Kids Sports Network scoring points in S.A.

When Frank Martin was growing up, many of his typical afternoons involved coming home from school to his mom, and then getting together with his friends to play a game of whatever sport fit their mood that day. Those days for children in 1997 are not as common. Instead, Martin says, many kids now come home to households where both parents are away at work, and the kids can't go to the neighborhood park because it isn't safe anymore. But Martin is trying to give kids today some options. As executive director of Kids Sports Network in San Antonio, he oversees an organization that provides training and support services to more than 2,000 youth league administrators and coaches in the San Antonio area each year, as well as to the parents of young athletes. "Kids today are less physically fit than in earlier days, and it keeps declining even though people are expounding the need to do something," Martin says. "Youth sports is even more of a necessity now." Martin has been involved with Kids Sports Network since its formation in 1993. He also serves as executive director of the Texas chapter of the National Youth Sports Coaches Association. This association, which operates in conjunction with Kids Sports Network in San Antonio, primarily helps train coaches in various sports. Two of Kids Sports Network's primary commitments are overseeing the operation of the San Antonio Spurs Drug Free Youth Basketball League and the Spurs Midnite Basketball League. These programs provided opportunities last year for more than 13,000 San Antonio kids and young adults to participate in organized basketball leagues. However, the five-member staff of the nonprofit Kids Sports Network is not stopping there. The group currently is in the process of developing a new golf-training program for at-risk youth, a child-abuse prevention program, and instructional programs for both parents and children. Kids Sports Network also continues to train youth league coaches and serves as a general clearinghouse of information on youth sports programs. Martin says the relationships developed by the organization with the various youth sports leagues around San Antonio have made Kids Sports Network "the kids sports experts" in many people's eyes. "We'll work with the youth leagues to try to make sure the people involved in those leagues provide good experiences for the kids," Martin says. "When you try to offer that training to some 200 to 225 sports organizations, you develop a good database of information on the city." Martin says his organization typically receives more than a dozen calls each day from people asking about ways in which they can get their kids involved in some sort of youth sports activity. Kids Sports Network currently operates out of an office on the city's Northeast Side. Martin says the group has an annual operating budget of about $200,000. Spring is typically the busiest time of the year for Kids Sports Network. With the two Spurs youth basketball programs in full swing, the organization also trains some 500 youth league baseball coaches each spring, Martin says. That training involves everything from how best to encourage and communicate with players to how coaches can communicate their philosophies and goals for their team to the kids' parents. Martin says Kids Sports Network urges youth league coaches to be trained in hopes of the kids on the team having the most enjoy