PYC, the place to be!
“It’s a catchy phrase, and it really represents what’s happening at 4540 Hollister these days,” says Denise Sanford, a local mom, businesswoman and new board president for the Page Youth Center. “There is a strong need in the Santa Barbara and Goleta communities to have a safe, positive environment where children can come and enhance their skills or learn new ones. The Page Youth Center provides this opportunity to everyone in our community.”
Centrally located between Santa Barbara and Goleta, PYC management, coaches and mentors are watching parents arrive at the center this fall to sign their children up for youth sports. “Winter basketball league at the Page Youth Center has always been popular,” Sanford said, “and this year’s participation promises to be no different. Sixty to 80 teams is what we’ve come to expect.”
What’s the draw?
“Well, my son, Kevin, chose the Page Youth Center because he was looking for a higher level of coaching and skill development,” says Joanne Vasquez, whose son Kevin is 16 and now plays club basketball at PYC. “Kevin was participating at another youth organization but just wasn’t getting the same professional coaching as he found PYC. He started out playing winter league at PYC, where he learned about basketball fundamentals and being a productive team member. Kevin has since graduated to club basketball where the coaching is professional and the coaches are caring and wise. We couldn’t be happier.”
And just as the moms are feeling good about their sons playing at the Page Youth Center, the dads are there signing up their daughters as well.
Longtime PYC parent Steve Hyslop, whose daughters Nicole and Lindsey have been playing at PYC since age 6 in both the winter leagues and Blazers club basketball, offered his theory: “One of the best things about PYC is the feeling of family. While a lot of girls are not what would be described as ‘gym rats,’ and neither are mine, they have both always felt comfortable just dropping by PYC to shoot around, meet up with a coach for some help, meet friends to play or maybe just ‘hang.’ A lot of those friends are playing now with their local high school teams; I think their Page Center experience helped prepare them for that, both physically and mentally.”
PYC’s program director and former Gaucho girl Stephanie Shadwell sums it up this way: “Our goal at PYC is to have every girl and boy playing on a basketball league to first have a fun experience; second, learn positive life skills while having fun, and third, begin to learn the skills involved in playing the game well.”
While not all or even many kids at the Page Youth Center will go on to play at the level Shadwell did at UCSB, parents know that when they drop them off for play at PYC that they will be well coached, learn positive life skills and have a great time.
Click here or call 805.967.8778 for more information about the Page Youth Center.
Wana Dowell represents the Page Youth Center.