Adults have taken charge of children’s sports.

Pressure on youth causes a decline in recreational athletes, which is why the Joy of Sports Foundation is working to improve rec experiences and keep kids playing. It expands athletic recreational offerings, provides quality coach training, and increases collaboration between organizations. Additionally, grants are offered to applicants who would like to start up a sport in the community.

Across America, 70% of kids who play recreational sports stop playing by the time they turn 13 according to Terry Singer, founder of the Joy of Sports Foundation. “It’s a fairly common statistic you’ll see,” Singer said.

Although Singer does not know if the statistic completely applies to the youth of Hershey, he recognizes the importance of keeping kids involved in sports. There are physical, social, and developmental benefits of playing a sport.

“It keeps people moving and exercising, and there are a lot of life lessons that can be learned from participating in athletics,” Singer said.

The Joy of Sports Foundation was founded by Singer in 2014. The idea for this non-profit foundation came from Singer’s positions as a recreational sport coach and as a board member for the Hershey Youth Basketball Association and the Hershey Little League.

He gained a broader perspective and saw multiple issues that needed to be addressed in order to keep kids involved in sports, including conflict between playing time and pressure to do well.

Singer is strictly focusing on recreational sports, not interscholastic sports. “We’d like to help maintain what recreational sports we already have,” he said.

According to Singer, sometimes coaches are not sensitive enough about a kid’s feelings about his/her team role or opportunities.

The foundation partnered with the Hershey Little League and established training as a prerequisite to becoming a coach. The coach training course taught prospective coaches how to encourage and support young people.

“In my mind, that’s probably where we make the biggest difference,” Singer said.

The foundation aims to work with coaches and parents to reduce the number of kids that drop out. Its goals were designed to combat the biggest cause of kids dropping out: lack of fun.

Donna Cronin, Joy of Sports Board member, believes there is no point in participating in a sport if one does not love it. Her motto is ‘Work hard, play hard, have fun.’

According to Cronin, kids do have fun with sports, but they stop playing because they get burned out or the competition is too intense, which can be negative.

More and more kids drop out of sports as they grow older simply because they are not having fun anymore.

“I think they start very young and get too serious too quickly,” she said.

Currently, there are about 12 recreational organizations in town according to Singer. These include the Hershey Blaze Track Club, Hershey Youth Basketball Association, and Hershey Aquatic Club.

Even with all of the existing recreational organizations, the foundation looks to expand their high school recreational offerings.

“I’d like to get some high school kids interested in getting a rec sport started,” Singer said, “We can provide small grants of up to 2500.”

Just like starting up a club, all it would take to get a sport started are a couple of interested students and a supervisor according to Singer. Some ideas for a new team include ultimate frisbee, beach volleyball, and fencing.

“We have three sand volleyball courts in Derry Township, and I’d love to get beach volleyball underway,” he said.