AUBURN - Most any time of day the racquetball courts at the YMCA are a busy place.
But for Jeff Hanno, the YMCA's youth sports director, there is always room for improvement.
“Our junior racquetball league has been going pretty well,“ said Hanno, a long time racquetball instructor, “And really what I'd like to do is build on what is already here and try to get more kids involved in the sport.”
For the last several years, the Y has been working with what is known as Super Sports in areas like basketball and lacrosse.
This is a very hands on approach that gets the kids out and playing as soon as possible, which has proven to be effective.
“We just want to let the kids see if they are interested in the game,” Hanno said. “Super Sports gives them the chance to just play and have fun and see if they like the idea of the game before they get a lot of talk and lessons on what they are supposed to do and strategy and all that.”
Hanno has slowly been applying the same method to youth racquetball and it has been working.
“I think the kids just like to get out and hit the ball,” Hanno said. “It is a lot of fun to play. One of my players brought his younger brother and he brought a few friends. So I asked them if they wanted to give it a shot and play a little and they loved it. So I already have a few more guys ready to play.”
In the first foray into creating a youth league, Hanno has had eight players of various ages.
“I always make sure everyone is pretty equally matched,” Hanno said. “That is one of the great things about the game, you can have a younger and older player and they can more or less be on the same level. No one wants to go out and get crushed and no one wants to crush anyone else, what fun would that be? But with this you can keep it challenging.”
While the Y has two sets of courts, what are commonly referred to as the old courts have been a little underused for Hanno, but this at least in part led to the idea of creating a more youth oriented racquetball program.
“We just painted them and have been fixing them up a lot,” Hanno said. “And I thought that we really don't use these too much and that it was a shame to have these courts here and not get more use out of them. The other courts are almost always full with the adult leagues and everything. So that gave me the idea that maybe reaching out to get kids more into playing might be a good way to go and use these courts more.”
Through building up a youth league, Hanno hopes to keep these courts constantly busy.
“My goal is to have something going on at least three or four days a week,” Hanno said. “I want to get as many kids as we can in here and playing.”
While the kids that already belong to the YMCA or visit with friends and family have given Hanno a good base to work with, he hopes to reach out a little further into the community to raise interest.
“I'd like to reach out to the schools,” Hanno said. “Maybe get some flyers or something and see what we can get. I think this is a sport that we could get a lot of kids interested in if we just gave them a chance to play and see what it is all about.”
Hanno hopes at some point to have several divisions of youth leagues running as well as creating teams.
Hanno said that racquetball has a wide appeal.
Not only does it serve as a full body workout, it also helps athletes build coordination and keep in shape.
“A lot of pros will play this in the off season,” Hanno said. “I ask a lot of kids what athletes are in the best shape, baseball, basketball, but really I always tell them it is the racquetball players. You get a lot of baseball and basketball players who use this as part of their off season training, it helps them keep in shape and you are always moving, it is good exercise. You tell a kid to go spend twenty minutes on a treadmill and they are probably going to get bored, but you let them go on the court and hit the ball around for a while and they are going to have some fun.”
The game is also almost universally accessible for all ages.
“It is a game you can play your whole life,” Hanno said.
“It is great for kids to get started. You can literally play your whole life and enjoy it.”
Hanno said that based on the interest so far he plans to get another youth league started in the next few weeks.
For more information call Jeff Hanno at 253-5304.
“Our junior racquetball league has been going pretty well,“ said Hanno, a long time racquetball instructor, “And really what I'd like to do is build on what is already here and try to get more kids involved in the sport.”
For the last several years, the Y has been working with what is known as Super Sports in areas like basketball and lacrosse.
This is a very hands on approach that gets the kids out and playing as soon as possible, which has proven to be effective.
“We just want to let the kids see if they are interested in the game,” Hanno said. “Super Sports gives them the chance to just play and have fun and see if they like the idea of the game before they get a lot of talk and lessons on what they are supposed to do and strategy and all that.”
Hanno has slowly been applying the same method to youth racquetball and it has been working.
“I think the kids just like to get out and hit the ball,” Hanno said. “It is a lot of fun to play. One of my players brought his younger brother and he brought a few friends. So I asked them if they wanted to give it a shot and play a little and they loved it. So I already have a few more guys ready to play.”
In the first foray into creating a youth league, Hanno has had eight players of various ages.
“I always make sure everyone is pretty equally matched,” Hanno said. “That is one of the great things about the game, you can have a younger and older player and they can more or less be on the same level. No one wants to go out and get crushed and no one wants to crush anyone else, what fun would that be? But with this you can keep it challenging.”
While the Y has two sets of courts, what are commonly referred to as the old courts have been a little underused for Hanno, but this at least in part led to the idea of creating a more youth oriented racquetball program.
“We just painted them and have been fixing them up a lot,” Hanno said. “And I thought that we really don't use these too much and that it was a shame to have these courts here and not get more use out of them. The other courts are almost always full with the adult leagues and everything. So that gave me the idea that maybe reaching out to get kids more into playing might be a good way to go and use these courts more.”
Through building up a youth league, Hanno hopes to keep these courts constantly busy.
“My goal is to have something going on at least three or four days a week,” Hanno said. “I want to get as many kids as we can in here and playing.”
While the kids that already belong to the YMCA or visit with friends and family have given Hanno a good base to work with, he hopes to reach out a little further into the community to raise interest.
“I'd like to reach out to the schools,” Hanno said. “Maybe get some flyers or something and see what we can get. I think this is a sport that we could get a lot of kids interested in if we just gave them a chance to play and see what it is all about.”
Hanno hopes at some point to have several divisions of youth leagues running as well as creating teams.
Hanno said that racquetball has a wide appeal.
Not only does it serve as a full body workout, it also helps athletes build coordination and keep in shape.
“A lot of pros will play this in the off season,” Hanno said. “I ask a lot of kids what athletes are in the best shape, baseball, basketball, but really I always tell them it is the racquetball players. You get a lot of baseball and basketball players who use this as part of their off season training, it helps them keep in shape and you are always moving, it is good exercise. You tell a kid to go spend twenty minutes on a treadmill and they are probably going to get bored, but you let them go on the court and hit the ball around for a while and they are going to have some fun.”
The game is also almost universally accessible for all ages.
“It is a game you can play your whole life,” Hanno said.
“It is great for kids to get started. You can literally play your whole life and enjoy it.”
Hanno said that based on the interest so far he plans to get another youth league started in the next few weeks.
For more information call Jeff Hanno at 253-5304.
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