brooklyn park travel baseball

YouthSportsNYC Spring 2024 Season

Spring season.

Click here to access Spring Fever Tournament & Spring Season schedule @ LeagueLineUp.com/YouthSportsNYC .

NYC AED REQUIREMENT

Registration for Summer Baseball (4 through 16), & Girls Softball (15 through 18 years old) is NOW OPEN. For more information regarding our Spring 2024 registration, contact Becky @ (347) 940-0270.

Join our GIRLS SOTBALL this Summer 2024!

Brooklyn Giants - 6U Fall 2023 CHAMPIONS!

EEP Bandits Blue - 8U Hybrid Fall 2023 CHAMPIONS!

EEP Bandits - 8U Fall 2023 Champions!

Brooklyn Sluggers - 10U American 10U Fall 2023 Champions!

EEP Bandits Gray - 10U National Fall 2023 CHAMPIONS!

EEP Bandits White - 12U American Fall 2023 Champions!

New York Empire - 12U National Fall Season CHAMPIONS!

ElmJack - 14U American Fall Season CHAMPIONS!

EastCoast Bandits - 14 U National Fall Season CHAMPIONS!

Brooklyn Sluggers - 16U Fall Season CHAMPIONS!

YouthSportsNYC   is proud to bring playing opportunities for multiple sports to the youth in our community. In addition to the continuation of our travel baseball in NYC, we also have an in-house program, and based on growing demand, we are excited to offer Girls Softball, Flag Football, & Boxing seasons. Follow us on Instagram & Facebook @YouthSportsNYC and be sure to check this site often for league's updates and live registration links. For registration details for Baseball, Girls Softball, Flag Football & or Boxing contact us now via email at [email protected] .

Registration information and general inquiries Contact Us

Mission statement.

YouthSportsNYC - Our baseball league is geared towards inner city youth with a focus on diversity and inclusion. Our goal is to bring competitive baseball, along with additional athletic activity opportunities throughout the year, to youth in the metro area at an affordable price.  The percentage of youth who participate in competitive baseball is significantly lower than the suburbs.  Sports in suburban areas have strong organized leagues and financial support. Our mission is to offer the same opportunity for youth in the inner city to play competitive baseball amongst great players all over the country. Our players often come from underprivileged households that sometimes cannot afford the expenses associated with quality travel baseball. Sports have been proven to build social skills, keep youth away from drugs, violence, and other negative activities, increase concentration in school, and build confidence. Clinical studies also show that sports have been proven to help youth establish lifelong, healthy, physical activity patterns. Our league aims to create a positive and inspirational environment for our players both on and off the field.  We strive to level the playing field and give New York City youth access to the same opportunities as other kids in the country at an affordable price. To make our mission a reality, we will depend on sponsorships to provide inexpensive league membership to our teams/players. Our goal is to never turn a player down due to financial or economic hardships.

Support the league and its mission.

Sponsorships available, contact us.

YouthSportsNYC

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ELK RIVER TRAVEL BASEBALL

For any Travel Baseball comments or feedback (positive or negative) at any time throughout the year, please contact the Travel Director at [email protected] . All feedback is kept confidential.

Travel Field Schedule

*New for 2024*

The travel field schedule has been moved to Google Sheets. The scheduling sheet will be shared with all Travel Head Coaches, Head Coaches will be the only ones with access to this sheet. Click on the link below to access the schedule. 

Field Schedule Google Sheet

Travel coaches.

If you are interested in becoming a travel coach - please fill out the following coach application, and email it to the Travel Director, Jason Herzog: [email protected]

Travel coaches will be interviewed in February and March.   

Head coach decisions will be made the week before tryouts and/or after tryouts once the teams are decided.

Elk River Youth Baseball will select head coaches that are able to fully commit to their travel team from April - June.   Those with other commitments during these months will only be eligible to be an assistant coach when possible.

All Travel Coach applications must be submitted prior to FEBRUARY 1st.

TRAVEL COACH APPLICATION

Elk river travel age requirements, myas travel bat standards.

Click here to see the MYAS Travel Bat Standards

2024 Travel Tournaments -

Each level will be pre registered for 3 tournaments.   Once the season starts, the coach may elect to add a 4th tournament.   The below tournaments are the initial choices for each potential age group.  These dates and tournaments are subject to change.

9AA:   May 10-12 (Sartell),  June 7-9 (Big Lake), June 14-16 (Zimmerman)

9AAA:   May 10-12 (Sartell),  May 17-19 (Waite Park), June 14-16 (Brainerd)

10A:   May 3-5 (Sartell), May 31 - June 2 (East Bethel), June 14-16 (Delano)

10AAA:  May 3-5 (Elk River),   May 31-June 2 (Brainerd), June 21-23 (Becker)

11A:   May 17-19 (Delano),  June 14-16 (Zimmerman), June 28-30 (Spring Lake Park)

11AA:   May 3-5 (Elk River),   June 7-9 (Brainerd), June 21-23 (Sartell)

11AAA:   May 3-5 (Elk River),  May 17-19 (Brooklyn Park), June 7-9 (Brainerd), June 21-23 (MYAS - TBD)

12A:   May 3-5 (Ham Lake), June 7-9 (Minnetonka), June 14-16 (Zimmerman)

12AA:   May 3-5 (Elk River),   June 7-9 (Rochester), June 21-23 (Becker)

12AAA:   May 3-5 (Elk River),   June 21-23 (Rochester), June 28-30 (Spring Lake Park)

13AA:   May 10-12 (Buffalo), May 17-19 (Blaine), June 7-9 (Woodbury), June 20-22 (Omaha)

13AAA:  May 10-12 (Buffalo), June 7-9 (Mahtomedi), June 14-16 (Big Lake), June 20-22 (Omaha)

14AA: TBD

14AAA:  May 3-5 (Elk River),   May 17-19 (Forest Lake), June 21-23 (Rochester)

15AA:   June 21-23 (Spring Lake Park)

TRAVEL BASEBALL OVERVIEW

The Elk River Traveling Baseball program provides intensive skill development and a high level of competition. The program offers opportunities to develop confidence and teamwork while competing with teams representing other area communities. 

