Ridge Youth Sports Kicks Off New Program, Continues Growing

Apparently, Basking Ridge has a lot of athletic kids.

That's what Bob Skea has discovered in the last four years as a board member of Ridge Youth Sports, Inc, since its founding by Steve Mueller, Lee Becker and Chuck Harcourt. The program was founded to provide more opportunities for sports that were underserved in Basking Ridge, particularly football and cheer. The programs have since grown to include over 750 families.

"It's a lot of kids," he said. Children as young as first grade can start in flag football, while tackle football, cheer, and lacrosse start in third grade. All the sports go through eighth grade. Registration is currently open for football and cheer. Participants can register online through mid-May at Ridgeyouthsports.com.

Lacrosse is just kicking off its first season, and already has 200 area kids involved. This is the first exposure for many kids to lacrosse, Skea said. "This allows them to get involved without feeling pressure to play at a high level."

Ridge Youth Sports acts as a feeder program for the high school programs, so they have worked to build relationships with the coaches at the schools to try to instill the same principles in the children that those coaches will in high school, Skea said.

"One of our mantras is everybody plays; there are no cuts," he said. "It's about the development and not as much about competitiveness, although we do have competitive teams."

The program is concerned with safety, providing EMTs at every game and providing football equipment that is inspected and upgraded every year.

Skea also emphasizes community involvement in his programs, working with the Boomer Esiason Foundation and participating in the township's municipal alliance program against substance abuse.

"We're starting up a program now to try to bring the township substance abuse messages to our kids," he said. "The thought there is that athletes are, number one, very impressionable and number two, can also be role models. If they're 'just saying no,' the thought is that a lot of other kids will 'just say no.'"

"We try to make sure we're promoting fun and safety … and then of course we'd like the kids to be competitive also, but that's only part of what we do," he said. "We want kids to grow from the involvement."

Editor's Note: Skea was incorrectly listed as a founder in a previous edition of this article.