Dawson Blanck - Executive Director Minnesota Youth Athletic Services (MYAS)

Hosts Patrick Klinger and Dave Boden talk with Dawnson Blanck about his role as the Executive Director of Minnesota Youth Athletic Services.

Transcript

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Welcome to Behind the Game, presented by KLN Family Brands, makers of great products like Sweet Chaos, Drizzled Popcorn, Wiley Wall Bee Licorice, and Nutrisource Pet Foods. I'm Patrick Klinger, president of Agile Marketing Partners, alongside me. Dave Bowden, my co-host, Dave always fancied himself as an elite athlete as a kid. The only ones who didn't were his coaches, teammates, opponents, and parrots. Aside from that, Dave, uh, yeah, you've you've identified uh my athletic career. Uh a lot of people overlooked the talent I had, is all I can say. Apparently so. Yeah. I I was uh gonna be a point guard in the uh ABA. Actually, that tells you my age. It was the ABA. But anyway, uh thank you for the introduction. And uh we want to welcome our special guest today. We're joined by Minnesota Youth Athletic Services Executive Director, Dawson Blank. Dawson spent nearly three decades helping shape youth sports experiences for athletes, coaches, officials, and families across the state, including ours, uh back in the day. Uh so Dawson, for those who are not familiar with NYAS, uh tell us what it is and why it was founded. Well, thanks first for allowing me to be on with you both. Appreciate it. Um, Minnesota Youth Athletic Services originated in 1991. Um, there was a lot of defunding of middle school activities during that time. And then that was the jump start or the pop-up of parent volunteer athletic associations at the time. And the founder, Mr. Daniel Klinkhammer, had a vision to create an organization that supported those groups to support and partner with parent volunteer organization leaders, create the policies, procedures, rules, work in uh uh harmony with them, and then create the opportunities that come with that through tournaments, leagues, events, kind of mimicking what the Minnesota State High School League has been for previously 10 through 12, now 9th through 12. So that was what the uh creation of MYAS was. Um ultimately we are a service organization to improve and enhance the delivery of youth sports services. We are a 501c3 nonprofit organization, so we truly have a mission behind what we do. We have have always had the mantra of youth sports done right. And that's something that's always been very important to us, not just to go through the motions to get to the next event or opportunity, but to create that experience for the kids that are part of that tournament event league. Um, we've also been big with best practices that we promote, uh, which we then, if you fast forward uh 20 some years into our organization's history, we launched Trusted Coaches, which is a platform to provide better coaches safer kids. It's a risk management platform for concussion certification, uh, first aid training, child safety training, background checks. Um, we also have an officials training portion to try to provide recruitment, retainment, education for those that want to get into the space that maybe have been a former coach or a parent, maybe a player they want to give back to the game. And the only spot that there was previously was through the high school league if they wanted to start at that level. So we have the youth version of that, and we we uh partner directly with the high school league and use the same platform they use to be able to allow those high school officials to also come down and do the youth uh games at within the sports we serve of baseball, basketball, football. We also have a a large wrestling tour called Midwest Wrestling Tour that has stops throughout the upper Midwest. And we have one really large uh swimming event at the U of M Aquatic Center. Nelson, before we get into trends and what you're seeing in youth athletics today, tell us a little bit about how sports has played a role in your own life. Yeah, sports has meant everything. Um I grew up uh a humongous sports fan. I played every sport possible inside every season. Um Larry Bird was my guy. So I remember my mom always uh uh teasing me because I'd set the timer on the microwave for 12 minutes and I'd go into the into the back room and play Nerf Hoops for 12 minutes and have my own uh I would be my own commentator. Um I played youth baseball in Nisswa, Minnesota, and ended up uh moving into Brainerd High School. Um, I wasn't the biggest kid at the time and I didn't really grow until college. And but at the same time, having that opportunity to be a part of a team, one cohesive unit, be with your friends, represent your community, that meant a lot to me at an early age. And then when I did have the opportunity to move into college, um, play collegiate football and tennis, it still meant a lot to me. And so I look back, um, and as I moved into this space and being a part of athletics in other ways as a high school basketball official for 25 years, high school varsity football coach for many years, all those lessons that I learned along the way molded me truly into who I am today in my late 40s, um, still. And the the influence, the positive influence that I had from the coaches along the way, uh, my middle school coaches, uh, my high school coaches, including