For the age groups of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 year olds, there will be at least one Elk River travel team.  Most age groups will have a second and possibly a third travel team, depending on the amount of kids registered and the ability of the kids registered.

The typical season runs from April through the middle of July.   Elk River Travel Baseball plays in the Gopher State League (MYAS) for its 9U – 15U age groups.  Information on rules, equipment requirements, league schedules, and standings can be found on the MYAS web site ( www.myas.org ).  Travel leagues typically consist of 16 regular season games played during the week with playoffs at the end of the year.  Travel teams will typically play in 3 to 4 weekend tournaments, with 1-2 practices per week.

Registration is open from mid January through mid March, with tryouts in mid to late March. 

Parents can expect to pay an additional amount in addition to the regular registration fees once your player is placed on a travel team. This amount, approximately $200.00, covers such items as Team fees, Tournament fees and Team expenses. 

Traveling players will also be required to purchase a travel uniform.   Jerseys are required and are approximately $50.   Pants are needed and cost around $25-50.    Hats are included with registration.

Tryouts are conducted in March.  A non-refundable tryout fee of $50 will be collected during registration.  This fee covers the cost of bringing in professional evaluators who are not associated with Elk River Baseball, up to 5 pre-tryout training sessions at the Elk River Training Facility, and rental of the Elk River Multipurpose Facility.

Team selection is on a competitive basis, as players are evaluated in comparison with others in their age group. Eligibility is based on the participant’s current school grade.  Tryout evaluations measure performance in hitting, infield, outfield, and pitching skills.  Please see our tryouts page for more detailed information regarding our tryout process.

Players not making a travel team will automatically be placed in our very competitive house league.

For more information on these leagues, please contact our travel director.

TRYOUT FEE - PRE TRYOUT SESSIONS

All travel players will be assed a tryout fee during registration.  This fee covers the following costs:

• Up to 5 hours of pre tryout sessions in our Youth Baseball Facility to prepare for tryouts
• Cost associated with renting the new Multi Purpose Facility for tryouts.
• Costs associated with securing Profession Evaluators for tryouts.
• Tryout equipment (Baseballs...etc)

ELK RIVER TRAVEL DEVELOPMENT STAGES

The developmental stage is ages 9-11.    This is where coaches are encouraged to have players play many positions.  It benefits the players to know how to play different positions and that knowledge is key to learning the game.  Coaches at this stage are discouraged from players playing specific positions since their skills and bodies develop at different rates.  The focus is on developing the players' skills over wins and losses and playing many positions accelerates that process.

The instructional stage is ages 12-13.   This is where coaches should begin narrowing the number of positions a player plays to 2-3.  At this stage, development and skills are becoming more evident and players' positions should be narrowed accordingly.  It is still strongly encouraged that players receive exposure to all positions in practices.  At this stage, the skills have been developed and now we are instructing them in how play the game and how to play more specific positions.  Emphasis is more towards instruction on how to play baseball than on wins and losses.   The competitive stage is ages 14-15.   This is where players have become players at 2 specific postions and baseball is being taught the way it will be played in high school and beyond.  This level assumes the players have received development and instruction and we now shift to a more competitive level of play where winning games takes on a greater importance than at the previous levels.  Here the players must learn to compete along with the development and instruction that they've received in previous seasons.

2nd - 4th Grade Travel Notes

Travel teams for kids in 2nd-4th grade will be as follows.

All 3rd & 4th graders are eligible to try out for Traveling Baseball.  We encourage all 3rd graders to consider trying out for travel baseball, as they will be placed in an entry level travel league.

2nd graders must request permission from the traveling director.

ALL traveling teams will compete in the MYAS leagues.

2nd - 4th grade teams are dependent entirely upon how many players are trying out, as well as ability.

Our goal is to have the following travel teams at this level:

• 9AAA  – This team will be made up of the top 3rd graders who are trying out.  2nd graders must finish in the top 5 to be "considered" for this team.
• 9AA  – This team will be made up the remaining 2nd and 3rd graders.
• 10AAA  – This team will be made up of the top 4th graders who are trying out
• 10A  – This team will be the remaining 4th graders.

Note that the above is our goal, but talent. age and number of kids trying out will factor into how these teams are ultimately formed.

Anyone not making one of these teams will be placed in our National or American League kid pitch House league.

15U Travel Notes

15U Travel Baseball and 9th Grade School baseball are INDEPENDENT of each other.

9th Grade School baseball is run through the High School, and runs from March - May.

15U Travel baseball is run through the Youth Baseball Association, and runs after the 9th grade season ends to July.

The High School program likes all 9th graders to play both school baseball and summer baseball.....

1.  You must sign your sign up for 9th grade school baseball and 15U baseball separately. 2.  15U tryouts will be held during our normal Travel Tryout weekend. 3.  You need to sign up on our website prior to travel tryouts.

If you have any further questions, please contact the travel director.

All Out! All Game! All Season!

• Brooklyn Bulldogs

Be A Part Of A Brooklyn Tradition. 

78 Youth Sports Brooklyn Bulldogs travel baseball program has been in existence for over 20 years.  The program offers baseball players 8U -14U an opportunity to train, practice, play competitive games and take their skills to the next level!    

The Brooklyn Bulldogs are a well-organized, high-level program for serious baseball players.  To date, we’ve helped produce: 200 high school players, 60 college players, 6 professionals, and one Major Leaguer. 

Goals for our Brooklyn Bulldogs are:

• Develop the whole athlete mentally and physically.
• Teach all aspects of the game: mental performance skills, mechanics and techniques, safe/effective conditioning, and in-game strategies.
• Provide professional coaches who have experience and a passion for teaching the game.
• Prepare players for high school and college baseball.

What to expect?

