SYSA celebrates 50 years of giving kids a chance at sports

For the Spokane Youth Sports Association, it’s always been about the kids.

For half a century, SYSA has given 300,000 of them a chance to play their favorite games – and given some of them a sporting chance in the game life.

In the living room of her northeast Spokane home, 7-year-old Shay Crawford clutched a soccer trophy like a prized possession. A small medal dangled from her neck.

Shay might not have seen the soccer field without some financial help from SYSA, which during the last 10 years has provided $350,000 in financial assistance to more than 5,000 children from low-income families.

“It’s huge for us because it makes it affordable,” said Shay’s father, Rashad Crawford, of the registration fees SYSA picked up for Shay and her older sister Macy.

Their parents took it from there, finding discounts on soccer shoes and other gear.

Rashad moved to Spokane in 1993 to escape the gang violence in the Bay Area. Since 2003 they’ve lived in the same house on East Decatur where his wife Melanie grew up.

However, money is tight. Melanie works as a nursing assistant; Rashad was a steel fabricator for 15 years but had to quit because of injury. Every bit helps.

“That’s the main thing,” said Philip Helean, the executive director of SYSA. “Whether they have the ability to pay or not … we’ve never turned anyone away.”

It’s been that way since 1966, when Dwight Merkel founded Spokane Junior Football and drew 284 boys. Ten years later, soccer was added and the group changed its name to the Spokane Youth Sports Association.

Last year, SYSA served about 12,500 boys and girls, offering basketball, softball, baseball, track and field, cross country, golf, lacrosse and other sports.

Rashad Crawford sees even bigger benefits. “They’re making friends and bonding,” he said. “Some of these kids don’t have that kind of supportive family. The team becomes the family.”

For 12-year-old Macy, the bonds were formed in when she was in the third grade. A friend’s mother was coaching an SYSA soccer team and Macy was invited to play. Four years later, the Garry Middle School seventh-grader is playing her first season of 11-on-11.

Her favorite part of the game? “Making new friends,” she said.

Beyond that, studies show that participation in sports boosts the quality of life for youngsters. Student athletes have up to 40 percent higher test scores and miss class at half the rate of student-athletes.

That’s one goal of one of SYSA’s Saturday night high school basketball league. “That’s what SYSA is all about,” Helean said as he explained that most would-be high school basketball players don’t make the cut.

“But they love sports,” said Helean, who said 200 teens participated this year.