionally and more for teaching moments. My child played in the 7-8 year old category, and I realize you can't make every call, nor do I want them too, the game would constantly be interrupted, but to continuously let players go out of bounds, or to double dribble 10 times in one possession doesn't teach the child how to correctly play basketball. I know a lot of this rests in the coaches instruction, but with a 30 min practice prior to the game doesn't allow much time to teach correct principles and this season we had three games that did not include a practice. You could instruct refs to blow the whistle a few times throughout the game to provide correction. For example, if a child never dribbles, or is constantly picking up the ball and then double dribbling it's ok to whistle and let them know they need to pass or shoot, otherwise they continue to double dribble. My son has been taught to pass or shoot if he picks up his dribble, but at the end of the season he just said " forget it!" And then began double dribbling to put himself in a better position to score, because he thought "might as well" everyone else is doing it. It's frustrating because I felt like this season I paid money for my child to enjoy "pick up games," as he was given limited instruction, and the referees really never blew the whistle or directed the games in a way that players were learning the rules of the game. I believe the Referees can play a part in this and better enhance a YMCA experience.

Our coach, Elliot Vermes, was absolutely amazing! He taught the team new skills, encouraged everyone, and gave children with both high and low skill levels a chance to succeed at every practice and game. I am very happy that we participated this season and will be back next basketball season.

We LOVE YMCA basketball! My son's coach this year was phenomenal. However, I encountered some other coach that I heard making fun of my son's team. My son's team (7-8yo) were all very beginner level and not like many other teams we played. They lost a lot, by more than 40pts some games. When I heard the other coach make fun of my son and then the team, I did alert the staff member that was working the game. I also wanted to give major kudos to the staff member that worked the games. I ran the scoreboard the whole season and I absolutely LOVED working with him!! He was so fun and does a lovely job keeping YMCA Saturday basketball running perfectly. Please tell him that! He's just an all around great guy!

Inclusivity

It would be helpful if the practice schedule per team was done up front and consistently. When we signed up we knew we couldn't participate onTues/Thurs and basically missed the first 1/2 of the season until practices moved to some Mondays. Otherwise, glad to have participated.

Sports for all ages

Charge for Jersey for an already short season. No coach so you have to force a mom who cancels most practices. No concern or interest from your admin. The admin lady just seems to not be there and uninterested in sports.

We had an amazing coach and the facilities were very nice.

It is fun for the girls and helps gain skill BUT I do NOT like boys playing with the girls. In 5th grade, boys are still stronger than teammates. Boys should not be playing with girls at this age.

Always love volleyball with the YMCA. Thanks for all the hard work behind the scenes.

Well organized and great communication.

schedule is great, positive atmosphere

My son was very much looking forward to his flag football season and then it was canceled

Yes. We have been very pleased with the volleyball program at YMCA. Great organization, coaching, facilities and refs.

The refereeing is terribly inconsistent. Kids with colored tshirts typically end up officiating games with no training. Our game last week had a girl listening to music on her headphones during the game. She was also staring and picking at her nails throughout the game and not watching what was happening through large stretches. This is just one example. The teams are terribly unbalanced as well. Seems like a talent evaluation would greatly benefit these kids so you can schedule accordingly. My son was on a team where he was the only kid that has ever played. We played multiple teams where the kids were very experienced players. Our team got steamrolled and the game was decided in minutes. This example shows that this is not a competitive environment for any kid regardless of skill level.

I want to compliment the referees. They have been doing a great job of being fair and explaining to the kids why they call certain fouls or other calls. Keep up the great work.

You need to get the refs to call fouls, especially in the 9-10 age group. Right now fouls are not being called and the games look more like rugby than basketball. Ball handlers get fouled every possession by most teams.

Everything out of the YMCA has been very organizes and clear. That is very helpful for a first time coach!

some very bad teams ... leagues/teams should be evaluated for similar competition

Great sports program for the kids!

The basketball season has been fun. My only complaint is the girls always have the auxiliary gym and the boys are in the nicer gym at the same facility. Maybe next year the girls can have the nice gym once in a while.

Although this yeR a i feel you probably did the besst to eben the kids trams out age wise there still is a pretty drastic difference. But still sorka le

Earlier practices and more coaching help. The age 5-6 group is great

Be more consistent with what is expected from the referees.

I think the youth leagues are as good or better then any other we have been a part of

flag football and basketball, well run, great seasons for my grandson

Highly recommended.

It seems as if the teams have been very unbalanced for the boys basketball last year and this year. My son has been playing in the league for 4 years now and it used to be fun, but now it seems people have created these super teams and the other teams don't have a chance. It is very hard on their spirits. My son's team last year and this year have been getting beat very badly to the point it's not even fun. I think the teams should be formed randomly in order to keep the skill levels balanced. The YMCA sports have always been about fun and developing younger children. It has gotten entirely too competitive.

I love that everything is at the same place on the same day!

The ability to create a team with kids' friends and coaches that they know. However, the program placed too many kids on my son's basketball team this season which has led to reduced playing time for everyone.

Nice little flag football program

The communication from the staff is not great. I made numerous attempts to get questions answered and they would answer one and not the rest of them or I would never hear back.

One of the biggest issues what lack of proper communication. There was no point of contact. Information about teams and dates and coaches was very delayed. So much so, we found out pretty last-minute that our team practiced on the one day of the week we had said we could not do. We also found out quite late that we didn't have a coach. My friends and I had a hard time figuring out who to contact to get our kids moved to a different team. I tried a variety of ways to try to reach someone and nothing worked. In desperation, I looked at my original email where there was an email address I could reply to. This caused my reply to create a ticket and that was the only way someone finally reached out to me. They were able to successfully move us to a different team, but it was quite stressful. One of my friends was sad to hear her team had been disbanded because of issues with no coach and also being placed on a team that practiced on the one day she had said she couldn't do. There needs to be a point of contact. They need to communicate early if your team doesn't have a coach to give time to parents to figure out if there's someone who can coach or if they need to restructure the teams. They need to communicate early if your practice day conflicts with your request. Thank you.

The field used for flag football is not well maintained and dangerous for our players.

They are affordable, the coaches and parents are all friendly.

The team only had four players and that made it impossible to do the games probably and poor team cohesiveness. It was embarrassing

Today as a 6th grade team we played 8th grades about to go to high school. How does that make sense? That doesn't sound like a healthy environment that we all take pledge at the beginning of each game for . The sad thing is , I KNOW other parents have complained about this in the past . The same dad does this every year . Shame on you YMCA going to the news !

Well-run & wholesome environment

The unity of the teams. Fun environment for the kids.

Love your basketball program; just wish they could practice more before games start.

The YMCA provides youth sports programs that allow for basic skill development with a reasonable level of competition .

It would be great if the YMCA had better facilities.

Great basketball program and my son has been enjoying the activities.

We have only been doing youth basketball.

Basketball rules by age group are not enforced and this significantly impacts the kid's opportunities to learn. Defenders just stand under the basket and double or triple team. A whistle is not blown to correct the situation. Feedback was provided to an official in an attempt to create a better learning environment, and the official said the games would take too long if they blew the whistle and they needed to stay on schedule. Extremely disappointing. The response sounded like the priority is to check boxes and move on. This is not how games we run 5 years ago.

The referees need more training. We had 2 girls this past week who were afraid to blow their whistles. They would never stop the game to make sure kids were playing defense "legally". The game became way too aggressive and out of hand.

I like the organization of the basketball program and the facility used

Basketball program is ran well, great atmosphere