• Lots of great games!
• Practice locations are in local public school gyms (winter) and local fields (spring/summer).
• Saturday and Sunday games are definite.
• We request no Friday night games.
• Most tournaments are within a 1-3 hour drive.

• Tryout Registration (August-September)
• Tryouts (October-November)
• Player notification (November)
• Pre-Season Winter Workouts 2 or more x a week indoors (January – March)
• Tournaments 5-10 total plus potential local league play depending on age group (April – mid-July)
• Spring Practices 2x week indoor/outdoor (April – mid-July)
• Season ends (mid-July)
• Summer season (Mid-July – mid-August). Use contact form if interested.

Try Out To Be A Bulldog (8U – 14U)

• Orange = tournament play, up to 10 tournaments.
• Green = developmental team, more local play, with up to 5 tournaments.
• Brooklyn Bulldogs hosts annual, mandatory, free tryouts for all previous and potential players.
• All players must commit to practice, game, and tournament schedule to be eligible.
• We evaluate players based on skill and then choose competitive, balanced teams.
• Once chosen for a team, a player must register within the given timeframe to secure the spot.

8U and completely new to travel baseball.

• Ideally, all 7-8 year olds interested in becoming a Brooklyn Bulldog play in our Recreational Program (Pony Division) to learn the game and key ‘tools’ (skills).
• 8U tryouts are mid-June for a special summer season from end-June – end-August.

• Orange Team fees range from: $3,000 – $4,000 per season for the Spring season $800-$1200 per season for Summer season $800-$1200 per season for Fall season Includes: professional coaches, 2 practices per week, 3-10 total tournaments depending on age group, 1 uniform, 1 hat.
• Green Team fees range from: $2,700 – $3,500 per season for the Spring season $800-$1200 per season for Summer season $800-$1200 per season for Fall season Includes: administrative and tournament fees, 1 professional coach, 2 weekly practices, 3-5 tournaments, 1 uniform, 1 hat.

Have questions?   Drop us a line through our contact form and we’ll get right back! 

• Recreational Sports
• – Baseball
• – Basketball
• – Flag Football
• – Softball
• Summer Camps/Clinics
• Private Baseball Lessons
• Bulldog Rules & Expectations (PDF)

SFX Youth Sports

Serving brooklyn youth for over 100 years, welcome to sfx youth sports.

SFX Youth Sports is a volunteer-led organization in Brooklyn providing sports programs focusing on skills and teamwork. Our programs teach fundamental skills while promoting teamwork, good sportsmanship and respect for all. Our coaches and leadership follow a set of basic principles, and expect parents and guardians to reinforce these principles on the field.

We have been serving the Brooklyn community for over 100 years, expanding our programs every year.

Spring Baseball, Softball, and TBall Opening Day is April 6th 

We have selected spots available in TBall and Rookies Softball. The remaining divisions are on wait-list.  

QUESTIONS?  First, refer to our Parent Info Tab and FAQs on our website ( https://sfxyouthsports.com ).  Then contact the appropriate person below.

• T-ball (ages 4) – Mark Louka —>  [email protected]
• Peewee (ages 5 – 6) – Mark Louka –>  [email protected]
• Pony (ages 7-8) – Mike Bautz –>  [email protected]
• Cub (ages 9-10) – Carl Anderson ->  [email protected]
• Bantam (ages 11-12) /Super Bantam (age 13)/Grasshopper (ages 14-15)/Freshman (ages 16 – 18)-> Andy Godsberg ->  [email protected]
• Softball – Chris Hannan –>  [email protected]

SFX Youth Sports – 2024 Co-Ed Summer Baseball Clinic Camp Registration is Now Open!

SFX Youth Sports Co-Ed Summer Baseball Camp is held in Prospect Park from July 8th through August 23rd for children ages 8 – 14. Our clinic camp is run by our travel team Instructors, HS coaches and former college players. Your child will spend the day playing games in addition to focusing on drills to provide a well rounded experience. General skills include fielding, throwing, catching, hitting, pitching, base-running, and situational drills.

Questions? Doug Adams: SFX Camp Director can be reached at  [email protected]

Details are below:

• Co-Ed ages 8 – 14
• 9:00am to 3:00 pm at Prospect Park Field #4

Cost per week: $300. Sibling discount of 20% per additional child

Discount of 15% for registrations of 3 weeks or more.

Camp dates: SFX Camp is a weekly Camp

• Week 1: July8th
• Week 2: July 15th
• Week 3: July 22nd
• Week 4: July 29th
• Week 5: August 5th
• Week 6: August 12th
• Week 7: August 19th

Campers will receive an SFX Jersey and Cap. 

All campers should bring a water bottle, baseball glove, plastic molded cleats and baseball pants.

Registration is now open for Spring Basketball Skills Clinics

Our Spring Skills Clinics are available to players of all skill levels, and focus on teaching the fundamentals of the game and building conditioning to excel in basketball. These CO-ED clinics are a great introduction for children NEW to basketball, as well as others looking to build on their experience in our recently-completed winter recreational basketball league. 

Spring Skills Clinics are held at PS282 in Park Slope. Sessions begin the week of April 29 continuing for 5 weekly sessions, according to the following schedule:

Co-Ed Skills Clinics – Mondays

• Ages 6-8 – for beginners, Mondays, 6PM 
• Ages 9-11 – for beginners/intermediate, Mondays, 7PM
• Ages 10-14 – for all levels, Mondays 8PM

Mondays (5 weeks) – 4/29, 5/6, 5/13, 5/20, and 6/3; no 5/27 (Memorial Day school holiday)

Co-Ed Skills Clinics – Tuesdays

• Ages 6-8 – for beginners, Tuesdays, 6PM
• Ages 9-11 – for beginners/intermediate, Tuesdays, 7PM
• Ages 10-14 – for all levels, Tuesdays, 8PM

Tuesdays (5 weeks) – 4/30, 5/7, 5/14, 5/21, and 5/28

The registration fee is $175 for each 5-week session.

