BA Youth Sports offers various sporting opportunities

Through Broken Arrow Youth Sports, area kids in grades kindergarten through 12th grade are gaining experience playing tackle football, flag football, cheerleading, pom, and lacrosse.

"As a part of Broken Arrow Youth Football, we have roughly 400 kids that participate with us," said Executive Director Chad Lott. "And then, in flag football, we have roughly about 175 participants with us. On the girls' side, it's not quite that many, and then in lacrosse this year, we're looking to hopefully be around 175 to 200 kids."

The organization has been serving kids since 1984, with a mission to provide Broken Arrow youth with a clean, safe, fun, and competitive environment to play.

Lott has been a part of the program for 39 years. In 2015, he made leading Broken Arrow Youth Sports his full-time vocation.

"The great thing about my job is being out here with all of the energy that the kids provide," Lott said. "It's just an amazing experience, and it never goes away."

He says the benefits of sports, especially for kids, are innumerable, including socialization, leadership, and mentorship.

"I mean, you get to see both sides of it, being developed by good men, good ladies, and good leaders," Lott said. "And especially in football, those kids learn to fight through adversity and get up when you're knocked down, and that is a learned life skill."

Lott credits the City of Broken Arrow with helping the organization to have longevity in the community.

"I think what Broken Arrow provides us is the ability to have staying power because city leaders work very well with the user groups and the directors, such as myself, to provide an atmosphere that allows us to do our job in an exceptional way, which actually helps us further that by making it a draw to the city," Lott said. "It really is a symbiotic relationship with us."

Lott says the lacrosse, cheerleading, and football teams are very community-focused and community-oriented.

"Pretty much all of our teams are Tigers from kindergarten to 12th," Lott said. "And, with that, having all this here in Broken Arrow provides us with that sense of community. We see that when others come in and get to see what our community is about and how we represent it."

One event that has been very successful for the organization is the Sooner Classic.

"That brings in youth football teams from about five or six states, and some as far away as Arizona," Lott said.

Broken Arrow's central location to the rest of the country is a benefit, too. For some Arkansas, Missouri, or Oklahoma City teams, it allows them to meet and play on middle ground.

Broken Arrow Youth Sports plays and practices at Nienhuis Park, 3201 N. 9th St., one of the city's newer sports facilities. The city recently converted two full-sized fields to synthetic turf, funded by 2018 General Obligation Bond funds. The facility has scoreboards, press boxes, a PA System, and handicap accessible stadium seating. It also has two full-size grass fields.

Lott would like to see the city continue to make improvements to the park, including fencing, shade structures, and wider walkways.

The City of Broken Arrow can make these improvements if voters approve an eighth proposition on the 2026 General Obligation Bond package. It would utilize a temporary half-cent sales tax to fund the city's sports facility improvements, with the tax set to expire in five years.

"I think Proposition 8 is really important," Lott said. "One of the things that gets overlooked is that we're all Broken Arrow people. We're all here for our citizens and want to make it better. Having a sales tax specifically for youth sports is a positive way to go, because we're the ones who bring in a lot of sales tax to the city, and book hotels for two- or three-night stays. All this contributes to the sales tax that will go back to our parks, whether it be for football, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, or softball. We'll all benefit from it the same as all of our citizens, and that's what creates a better environment for all of us."

Finally, Lott encouraged all Broken Arrow residents to vote this April.

"When you DO vote, you give your say, and every vote does matter. You never know when it's going to come down to what passes and what doesn't. And so, voting for improvements is definitely, in my mind, a better way to go."