Coach Ron Stolsky, who is one of the uh most winniest career as a high school coach from 1976 until he retired in approximately 2013. He's now the executive director of the Minnesota Football Coach Association. My collegiate coach Dan O'Brien, who has had many stops along the way, and he's currently the interim, possibly permanent uh athletic director at St. John's University. So that influence really uh uh helped me, and it was a perfect fit at the time out of college. I got this uh uh call from a guy who I had played with previously in in college football, and he said, Hey, there's an opening at this organization called MYAS, and I had no clue at the time what it was in late 1999, and the rest is history. Um, and it has been a great career, very passionate about what we do, always looking for ways to improve, enhance, amplify, elevate what's going on. I think the cool thing about what we have going on is we are still truly connected to community-based programming. There's been so much change, and we'll probably get into it about what is being offered and the really the push and emphasis on club sports, which there's a place for it, but I think to be able to protect and serve that community-based um sport within the sports we serve of baseball basketball. We've been able to dedicate a season in conjunct with all these parent volunteer leaders to have a winter travel basketball season where the kids can wear their community name on their shirt, such as Egan, uh Egan Wildcats, and they're proud to be a part of their playing with kids that they go to school with or that they're in the neighborhood, and that means a lot to us. It's excellent. Um, so you mentioned coaches and and some of uh how you kind of came up playing sports and being involved in sports. Um, can you think of a coach or maybe an experience or moment um from one of those? And I guess it could be good or bad that really shaped how you think about youth sports and how you have something you've taken into what you do now. Well, I mean, as a former uh high school football coach, I know you have to coach each individual a little bit differently based on their personality and who they are, and you gotta figure that out along the way. Uh Ron Stolsky, uh, he, a great high school football coach, we ran the wishbone. And I was a wide receiver. I never caught the ball. I was a stock blocking machine, but I never caught the ball. And he specifically, I remember how much he celebrated when I had my first high school catch. And he took the time to make sure because he knew that I was there putting in the work. I had the heart, I had the dedication, commitment, but he took the time to make sure to let me know. And I actually had a conversation with him a week ago, and he specifically brought that up and think about the number of players he's had along the years, but to remember that remember your first catch in Little Falls. I mean, that that means a lot to be able to have that connection, and it just made you want to continue to do better and and and continue to push forward in that sport, which I ended up doing and had a great college football career after I grew a little bit at both Central Lakes College and Concordia St. Paul. So I think that's an example of how it defines you, um, how it it positively influences you those little things right in the way. Yeah. Dulce, from your seat at MYS, what are you seeing right now in youth athletics that's different than maybe even five or ten years ago? I mean, there's a lot of talk about it, but I think the biggest thing um that's that's really popped up is the sports specialization. And the um, you know, like I mentioned when I was growing up, and a lot of people uh at the time did that, and even when you guys were younger, that there they people moved on to each season, and that's kind of the way it was. So when it was football season, people played football, basketball in the winter, hockey, or whatever it may be, and you move through each season. I think that's the one big thing is um as a multi-sport organization, we're always promoting multi-sport athletes, but there's also a major pull and push that you need to continue to hone your skills inside a specific sport if you want to get opportunities as you advance through your youth high school career to be able to potentially get something, uh, a scholarship or whatever it may be past high school. So I think that's the biggest thing. It's so many more opportunities that exist from a training perspective, from uh the club, plus the community uh aspect. And so there's so many options for the parents to decide what path to bring their child down. And I think sometimes there is a thought that you have to get somebody in, a child in at an earlier age, third, fourth, fifth grade, to go down that track of club sports right away. And that maybe isn't necessarily the case because you also see a major burnout, and by the age of 13 and 14, they may be done playing athletics because of that. So I think that's the biggest thing that I've seen is just the number of awesome opportunities that exist, but to be able to channel that correctly for everybody that's in the experience. That's you know, related to that. Um, do you feel like youth sports have become more intense, more structured? And and I think probably they have, but how do you balance that out with maybe what we grew