• Softball – contact [email protected]
• Tball and Peewee – contact [email protected]
• Pony division – contact Mike at [email protected]
• Cub, Bantam, Super Hopper – contact [email protected]
• Soccer – contact [email protected]
• Flag football – contact [email protected]

Meet Sean Edgar

Meet John Piccard

The Prospect Park Alliance gave a shout-out to SFX President John Piccard in its recent update. Visit the  Prospect Park Alliance website  to read about SFX’s growth the last few years, and find out what John thinks about when he’s not standing on the sidelines.

Get Involved

SFX is run entirely by volunteers—people like you who offer their time and passion giving back to the community. This approach has allowed us to offer affordable programs for all children for almost 50 years. Please consider signing up to volunteer as a coach, assistant coach or at the league level.

John Piccard

President SFX Youth Sports [email protected]

August Classic

Fall league.

• Request for Donation
• Charitable Gambling
• Sponsor Info
• Twins Tickets
• Cancelled Games
• All Tournaments
• Past Champions
• Qualifier Calendar
• Top 4 Results
• MBL Standings
• State Tournaments
• At-large Registration
• Who's Playing / Seeds
• Pools & Brackets
• August Classic Info
• Scores & Results
• Information
• Associations
• Notifications
• Umpire Organizations

Brooklyn Park Baseball Association

Fields fields, local tournaments.

• Travel Directors
• Brian Oxborough
• Robert Hoff
• Other Roles
• Robert Hoff (Tournament Director)
• Brian Oxborough (Tournament Director)
• Brian Oxborough (President)

RELEASE OF LIABILITY FOR MINOR PARTICIPANTS

• FOR MYSELF, SPOUSE, AND CHILD, I KNOWINGLY AND FREELY ASSUME ALL SUCH RISKS, both known and unknown, EVEN IF ARISING FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OF THE RELEASES or others, and assume full responsibility for my child’s participation; and,
• I willingly agree to comply with the program’s stated and customary terms and conditions for participation. If I observe any unusual significant concern in my child’s readiness for participation and/or in the program itself, I will remove my child from the participation and bring such attention of the nearest official immediately; and,
• I myself, my spouse, my child, and on behalf of my/our heirs, assigns, personal representatives and next of kin, HEREBY RELEASE AND HOLD HARMLESS (Metro Baseball League & Minnesota Baseball Tournaments); its directors, officers, officials, agents, employees, volunteers, other participants, sponsoring agencies, sponsors, advertisers, and if applicable, owners and lessors of premises used to conduct the event (“Releasees”), WITH RESPECT TO ANY AND ALL INJURY, ILLNESS, DISABILITY, DEATH, or loss or damage to person or property incident to my child’s involvement or participation in these programs, WHETHER ARISING FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OF THE RELEASEES OR OTHERWISE, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
• I, for myself, my spouse, my child, and on behalf of my/our heirs, assigns, personal representatives and next of kin, HEREBY INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS all the above Releasees from any and all liabilities incident to my involvement or participation in these programs, EVEN IF ARISING FROM THEIR NEGLIGENCE, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
• I, the parent/guardian, assert that I have explained to my child/ward: the risks of the activity, his/her responsibilities for adhering to the rules and regulations, and that my child/ward understands this agreement.
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Home > Youth and Teens > Youth Sports

Youth Sports

Get a great introduction into sports with our instructional sports classes.

Sign up for youth sports

About our youth sports programs

We offer traditional and alternative sports to interest a wide variety of athletes.

Youth Sports offered throughout the year

Offerings change with the seasons.

• Ice skating
• Safety awareness and self defense (karate)
• Summer sports camps

Lil’ Tykes Sports

This is a parent/child class. Parents must participate.

This class is designed with the youngest children in mind. Your child will get to experience a variety of fun physical activities that will help introduce them to basic movements and sports skills. Each week we will focus on a different activity that combines positive social interaction and listening skills to introduce children to an active, healthy lifestyle.

Summer classes

Summer classes is a sports sampler that may include: soccer, T-ball, tennis, Frisbee, kickball and more.

Fall and winter classes

Fall and winter classes is a sports sampler that may include: yoga, soccer, basketball, football, hockey, T-ball and more.

2 to 3, children must be 2 by the first day of class.

Class duration

Tiny tots and peewee sports, tiny tots sports.

Tiny Tot Sports provides boys and girls with a fun, positive introduction to basic sport in a social setting. The goal of each program is to introduce skills and movement in a fun, basic and progressive manner for an active healthy lifestyle while helping to further advance social development skills such as listening, taking turns and teamwork. During each class, children will participate in a warm up, sports skills, preschool games like Red Light, Green Light , and end the class with the ever popular parachute.

Combo classes include: soccer and T-ball

Sampler includes: soccer, T-ball, kickball, disc golf and tennis

Fall classes

Fall session classes include a sampler: basketball, soccer, T-ball, floor hockey, yoga, tennis, disc golf and parent/variety day–you never know what you’ll get!

Winter classes

Winter session classes include a sampler: basketball, soccer, T-ball, floor hockey, yoga, tennis, disc golf and parent/variety day–you never know what you’ll get!

3 to 4, children must be 3 by the first day of class

Tiny Tots Sports Plus

This class is for preschoolers who want a little more from their sports class. The goal of this class is to not only introduce basic sport and movement skills, but to give children extra opportunities for retention and development of these skills.

There is a total of 8 classes and children will be given double the opportunity to learn and practice their skills including actual game play. Each class will offer positive social interaction with other children their age and help to further advance social development skills such as listening, taking turns, cooperation and teamwork.

During each class, children will participate in a warm up, sports skills, preschool games like Red Light, Green Light, and end the class with the ever popular parachute.

All Tiny Tots receive a t-shirt and a keepsake, “I love sports” certificate.

