Roger Kvam, the commissioner of Youth Baseball in Austin got involved in the summer youth baseball program like so many parents have because of his

children.

"My sons Riley and Benjamin were in the program and I have been volunteering since 1981. The ages for kids in this program are seven through 15. I and the other people involved get together in February each year and start to line up the sponsors to back the kids," said Kvam.

Duties as commissioner and the seven board members include seeing what shape the fields will be in for the upcoming season and arranging to have 50 volunteer coaches be in charge of all the different teams.

"The coaches are the core group of youth baseball in Austin. We have many returning coaches every year and we have women coaches too. This year is the first time we have a young man coaching that is home from college. Young college students have a hard time fitting volunteer work into their schedules," said Kvam.

The summer youth baseball program has been underway since June 10 and lasts until the first week of August. A baseball clinic was put on for children involved in the youth baseball program by the Austin Greyhounds earlier this year and it was extremely successful, said Kvam. Almost every neighborhood park as well as Todd Park is filled with members of the summer youth baseball program practicing or playing games several nights a week.

The teams usually play one another, but the 14- and 15-year-olds travel out of town for games.

"Every year people say baseball is not as popular as it used to be. I don't think this is true. Kids are always late in coming to sign up. When they

hear that their friends are playing ball then there is a rush of kids joining the youth baseball program," said Kvam.

The summer youth baseball program involves boys and girls on the same team when they are younger. Later, the boys and girls usually switch to same-sex teams.

"I coached baseball for 10 years. I don't coach anymore. I have been involved in lots of youth sports and also coached flag football. My favorite thing about this job is when kids return to say hi to me and recall how much fun it was playing sports. I also like it when they want to help me coach," said Kvam.

Baseball is a family game and Kvam sees children he has coached in the past now helping with coaching their children. Grandparents get involved coming to the games and the circle of baseball keeps going on. Kvam's advice to parents who have children in sports activities is to get out and play with your kids.

"Don’t leave it up to the coaches. Parents should be teaching their kids to catch and throw. Parents are children's first teachers," said Kvam.