up with, which was kind of structured, but also a lot of informal on your own, go down to the park and play? Yeah, all these opportunities that are created through our organization and other um other organizations like Minnesota hockey, Minnesota Softball, um uh within soccer too, Minnesota Youth Soccer Association, Twin Cities Soccer League, uh unfortunately, there's a negative side effect of that, of all these opportunities that have been created. It's everything is so structured. Um, and there's not necessarily that free play where you meet at the in the backyard or at the park and just go play. Um, and I think that's the a missing component because it has been so structured uh over the course of the last couple decades, it's kind of shifted more and more to that. Um, and so I I think there's that balance to try to figure out of the free play opportunities. Uh, we've talked about trying to schedule just open gyms for opportunities within communities and just have a supervisor to give uh provide guidance or support, but just so they have a place to just go play. Yeah. You know, I think the genie's out of the bottle on that, and it's it's probably not going back in. But it's sad to go past these ball fields and parks. Uh, and no kids are playing. You know, they're they're playing if the game is structured, but uh, you know, the you and I go way back to the to the era where you got all the kids together in the neighborhood and grabbed the bats and the balls and you played for hours. You just played. There were no parent supervision. No, there wasn't um, there weren't officials, you figured it out on your own. And I think that's a little sad that we will never see those days again, most likely. Agreed. Yeah, I I I I think that if there was a way to incorporate some things that could help with, you know, offering up that a little bit more, I agree with you. I again the the the awesome opportunities that have been created uh through us and other organizations has maybe been a deterrent. I think the other thing that we have to make sure that we continue to promote and emphasize is the development training because sometimes that's missed. Um we have a great setup within youth basketball. Uh there's a alliance called the Minnesota Youth Basketball Alliance. There are 175 youth basketball organizations around the state that are connected through this. They have the opportunity to promote their tournaments to all the other organizations around the state so teams can enter into those, and that's their own fundraising mechanism that they have for their own organization. But sometimes, and I've seen it more and more, where a youth basketball team is playing more games within a season than a high school varsity team. And so I'm trying to again continue to push the development side and training as far as best practice and work with the leaders inside each sport to ensure that that still needs to be a focus because people know that's the case, but they love the competition and the gameplay too. You mentioned uh in the conversation the specialization that maybe is happening too early or people are jumping into that. I mean, you know, maybe it's great for some and maybe not others, but not as widespread. And I believe there's probably a fair number of parents and families who are looking like, you know, kind of like what Patrick said to me, you know, they're looking at their kid to get that college scholarship or be a big time athlete. And you know, some do, but some don't, and that's okay too. So with all that stuff going on, what do you say to parents if they got a kid 10, 12 years old and they're just getting into this? What like do you have guidance for them or advice? So that's one thing actually that we're doing an initiative. We're trying to create this opportunity called Parent You, where it's literally just laying out facts for somebody coming into the space inside youth baseball, inside youth basketball, youth football, so they understand facts, maybe eliminate some misnomers or um a biased opinion one way or the other. I think the big thing, um and I I've experienced it too as a youth sports parent as well, wearing that hat, that sometimes we forget to enjoy the experience and to know the little things uh that a fifth grader wants to be able to just have fun with their classmates, their friends, and to just enjoy it. And that talks about you know the ride home. Are you gonna be a coach? Are you gonna be a dad or a mom uh to make sure to ask that question and not just become a coach right away? And I'll be honest, I learned that with my daughter a little bit. Yeah, I think to just be that support, know your role in the youth sports experience because everybody has one from the official to the coach to the parent in the stand, everybody has that role. And whenever somebody crosses over into a different role, that's when bad things happen. So enjoy it. Um relish it because as you guys know, and now I know, it goes by so quick. Yeah, it's great. And and I think you just need to enjoy the moment, uh, kind of like um Jim Morris said, enjoy the season. I mean, it's the same thing, and in enjoy it and and and have fun with it. And know that sometimes, and I learned this when I was coaching my daughter, sometimes they are more excited about the person that wins the hustle bear at the end of the game than who won the game. Yeah, I