Peewee sports

Peewee sports is designed especially for the young child as a positive and fun introductory experience to sports. Boys and girls learn basic skills and rules with low-key games that allow them to have fun, be active, socialize and learn sportsmanship. We have modified equipment and playing surfaces and specially designed instruction methods to allow children to have immediate success and learn skills quickly.

Choose from sport-specific classes or a sports sampler. Everyone gets a t-shirt.

Sampler classes

The sampler class may include soccer, kickball, t-ball, active play games and more.

Spring classes

Spring classes offer a great way for boys and girls to get ready for our summer sports classes. Classes always meet indoors in the school gym. Sports include t-ball, basketball and soccer.

Games will be scheduled the last two weeks of the session and may differ from regular practice day, time and location. Sports include t-ball, soccer and sampler.

Sports include basketball and soccer.

Sports include basketball and sampler.

4 to 5, children must be 4 by the last day of class

Peewee tennis

Peewee tennis is the latest in comprehensive tennis programs, designed to introduce young players to the game in a fun and rewarding way. Equipment and court size is been modified to allow children to learn the sport quickly and develop skills.

For ages 4 to 5.

Peewee gymnastics

For both boys and girls. Beginning-level students will be introduced to the basic fundamentals of gymnastics. This includes the beam, floor, mini tramp, and more! This class will focus on fun and allow new students the opportunity to explore their skills with expert staff.

Instructors

Our expert instructors are trained by John Tobler, a 3-time National Gymnastics Champion and 3-time All-American Gymnast.

Sports Camps

World cup soccer camp.

Start your child’s soccer World Cup career right by introducing the building blocks of soccer such as dribbling, passing, trapping and shooting in an engaging way. This camp also prepares for league play such as BPAA and Force Traveling Soccer. The coaches have years of experience teaching soccer at an instructional level; they focus on having fun as a key part of learning. Camp is designed to minimize wait time between turns; staff uses skill stations as much as possible which results in more action, more fun and more learning! We want your child to leave the field each day having had a blast and, at the end of camp experience, express a desire to play soccer again.

Camp includes 6 hours of class instruction/scrimmage and a camp t-shirt!

Rookie Roundballers Basketball Camp

This fun basketball camp for boys and girls has been developed with the beginner to intermediate basketball player in mind! This program will introduce the fundamentals of the sport of basketball with a focus on passing, shooting, dribbling and the positions of the game. Our experienced basketball coaches will lead the campers through a progression of innovative drills, fun modified games that are age/skill-appropriate. We want your child to leave the court each day having had a blast. And at the end of camp experience express a desire to play basketball again.

Camp includes 7 hours of class instruction/scrimmage and a camp t-shirt!

Minor League Baseball Training Camp

Minor League Baseball Training Camp is designed to introduce boys and girls the sport of baseball before your child is prepared for league play programs such as BPAA and CDAA.

Our mission is to start your child’s baseball career right by introducing the building blocks of baseball such as throwing; fielding, hitting, catching and base running in an engaging way. Our classes will build confidence in their skills, reinforce how team play is important, teach cooperation with teammates and help begin to foster a real love for this great game! Our philosophy is to have fun each practice, build confidence in your child’s skill level, and begin to learn the game of baseball, in that order.

Why is this program right for your child’s introduction to baseball before they play in a league?

Our baseball coaches are “the cream of the crop” of our summer sports staff with years of experience teaching baseball at an instructional level; they are fun, high energy and the pace of our camp is designed to minimize wait time between turns. We use skill stations as much as possible which results in more action, more fun and more learning! We want your child to leave the field each day having had a blast—and at the end of the camp experience, express a desire to play baseball again.

Camp includes 6 hours of class instruction/scrimmage and a camp T-shirt!

Other Sports

Participants will learn the basics of Cricket batting, bowling (pitching), and catching in a safe and friendly environment.

Class Duration

From beginner to intermediate, coaches work with students to assist in improving skills and working with others to ensure that students not only become better gymnasts but, along the way, increase their self-esteem and self-confidence. Students are assigned to groups and stations that reflect their ages and abilities.

Our expert instructors are trained by John Tobler, a 3-time National Gymnastics Champion and 3-time All-American Gymnast. Every level of gymnast is sure to benefit from our knowledgeable staff.

Your child will have fun working on the fundamentals of basketball as well as playing in game situations.

All-Star tennis

All-Star tennis teaches basic skills, strategies and court etiquette. Equipment and court size is been modified to allow children to learn the sport quickly and develop skills.

For ages 6 to 8.

Indoor soccer

This soccer class gives kids a great chance to learn soccer skills and play low-key games.

For ages 6 to 9.

Learn the basics of shooting safely and accurately. Use a compound bow to shoot at stationary targets and from an elevated platform. All equipment is provided.

For ages 9 to 16.

Coon Rapids Dam, 10360 West River Rd.

Skilled instructors from Three Rivers Park District.

Cheer America

Students will learn popular cheer, chants, choreographed dance and pom-pom routines, parade marching, techniques and other performance skills. At the conclusion of each session, students perform a group recital for family and friends. All students receive certificates and medals for participation in the program.

Age divisions

Open house and registration night.

Wednesday, June 6, 6 to 8 p.m. Zanewood Recreation Center 7100 Zane Ave. N.

More information

Visit Cheer America

American Kenpo Karate

American Kenpo Karate is designed to enhance self-esteem, self-discipline and safety awareness for all ages, from 5 through adult. Students are placed into classes according to age ability and can progress to yellow belt or higher. Self-discipline and self-defense, rather than aggressiveness are promoted.

Type and ages divisions

• New, 5 to 7 years
• New, 8 to 12 years
• 13 years to adult

Students should wear shorts or sweat pants and a t-shirt. Uniforms with a belt are optional. They are available for purchase at the first class and throughout the course for $30.

A black belt instructor teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced techniques.

Call Norm Rolando, 763-427-0208

More classes

More class, clinic and programs may be available through an athletic association.

See information on youth athletic associations

Welcome to Park Center Competitive Basketball!

