February 17, 2012

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your interest in what should prove to be another great year of baseball and softball. You will notice some changes to the program this year and we thank you in advance for your support. While we know the economy is on everyone’s mind, BYRA has had to raise prices this year in order to support a program.

Over the past few years, BYRA has seen a decline in volunteers that has affected our many dedicated board members who have spent countless hours away from their families in order to provide a program for your children to enjoy the great sport of ball.

BYRA has a new functioning board and has established a set of fundamental principles that we know you will continue to support. While you may not immediately notice many of the changes, BYRA is committed more than ever to teaching the basic skills and drills to your child to encourage sportsmanship and team play. While we still have divisions that compete at completive level, BYRA is committed to our community and a stance on player development. We have created a position of Player Development whose main role is to work with coaches in the t-ball and coach pitch divisions on instruction and fundamentals to set the foundation of play.

As our players progress through the divisions, BYRA felt a need to increase registration fees to have a base of quality umpires who will control all aspects of the game further teaching the importance of fair play. While we may not see this as we travel to other communities, BYRA wants to be continue to be known as a LEADER in youth sports in this area.

How can you help?

First – become involved. We still need volunteers in concessions to keep our costs reasonable. We have escrowed $2500.00 from last year’s fund raiser to construct dugouts for our players and we need volunteers to help with construction. These funds cannot be used for anything else. Please contact a board member or e-mail byronline@isp.com if you would like to become involved or have questions on how you can help make BYRA better and make it known if you can help.

Second – be a fan! BYRA hopes that you’ll invite friends, family (…heck even folks you don’t like) to come to the fields to enjoy some great times. Kids enjoy seeing and hearing fans.

Third – be supportive. Volunteer youth programs are hard work. Dedicated people come and go. If we had just 10 more people – we could do great things for our kids. Even if you can help out only once or twice, every little bit helps.

Finally – we want to hold tournaments where others come to BELLEVUE to play and thus WE do not have to travel. This takes a community to support…parking, concessions, fields, umpiring – if you can help – see a board member or e-mail byronline@isp.com – time is running out for this year.

Thanks again for your continued support for BELLEVUE YOUTH SPORTS ! ! !