Welcome from the Board...

SYAC is the Syosset Youth Athletic Council. SYAC Girls Softball is a community run organization that operates under the SYAC umbrella of youth sports groups.

The Board is a group of volunteers who manage the affairs of the league. It is a group that is in a more or less constant state of evolving, although some of its members serve rather lengthy terms in their jobs. Those who do this job and love it have made a positive contribution to the childhoods of thousands of girls in Syosset, Woodbury and even in surrounding communities such as Jericho, Muttontown, Cold Spring Harbor and Plainview.

The winter Registration & Evaluation nights, or "R&E" as we like to call it, is a rite-of-passage for kids and parents in our community, and has been for more than 30 years.

In 2003, after some years of going back and forth over the concept, we created this web site for the use of our players, their parents, the coaches, sponsors and Board of this organization. For years, we've had great success managing this group from 150 players to the present level, without the internet. But the past several years the league has been computerized and we believe we've made very good use of the tools we used, so we figured to finally give it a try.

In our first few weeks of operation, we found the hit rate--for a site that is not advertised or linked beyond the word-of-mouth of our own community--to be far beyond our expectations. It has simplified the job of getting information where it is most useful, extending ourselves in the area where we have had the most success. Picture Nights I and II resulted in all Team Pictures (except a few...and you know who you are!) being posted on the site the next day. This in itself was a revolution for us.

We hope you're finding syacgs.org a useful resource in your home. To help you make the most of your experience on our site, we offer the following guidelines for its use.

This site is designed like a solar system with "Home" at the center of the spokes. Click a softball above to go to a "planet" in orbit around the home page. From that page, or any other, click the "Home Plate" at the top to return here.

You'll notice nine clickable softballs to click in the bar at the top of our home page (we're not counting the bigger one in our logo). Each one takes you to its part of the SYAC Girls Softball web.

Each league or age group division has its own page, so if you or your child wishes to know what's happening with their league or their team, they should go to the appropriate pages. During the season, schedules, game write-ups, pictures and standings appear under each league's "Team Directory and Scoreboard" page.

Remember, K-1 is Instructional, 2-3 is Pony, 4-5 is Junior and 6-7-8 is Senior. We also run Travel teams for U10, U12 and U14 age groups. If you're interested in information about registration and evaluations, click here.

Our entire current Rule Book is now available online by clicking "The Rules" softball. SYAC FAQs will bring you to a page of Frequently Asked Questions about SYAC. Players, parents and especially those thinking about coaching should familiarize themselves with both of these sections.

Our "Sources and Links" page contains information about some of our resources, how to get to the various fields we use, local weather reports and a picture gallery. And speaking of pictures, we'd like to use some of yours if you have them. If you use a digital camera, we'll let you know how to get them to us. If you don't, we can scan them for you.

The Board is open to comments and suggestions about the way we conduct the business of running our programs. Our volunteers work very hard, and it's nice when that work is recognized, as you can see on our Testimonials page.

Finally, our last softball takes you to the SYAC Hall of Fame, a gallery of pictures and information from recent SYAC history. As we get more time (in the offseason perhaps?), we'll try to expand this area as much as possible.

Here and there on this site you'll see pictures, like the one below. Some of them are clickable, and if you click them, they will take you to another place on the site.

The mission of The Board of Syosset Youth Athletic Council Girls Softball Leagues is to provide a positive and meaningful learning experience for our children.

In addition to providing an outlet for physical activity, sports are used in the educational setting as a way of teaching children how to deal with pressure and adversity, as well as helping in their process of socialization.

If a child plays on a team that always loses its games, she quickly loses interest in the sport. If, on the extreme other hand, she plays on a team that always wins, she never learns how to cope with the experience of losing and the kids and parents on the other teams rightly come to feel that they have been unfairly and unevenly matched. Because there are no serious consequences to winning or losing a softball game, it's a good atmosphere to teach these coping skills without serious risk of emotional harm.

When children who have spent most of their elementary school years with the same group of friends reach Middle School and High School, there is often an unsettling feeling that comes from being thrust into a large group of people they don't know. Children who play sports usually adapt more easily to these situations simply because they have already met and interacted with so many kids from other elementary schools.

Over more than 40 years, SYAC Girls Softball has developed a system for creating a group of balanced teams for each league, without restricting any group to players from the same school. This process is often thwarted by some parents who use the cover of only wanting the best for their children to achieve the goal of either winning at all costs, or continuing to isolate their children from the process of making new friends by keeping them together with their old ones.

Despite our best efforts, every once in a while a team ends up getting "stacked" one way or the other. Stacked to win, that team may not always win, but it tips the balance of things dangerously and unfairly. Stacked to support a clique, the kids in that group may occasionally "admit new members" to their small circle of friends. Sometimes, however, and more important for your children now and in the long run, a great coach emerges from the group and transforms a bunch of average players into that thing we seek: a team. And when our objectives are properly fulfilled, each team should experience a fair share of both wins and losses.

To achieve these goals, the board of SYAC reserves the right to make all decisions regarding the sponsorship and coaching of its teams. Our aim is to select those sponsors and coaches who support and exemplify the following objectives, in order:

a. To teach our children the game of softball
b. To teach them what it means to be a "team player"
c. To teach them how to both win and lose gracefully
d. To provide a safe atmosphere in which the kids can have fun.

Softball is a team sport. If your child has the natural ability to pitch, she will most likely do so. If she's not a pitcher, there's no shame in playing any of the other positions on the field, especially if it helps the team. Even the pitcher is not the most important kid on the team. The team is the most important kid on the team. If the first three objectives above are met, the fourth will naturally follow.