Our goals are to serve the children of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center with the following underlying values:

Develop each player’s talents by stressing fundamental basketball skills to play at a higher level.

Provide an environment that encourages and rewards discipline, responsibility, and individual effort targeted to achieve team goals. 

Promote behavior in all participants that encourages good sportsmanship, good citizenship, team, and community spirit, and respect for all. 

Use basketball as a means of encouraging academic achievement and community involvement

For information about what we have to offer, check out the About Us tab of our website!

Registration Is Now CLOSED!

Stay tuned for 2024-25 season registration payment plan options starting in June 2024. 

Link to Fees

Registration and Fees (bphoops.org)

CLICK Here To VOLUNTEER

Pirate Families! As we near the Boys Tournament Weekend, please use the link to sign up for Volunteer Hours. As we finalize the brackets and game schedules we will release those throughout the week. If you need to change your time, please provide 48 hour notice We ask that volunteers are 16+ and/or able to fulfil duties with minimal/no supervision. The following positions are needed: Court monitor: Remind scorekeepers to fill out important details to begin games, collect score sheets at the end of games, collect lost and found items and sweep floors in between games. Concessions: stocking, taking orders, collecting payment etc Greeter: Greets incoming event attendees, answers questions when possible, will update paper brackets

Congratulations to the following teams that took home a State Championship Title

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Arrests at UCLA, Columbia as campus demonstrations intensify

Man charged with sexually assaulting stranger on brooklyn park trail after stepfather gives tip to police.

A tip from a relative led to a man being charged Tuesday with accosting a woman on a Brooklyn Park walking trail and sexually assaulting her at gunpoint.

Cade Alfred Talawalay, 21, of Brooklyn Center, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and first-degree robbery in connection with the random attack on April 24.

Talawalay remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of court hearing Wednesday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

According to the criminal complaint:

The woman met with police at her home and told them she went for a walk to cool off after arguing with her spouse. While on the trail, a man approached and led her to a bench, then pointed a gun at her face and stole her cellphone.

Talawalay took her to a bush nearby, threatened to kill her and forced her to perform oral sex.

After being let go, the woman went home and disclosed the assault to her spouse, who called 911.

The woman "was very distraught upon arrival of the officers," the charges read. The woman went to HCMC and underwent a sexual assault examination.

Police obtained video surveillance from the area and released a still photo from the footage.

On Saturday, a man called police and said the suspect in the photo was his stepson.

The stepfather brought Talawalay to police. Officers saw that he matched the man in the surveillance video, even though his face appeared to be freshly shaven.

Police searched Talawalay's bedroom and found the woman's cellphone.

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Paul Auster, the Patron Saint of Literary Brooklyn, Dies at 77

With critically lauded works like “The New York Trilogy,” the charismatic author drew inspiration from his adopted borough and won worldwide acclaim.

Paul Auster in 2009. The Times Literary Supplement of Britain called him “one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.” Credit... Todd Heisler/The New York Times

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By Alex Williams

• Published April 30, 2024 Updated May 1, 2024, 1:33 p.m. ET

Paul Auster, the prolific novelist, memoirist and screenwriter who rose to fame in the 1980s with his postmodern reanimation of the noir novel and who endured to become one of the signature New York writers of his generation, died on Tuesday evening at his home in Brooklyn. He was 77.

His death, from complications of lung cancer, was confirmed by his wife, the writer Siri Hustvedt.

With his hooded eyes, soulful air and leading-man looks, Mr. Auster was often described as a “literary superstar” in news accounts. The Times Literary Supplement of Britain once called him “one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.”

Though a New Jersey native, he became indelibly linked with the rhythms of his adopted city, which was a character of sorts in much of his work — particularly Brooklyn, where he settled in 1980 amid the oak-lined streets of brownstones in the Park Slope neighborhood.

As his reputation grew, Mr. Auster came to be seen as a guardian of Brooklyn’s rich literary past, as well as an inspiration to a new generation of novelists who flocked to the borough in the 1990s and later.

“Paul Auster was the Brooklyn novelist back in the ’80s and ’90s, when I was growing up there, at a time when very few famous writers lived in the borough,” the author and poet Meghan O’Rourke , who was raised in nearby Prospect Heights, wrote in an email. “His books were on all my parents’ friends’ shelves. As teenagers, my friends and I read Auster’s work avidly for both its strangeness — that touch of European surrealism — and its closeness.

“Long before ‘Brooklyn’ became a place where every novelist seemed to live, from Colson Whitehead to Jhumpa Lahiri,” she added, “Auster made being a writer seem like something real, something a person actually did.”

His reputation was anything but local , however. He took home several literary prizes in France alone. Like Woody Allen and Mickey Rourke , Mr. Auster, who had lived in Paris as a young man, became one of those rare American imports to be embraced by the French as a native son.

“The first thing you hear as you approach an Auster reading, anywhere in the world, is French ,” New York magazine observed in 2007. “Merely a best-selling author in these parts, Auster is a rock star in Paris.”

In Britain, his 2017 novel, “4321,” which examined four parallel versions of the early life of its protagonist — as Mr. Auster was, a Jewish boy born in Newark in 1947 — was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize .

His career began to take flight in 1982, with his memoir “The Invention of Solitude,” a haunting rumination on his distant relationship with his recently deceased father. His first novel, “City of Glass,” was rejected by 17 publishers before it was published by a small press in California in 1985.

The book became the first installment in his most celebrated work, “The New York Trilogy,” three novels later packaged in a single volume. It was listed as one of the 25 most significant New York City novels of the last 100 years in a roundup in T, the style magazine published by The New York Times.

“City of Glass” is the story of a mystery writer who is reeling from personal loss — an ever-present theme in Mr. Auster’s work — and who, through a wrong number, is mistaken for a private detective named, yes, Paul Auster. The writer begins to take on the detective’s identity, losing himself in a real-life sleuthing job of his own while descending into madness.