think that's a great point. All of us have been there as parents coaches at the same time in that role. I hadn't thought about it exactly that way, but yeah, you can't you can't be the coach when you need to be the parent. Yeah, you need to have fun. You know, I find it striking that I I've interviewed many professional coaches, I've interviewed many professional athletes over the years and asked the same question about specialization. Not one has ever said they should specialize. And it's one sport across the board, they say it's best if if the kids play a lot of sports. You know, one of the uh the cottage industries that's really popped up around this this now this intensity with youth athletics is is personal training amps. I mean, kids are going to personal trainers at a very early age. What's your perspective on that? I I think it's great. Um, I think again, it depends on the age level that you're talking about. Um I I think that it obviously needs to differ from a 11, 12-year-old to a 14, 15, 16-year-old, as far as what that intensity of the training is. Um, I think if somebody, if if a a youth athlete has a true passion for a specific sport and they want to continue to go down that path, I think that's awesome. I just think that again, it it needs to not be so intense that at some point that child is gonna lose the love of the game um or that sport and they're gonna not want to be a part of it anymore. So kind of started to talk about um parents and the role parents play, and you see that. I mean, I'm I know there's a wide spectrum being a coach in the old days as well. I I mean I have seen that firsthand. Um, but what do you think separates a really good or a great youth coach uh from somebody that just sort of fills a role? And you probably wrestle with getting those coaches. You want volunteers, but you also want to have a yeah, I think you know, every every organization, um Egan, travel basketball, all the organizations out there that are looking to hire volunteer coaches, um, which in turn you hope that that creates a great experience for people to come back. I think the one thing that um we need to continue to look at is figuring out ways to prepare them. I think sometimes, and I'll go back to separates a coach that's just there to a coach that's gonna make a difference or positive impact, literally just the preparedness going into practices. Have your practice plan ready to go. Don't show up with your assistants at 6:30 when practice starts. Say, what are we gonna do today? Give the opportunity so you can get the most out of that 90 minutes or two hours that you have with your kids twice a week or whatever it may be. And I think it's very important that you give that to your kids because I think they deserve that. Um, they're there to because they either like the game or they want to be with their friends and play a game. And so you want to make sure that you're prepared in some way. And I think the other thing we just talked about, um, it's tough because we always talk about uh the invisible umbilical cord that's wrapped around every court and field, everybody's trying to navigate through that. I think the the really great youth coaches get it and they maintain their role. Um, I'll be the first to say as a high school basketball official for 24 years that nobody's perfect. And uh people are doing their best as an official. And so whenever we try to direct any uh loss or negative thing in a game at the officials, that's not helping, that's not helping the sport. Um, that's just placing blame on somebody. When when you look at it the other way, maybe we could have had some different uh plays called, maybe there could have been some different things done from the coach perspective that could have impacted the game differently, too, which would have led to maybe the victory. So I think staying in your role is so, so important for that youth volunteer coach and just to be prepared, no matter what you're going into, if it's a practice or a game. We've all seen video of parents getting into fistfights and events or attacking coaches. But it gets ugly sometimes at youth sporting events. What does MYS do to try to head that off and to keep the games in perspective? That it's just youth sports. Yeah. Um it is tough. I mean, because uh like I said, there is that invisible umbilical cord wrapped around, and because they have paid to be there or paid an amount of money to have their child go through this season, they have a right, they feel they have a right to be able to provide their opinion. The big thing we've tried to do is just continue to create impressions. Um, we partnered with a great group uh called Youth First in 2019, and the whole intent of that was to reward those teams that do it the right way. So uh during a game or before the game, there's a pregame meeting that happens, which happens in high school games, but we're trying to push that more to youth games so the officials and the coaches can be on the same page. Hey, what are the rules for today? Okay, this is a fourth grade game. Okay, no pressing. Want to make sure we're on the same page. Let's have uh respectful communication between each other. Hey, and remember, it's all about the kids. So we have that level set. So then after the game, the uh officials have taken the time on a scorecard or score sheet, depending on baseball, basketball, football, where