The SNIYF is made up from the core nucleus of people famous for taking a small, obscure sports management company from a concept to a multi-million dollars business hosting over 30,000 athletes in various sports from around the world in just seven years. Several members of this company known as Sports Network International (SNI) were constantly tasked with the duty of client interaction for the many youth sports teams that were attending their national athletic competitions year round. The service SNI provided as the nation's leader in special event management has been and continues to be legendary within the military branches they have worked with for decades, as well as the sports leagues they have worked with as well. The employees of SNI would routinely get into the minds of the players, coaches, military instructors and other administrators serving millions of youngsters across the country. These people heard their problems, pitfalls and successes in running their leagues. They then became motivated to start a new corporation with a differing set of goals. This company would focus on the training aspects, the educational aspects, the fellowship, safety and leadership that is borne from hands on training. They would also strive to bring many of these disparate groups together, be it between military branches or rival sports leagues. They would leverage the knowledge gained working with teams and leagues and thus, the Sports Network Int'l Youth Foundation was born.

Decades ago, almost all youth athletic programs were run by city governments through their recreation departments. Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. were hosted as a city program run by paid city employees. Largely through liability issues and budget cuts, these programs have been jettisoned by city governments and are now most often run by local, not-for-profit organizations that work in partnership with the cities they serve. Through years of experience, this transition has yielded hard working volunteers seeing the same issues in many different sports and even differing cities. They were crying out for a bigger picture solution that these well-meaning, hard working but often overwhelmed volunteers needed something to help them solve problems and provide better service to their clients.

In a similar situation, there are over 2,500 high school Junior ROTC military programs affiliated with the four primary service branches. Each function very independently and have a variety of focuses. However common to all, though the explosive growth and popularity of military drill, JROTC instructors were often put in positions of power with little more than a few hours training in this rising area and often little if any practical experience. High school cadets marching and spinning 9 lb. rifles in close formation with supervising instructors over whelmed with paperwork and under whelmed with true knowledge of the possible dangers that were lurking through insufficient training. This was a recipe for a problem.

All of these programs often needed guidance mainly in many areas involving safety, organization and administration. They welcomed the hand-holding approach for leadership training, safety training, skill training and general education programs that have became a part of the SNIYF system of support. These items kept their JROTC cadets, players and coaches on the cutting edge of these important areas.

Latest research shows that in these two areas of competition athletics alone, there are literally hundreds of thousands of these programs in the United States...The SNIYF is making a difference in the safety, education, training and leadership for these young men and women. Our efforts are equated to blowing dandelion seeds into the wind - we train and support several thousand individuals a year and we train them to go help others. We are seeing a difference. Slowly, but tangibly. In JROTC, cadets are self-policing more on social media and making it "cool not to be stupid". In the past, seeing videos of people doing hugely irresponsible things with their non-functional rifles was commonplace. Having thousands of cadets no with the knowledge and more importantly, with the leadership skills to know to jump out front and say, "this is not OK" is doing more to keep the youngsters safe than anything else done to date. And it is growing. In football, similar things are happening involving player safety, quality coaching techniques, parent by-laws are making the youth football landscape better for all involved.

The SNIYF main focus is to change the way youth sports are hosted, played and managed around the country. This is a lofty goal but a goal we believe in and one which we feel is already climbing towards in small increments. To start our long journey, the expansive competition military drill and youth football markets are our starting ground. These two areas were selected because these offered a great diversity in needs, yet so many similarities. Both areas have inherent dangers that were often not seen by the untrained eyes of those closest to them. Both had those in charge that knew a great deal about the basic function of the primary mission they personally served, but were failing to see the many items that were happening that could pose dangers. These two items presented the largest existing inroads for the SNIYF team through decades of work in these areas through our working partner, SNI.

The benefits provided by the people, programs and tools available through the SNIYF are literally boundless. Technology is amazing but too often in today's world, the human touch is needed to allow this technology to really make a difference. The SNIYF is attempting to stay connected with the people we look to serve, but use our programs and technology to really provide the scalable benefits that are needed in so many areas. We welcome the challenge ahead and love th road we are traveling on, learning as we go in partnership with our teams.