In some ways the book was a classic shamus tale. But Mr. Auster chafed at being limited by genre. “You could also say ‘Crime and Punishment’ is a detective story, I suppose,” he said in his 2017 book, “A Life in Words,” a self-analysis of his own work.

With its fractured narrative, unreliable narrator and deconstruction of identity, his approach at times seemed ready for analysis in college courses on literary theory.

‘Beautiful, True and Good’

“Auster played brilliantly throughout his career in the game of literary postmodernism, but with a simplicity of language that could have come out of a detective novel,” Will Blythe, the author and former literary editor of Esquire, said in an email. “He seemed to view life itself as fiction, in which one’s self evolves exactly the way a writer creates a character.”

As Mr. Auster put it in “A Life in Words,” “most writers are perfectly satisfied with traditional literary models and happy to produce works they feel are beautiful and true and good.”

He added: “I’ve always wanted to write what to me is beautiful, true, and good, but I’m also interested in inventing new ways to tell stories. I wanted to turn everything inside out.”

While to some critics such experimentalism brought to mind the deconstruction approach of Jacques Derrida , Mr. Auster often described himself as a throwback who preferred Emily Brontë over the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, as he said in a 2009 interview with the British newspaper The Independent.

He eschewed computers, often writing by fountain pen in his beloved notebooks.

“Keyboards have always intimidated me ,” he told The Paris Review in 2003.

“A pen is a much more primitive instrument,” he said. “You feel that the words are coming out of your body, and then you dig the words into the page. Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.”

He would then turn to his vintage Olympia typewriter to type his handwritten manuscripts. He immortalized the trusty machine in his 2002 book “The Story of My Typewriter,” with illustrations by the painter Sam Messer .

Such antiquarian methods did nothing to slow Mr. Auster’s breathless output. Writing six hours a day, often seven days a week, he pumped out a new book nearly annually for years. He ultimately published 34 books, accounting for shorter works that were later incorporated into larger books, including 18 novels and several acclaimed memoirs and assorted autobiographical works, along with plays, screenplays and collections of stories, essays and poems.

His novels include critically acclaimed works like “Moon Palace” (1989), about the odyssey of an orphan college student who receives a bequest of thousands of books; “Leviathan” (1992), about a writer investigating the death of a friend who blew himself up while building a bomb; and “The Book of Illusions” (2002), about a biographer exploring the mysterious disappearance of his subject, a silent-screen star.

Among his memoirs are “Hand to Mouth” (1997), about his early struggles as a writer, and “Winter Journal” (2012), which, while written in the second person, was an examination of the frailties of his aging body.

By the 1990s, Mr. Auster had set his sights on Hollywood. He wrote several screenplays, some of which he directed.

“Smoke” (1995), directed by Wayne Wang from a screenplay by Mr. Auster, was based on a Christmas story by the author published in The Times. It drew deeply from his life in Park Slope, where he shared a brick townhouse with Ms. Hustvedt .

The film, heavy with philosophical musings, stars Harvey Keitel as Auggie, the proprietor of a Park Slope tobacco shop that is a locus for a colorful assortment of neighborhood dreamers and eccentrics. One is Paul Benjamin (Mr. Auster’s early pen name; Benjamin was his middle name), a cerebral, cigarette-puffing writer ( William Hurt ) whose life is saved when a young man (Harold Perrineau) pulls him from the path of a truck.

The same year, Mr. Auster, with Mr. Wang, directed a loose-limbed comedic follow-up, “ Blue in the Face,” sprinkled with cameos by a host of stars, including Lou Reed musing on cigarettes, Long Island and the Brooklyn Dodgers and Madonna delivering a saucy singing telegram.

Mr. Auster would go on to write and direct “Lulu on the Bridge” (1998), about a jazz saxophonist (Mr. Keitel) whose life takes a turn when he’s hit by a stray bullet at a New York club; and “The Inner Life of Martin Frost” (2007), about an author (David Thewlis) who retreats to a friend’s country house for solitude, only to become entranced by a young woman there (Irène Jacob).

In some ways, his detour into film was the culmination of a dream he had as a youth. In his early 20s, Mr. Auster had considered going to film school in Paris, as he told the director Wim Wenders in 2017 in Interview magazine.

“The reason I didn’t pursue it was, fundamentally, that I was so grotesquely shy at that point in my life,” he said. “I had such difficulty speaking in front of a group of more than two or three people that I thought, “How can I direct a film if I can’t talk in front of others?”

Son of a Landlord

Paul Benjamin Auster was born on Feb. 3, 1947, in Newark, the elder of two children of Samuel and Queenie (Bogat) Auster. His father was a landlord who owned buildings in Jersey City with his brothers.

Paul grew up in South Orange, N.J., and later nearby Maplewood, but his home was not a happy one, he wrote. His parents’ marriage was strained, and his relationship with his father remote. “It was not that I felt he disliked me,” Mr. Auster wrote in “The Invention of Solitude.” “It was just that he seemed distracted, unable to look in my direction.”

He took refuge in baseball, a lifelong passion, as well as books. “When I was 9 or 10 ,” he told The Times in 2017, “my grandmother gave me a six-volume collection of books by Robert Louis Stevenson, which inspired me to start writing stories that began with scintillating sentences like this one: ‘In the year of our Lord 1751, I found myself staggering around blindly in a raging snowstorm, trying to make my way back to my ancestral home.’”

After graduating from Columbia High School in Maplewood, he enrolled in Columbia University , where he participated in the student uprising of 1968 and met his first wife, the writer Lydia Davis, who was a student at Barnard.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature 1969, followed by a master’s in the same subject, he did a stint working on an oil tanker before moving to Paris. There he scraped together rent money by translating French literature while starting to publish his own work in literary journals.

He published his first book, a collection of translations called “A Little Anthology of Surrealist Poems,” in 1972. In 1974, he returned to New York City and married Ms. Davis. He was soon trying such ventures as marketing a baseball card game he invented before his writing career began to blossom in the 1980s.

