Knox Youth Sports is . . . .
. . . . a non-profit organization in Knoxville, Tenn., that has been organizing and administering recreational youth sports programs since 1956. Today, KYS participants range in age from four to 18. Our leagues play at Lakeshore Park, Sequoyah Park, and in gyms we rent around west Knoxville. KYS has some 500 girls and boys in basketball, 1,200 in baseball and softball, and more than 500 in fall baseball. In the past several years, we’ve added a number of new programs that allowed more children, not only from west Knoxville, to play more sports than ever in our history. Here’s a recap of them.
• In 2003, we started Challenger Basketball for the same disabled children who, for seven years up till then, had been in our Challenger Baseball program. That July, we began a Challenger Golf League. Some 18 children participated and played at Lakeshore on the University of Tennessee golf practice range.Challenger Basketball, and Golf give disabled children an opportunity to enjoy the same thrills and exhilaration as their friends and siblings do in youth sports.
• In our 2004 basketball season we partnered with SOAR Youth Ministries in the Lonsdale neighborhood. We offered our sports programs to children from the inner city. We started with four players in our boy’s league for 12-year olds. The success SOAR and KYS experienced that season prompted us to expand to 25 boys and girls in several age groups in the 2006 spring baseball and softball season. SOAR and KYS were highly encouraged by the positive effects on players and parents from both programs.
• In the spring of 2004, we started our middle school baseball program with 6 teams. This spring, 18 middle-school baseball teams will be playing, making this league the largest of all our leagues.
• Lastly, in July 2004, we sent our first team of 12-year-old baseball players to participate in a tournament of 80 teams in Cooperstown, N.Y., and have sent a team each year since.
• In the fall of 2004, we started a baseball league for high school teams. We had 10 H.S. teams that first fall and have had 15+ teams each fall since.
• In the spring of 2005 our middle school softball program, as well as our younger girls programs, experienced growth from the year before. This spring, 8 middle-school softball teams will be playing.
Knox Youth Sports
P.O. Box 10964
Knoxville, Tenn. 37939
865/584-6403
865/584-2385 fax