Last Week!

So I just finished up my last week of my internship. It just flew by! I can't believe that it is finally over. I really enjoyed my internship experience. Even though I have worked in youth sports before, being an intern really gave me a wonderful opportunity to shadow employees in many divisions of the department. It really opened my eyes to how everyone in the department works together and how they meet to make decisions for programs and events. Especially with the reduced budget, some programs, especially those that are free to the public, cannot pay any part time staff wages so they have to depend on donated time from the full time employees which really keeps the employees department-wide supportive of each other's events.
I have been involved in many projects such as the accreditation of the department, the creation of flyers and coaching material, park closures and clean up, special events, park construction, sports site supervison and many, many others. I have gained a great deal of experience and knowledge that I can use in the future.

The Sun was Shining!

So there was no rain yesterday which meant that we were finally able to end our spring sports season. Yay! All of the certificates, pictures and trophies were handed out successfully to the players and it feels good to get the season behind us. There is no time to rest though. We are already in the process of getting the summer season under way. All last week I put together our database to organize our participants who have already registered.
On Wednesday, I did have the pleasure of creating a new map of Glendale schools that we use to help form the sports teams. The previous one we had had the schools plotted (some in the wrong area) and the schools were handwritten which made it a bit difficult to read. The new one I created was larger, and included a bigger area of the map and I also added many schools that surround Glendale because we did quite a bit of marketing to schools in Phoenix since the city cut youth sports programs due to budget cuts.

Oh the Rain!

So the last games from the season were rained out. I went out to the fields at 8am just to check to see if they weren't too wet in case it stopped raining before the game. But the fields were practically lakes so even if the rain let up there was no way that they would be playable. So the rainout hotline was updated so that the field closures could be relayed to the parents and coaches. The games are being rescheduled for this coming weekend. Normally, if games are rained out they are not made up, they are simply gone but since the rained out games are the final games of the season we have to play the games so that we can hand out the team pictures, certificates and trophies. So hopefully there will be sunshine this Saturday so that we can end this season.

End of the Spring Season

After a long 8 weeks the youth sports spring season is finally coming to a close. The past two weeks I have been completely swapt with end of the season items. I had to create and print participation certificates for every player in our leagues and I also printed certificates of appreciation for our volunteer coaches. On Tuesday, the trophies came in so I had to first make sure that the engraving was correct, they sent up the number of trophies that we ordered and also put them in groups by coaches. Yesterday, the picture packets arrived from the sports photographer so i checked the packets and made sure that all were accounted for. Getting the end of season items all put together is not a difficult task in itself but it can be put on hold because we deal with outside vendors with the trophies and pictures so I constantly had to be in contact with them to ensure that they would deliver the items on time.

But I completed the project and everything is set to go out to the fields tomorrow. All I have to do now is hope that the rain stays away or we may have to postpone a week.

Its a busy life in Youth Sports

Well i have not been on the blog lately. I have been working a great deal of hours on top of my other job. So let's get down to it. On March 22nd, I work at Glendale's first Folk and Heritage Festival. It was held at the Historic Area of Sahuaro Ranch Park. This event was a two day festival that had five stages of entertainment such as bands and interactive workshops. I was the lead for the children's activities, which basically meant I was the contact for the event cordinator to ensure that the area was problem free. And I got to carry a radio. Always cool. Halfway through the day, the wind had started to whip through the event with a lot of force and since it was held outdoors it posed a problem. I had to move the children's arts and craft area because there was too much flying dust in the area it had previously been and it was causing a health and safety hazard to children. Soon after moving, the wind continued to beat down the children's craft area, so we had to pack it up early. The staff in that area was sent around the entire festival to put down all of the pop-up tents for fear that the wind would carry them causing them to injure a patron. Aside from the wind, the event was successful.