Along with success over the years came critical barbs. James Wood of The New Yorker used a 2009 review of Mr. Auster’s book “Invisible” to parody the tough-guy talk, violent accidents and “B-movie atmosphere” that Mr. Wood perceived in Auster novels. “Although there are things to admire in Auster’s fiction,” Mr. Wood concluded, “the prose is never one of them.”

In 2017, Vulture published a tart appraisal of his work with the headline “What happened to Paul Auster? A decade ago he was a Nobel candidate.” Dismissing his novel as fodder for college-age neophytes, Christian Lorentzen, the article’s author, described Mr. Auster’s work as a “ gateway drug to stronger stuff — Beckett, DeLillo, Auster’s own ex-wife Lydia Davis.”

By that point, Mr. Auster had largely stopped reading reviews, arguing that even the positive reviews often miss the point. “No good can come of it,” he said in the interview in The Independent. “I spare my fragile soul.”

For a writer whose work was filled with themes of pain and loss, far greater pain would come his way.

In the spring of 2022, his son Daniel Auster, 44, died following a drug overdose 11 days after being charged in the death of his 10-month-old daughter, Ruby. In a deposition, Daniel said he had shot heroin before taking a nap with his daughter and, upon waking up, found her dead from what was determined to be acute intoxication of heroin and fentanyl.

His father issued no comment on the death.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Auster is survived by his daughter, Sophie Auster; his sister, Janet Auster, and a grandson, Miles.

Mr. Auster remained prolific, publishing several books in recent years, including “Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane” (2021) and “Bloodbath Nation” (2023), a chilling meditation on American gun violence. His final novel, “Baumgartner,” came out last year.

As the novelist Fiona Maazel noted in The New York Times Book Review, “Baumgartner” is replete with many classic Auster touches that bring to mind his earlier works: The earnest, bookish male protagonist, the narrative instabilities. But it is also a novel that reflects the inner struggles of an author in his later years dealing with age and grief.

“At its heart, ‘Baumgartner’ is about warring states of mind,” Ms. Maazel wrote. “Our hero is a philosophy professor (for clarity I’ll call him Sy, as his friends do) who lost his wife nearly 10 years ago in a freak accident and has been caught between hanging on and letting go — or even pushing away — ever since.”

Despite his long and productive career, Mr. Auster at times expressed irritation that much of his career had been assessed in relation to “The New York Trilogy,” his breakout work.

“There’s a tendency among journalists to regard the work that puts you in the public eye for the first time as your best work,” he said in “A Life in Words.” “Take Lou Reed. He can’t stand ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’ This song is so famous, it followed him around all his life.”

“Even so,” he added, “I don’t think in terms of ‘best’ or ‘worst.’ Making art isn’t like competing in the Olympics, after all.”

Orlando Mayorquín contributed reporting.

Alex Williams is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Alex Williams

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Brooklyn Park Invitational

Welcome to the 2024 brooklyn park invitational website.

May 17 - May 19

MYAS/GSTC State Tournament Qualifier for 9AA, 9AAA, 10AA, 10AAA, 11AA, 11AAA, 12AA, 12AAA, 13AA, 13AAA, 14AA, 14AAA

MBT State Tournament Qualifier for 10AAA, 11AAA, 12AAA, 13AA, 13AAA, 14AA

MSF State Tournament Qualifier for 10AA, 10AAA, 11AA, 11AAA, 12AA, 12AAA, 13AA, 13AAA, 14AA, 14AAA

USSSA and USA Bats are allowed

Tournament Director Contact: 

Brian Oxborough

Email: [email protected]

BP Invite Team Registration is OPEN!

Tournament trophies.

We are proud to offer Tournament Rings to our 1st and 2nd place teams!  

ALL REGISTERED TEAMS:

• Contact Information Changes: If your contact information changes from your registration information, please email updated information (name, email, phone) ASAP to the Tournament Director. 
• Check-in: 30-60 minutes prior to your first game: Check-in will be located online only this year.
• Team roster entered into Tourney Machine .
• Birth certificates will only be requested if any questions arise, but we do not require birth certificates at check-in.  Please have a digital copy of birth certificates in case of these situations.  
• Concussion and Abuse Awareness Certificates for all coaches or non-coaches that will be in the team dugout.  Without a current Concussion Certificate, a coach will not be able to coach their team during this tournament.
• Player Eligibility:  Players must participate on the team nearest to where they reside or nearest to where they attend school. Exception: Any player who has obtained a waiver through the Minnesota Baseball Tournaments (MBT), Metro Baseball League (MBL) or any league to which they belong for league play will be allowed to participate with their current team no matter where they reside or attend school.
• Teams:  Intact teams only.
• No All-Star Teams Allowed : In order to participate in this event, your team must compete with the roster submitted for league play.
• No Renegade Teams Allowed:  A renegade team is defined as any team that is comprised of players who all reside in the same community or attend the same school, but who have chosen to bypass the local traveling association to form a team. It is also defined as any team that is comprised of players from multiple communities where recognized youth associations exist. 

FULL CONCESSIONS  will be available at Northwoods, Zane, and Noble.  (No Outside Food, Beverages, or Coolers Allowed at these three locations).  Limited Concessions at Northport.  

• ​Northwoods Concession Stand (FULL concession) includes:   Donuts, Muffins, Fruit, Burgers, Hot Dogs, French Fries, Pop, Gatorade, Water, Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Juices, Candy, Chips, and Cheese Curds. 
• Zane Concession Trailer includes:   Coffee, Donuts, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Soda, Gatorade, Water, Juices, Candy, and Chips.
• Noble Concession Stand includes: Coffee, Doughnuts, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Soda, Gatorade, Water, Juices, Candy, and Chips.

Please Note: Each Team Provides 1 Ball Per Game (minimum 3 balls per tournament)

• Tournament Forms/Rules
• Park/Field Addresses
• Hotel Information

BALLS IN! COMIN' DOWN!

Who's playing in the 2024 bp invite.