What’s more important for youth sports: competition or having fun and making friends?
How about the sports your kids play — bubble soccer anyone?
The Virginia Beach Department of Parks & Recreation is asking that and more in a new survey it says will help shape the future of the city’s youth sports program.
The questions focus on which sports local children are playing and which ones they might want to play, what outcomes people value most about youth sports, and how competitive residents want their youth programs to be. The survey also asks how much parents spend on sports leagues and how far they’re willing to travel for them, among other things.
This is the Parks & Rec Department’s first “all-encompassing” survey for youth sports, according to staff, to their knowledge. The department also surveys people every two years with general questions on community sports.
“With emerging sports and the changing landscape of youth sports, we need to evaluate our current offerings to determine if they are meeting the priorities of Virginia Beach residents,” Parks and Rec staff said by email.
The survey lists 46 sports from which people can select to indicate what their children play or are interested in playing. The options include traditional sports, including flag football, and others, including horseback riding, water polo, the plastic pellet shooting-activity known as airsoft, fencing, sailing, rock climbing and pickleball. Bubble soccer, in which players wear large inflatable balls, is also on the list.
Virginia Beach’s city-wide athletics programs for ages 10 and older had 3,266 participants in 2015. Parks & Rec offers four sports leagues: basketball, tackle football, softball and volleyball.
The survey is expected to run until May 13.