they then rate the team, the coaches, the player, and the fans. Yes or no. At the end of a tournament, then it's been our flagship events of grade state basketball championships or Gover State Tournament Champions, where we are recognizing the teams uh for getting perfect scores. So if they had played three games and they got three yeses, that we are gonna reward them. Not that they won the tournament, but they are doing it the right way. Um, other things we uh implemented this year, it's the what's your role. Big signs going into every gym that talks about what's your role and officials officiate, coaches instruct, uh, parents cheer. Bad things happen when you play somebody else's role. Um, just it's more about the impressions, and because uh the other thing we notice is that you can put up a bunch of stuff, people just walk by and they're clock glossed over. I think the bigger question is three-quarters of every team get it on the parents. Three-quarters of every set of parents within a team, they understand it's that one or two parents that we got to figure out a way to get them to come with the rest of the team because those are the same people that are standing by themselves. Nobody really wants them by them, uh, trying to get them to understand their role. That's that's that's the toughest thing right now. Is to you got most of the parents, they understand it and they want to represent their community the right way. They want to be there to cheer, but there's just a couple that unfortunately don't want to listen to it. Yeah. When I was as an aside, when I was coaching basketball, boys and girls, I would start with the players and tell them you're not allowed to talk to the referees or the officials. I mean, you can have a conversation, but nothing bet. And then I would tell all the parents the same thing. Yeah. Like I'm the only one that's allowed to talk to them, and I will, if I need to, talk to them. But and that is important. That point of the team expectations to have that preseason parent meeting as the coach to level set with them, to understand the expectations of what their role is, you know, what the to establish a 24-hour rule if they are frustrated about something the way that their uh coach maybe didn't get the minutes that they had hoped for, or their player didn't get the minutes they had hoped for. And to be able to have that established as you go into a season so you don't have to be reactive during the season. Yeah, that's a it's um great advice. I know we're getting toward the end of our time, um, but I do have a follow up a follow-up from conversation. So one of the things we've talked to with a couple other guests in different contexts is the changes in college sports with name, image, likeness, and all that stuff. And I think about the parents that are looking at uh their kids being the next great point guard and all that stuff. Is NIL creeping its way down to here? Because you can not only go get a scholarship but make a ton of money, maybe? I mean, that there's that possibility. I I mean, I don't know how far it's not, but I know that. I I I mean, we've taught we've heard of that, you know, potentially could creep into the high school ranks and things are happening already. Um I I would just say again, enjoy the experience right now with um and and to not worry about that. There's a time and place for that, and that'll happen eventually. Right. Yeah. Gives you a tough job. But hey Dulce, thank you for being on Behind the Game today. Thanks as both of you. Appreciate it. No, it's great. It's it's a wonderful perspective on what's happening in the world of youth athletics, um, which I I think we we all agree have gotten a little bit out of control. And um, it's good to see what MOIAS is doing to sort of bring that in and make it a better experience for parents, for coaches, uh, and certainly for the for the young athletes. Yeah, I was looking to amplify and elevate the experience. Yeah. Direct Dave, thank you for joining me. In the immortal words of PJ Fleck, you're elite. You are elite. All right. Patrick knows I am a badger, so uh let's rub it in. Yeah, so yeah. Now, unfortunately, the gophers kind of have bragging rights now, which is a problem for me, but uh, but definitely, Dawson, yeah, thank you for being here. It's really interesting stuff, and it's great work you're doing to try to make that a great experience. I think that can get overlooked at times with uh the desire to win games and all that stuff, and you want to have that, but you you got to have a balance. Yeah, that's what we that's what we have to continue to look at from my staff perspective, all the host groups, everybody that we work with, that there are so many great things still happening. The negativity is the part that gets in the way sometimes. And those thank you. Thank you, David, and thank all of you for watching Behind the Game. We'll see you again next month. Behind the Game is produced by Alan and Sharon Miller, directed by Mary Dolkey. Live audio mixed by Sharon Miller. Technical and post production services provided by Egan Television. This program was recorded at Egan High School. The views and opinions expressed on this program are solely those of the producers andor the persons appearing on the program. And do not reflect the views and opinions of ETV or those of District 196 schools.