Scouting Now: Scouting-Sports teams

Many years ago when I was a Cub, we had a soccer team. So did every other Cub pack in the district (this was in the UK where any group of 6 or more youth automatically forms into a soccer team!) And, yes, we had a Cub soccer league. It was a real reason for the success of our pack, I'm not sure if this would work in a different time and geography though - not least it would double the burden on the Leadership.

We lose a lot of kids every spring when soccer starts up. Some come back, some don't.

Soccer seems to be the only youth activity that is actually growing in recent years.

BSA has addressed the problem by actually starting a Cub Soccer program. www.soccerandscouting.org

This spins off their Varsity Scouts program that they've had for many years. Not sure how successful it has been, but it's stood the test of time.

A couple of winters ago, I was in Tucson and met some folks leading their Scouting/Soccer program. There, the program is aimed at attracting kids to a short term program with little cost. Most of these kids can't afford regular soccer. They come from specific cultural communities that don't join many activities. They have a 45 minute Cub actvity followed by a soccer practice or game. The season is about 8 weeks and ends with a tournament and an outdoor Cub activity at the council's Cub camp which is right on the edge of the city.
A friend in Modesto, CA told a similar story. They are using the soccer program to introduce Scouting to cultural communities that haven't participated in Scouting but do play soccer. So far, they haven't attracted many kids to Cubs and Scouts but they are hoping.
Here in Alberta, we've been exploring a Cub-soccer relationship in Lethbridge but not with much luck so far. As someone said, soccer isn't short of players so they don't need us to bring them more. We're looking at it in one small town to see if it would work there.
Maybe the answer is not competing. Why not shut down for a few weeks while the kids play soccer and then start up again in July when the season is over? We are supposed to be year-round, not necessarily every week.
By the way, there is data showing that participation in organized sports has been declining lately. The real growth has been in individual sports.
One of our church sponsor leaders asked us how to get kids away from the computer. That's the real problem he sees, not sports.

how did that small town pilot work?

Computers and Video games now there is a real problem! While Social media can be a great boon to any Scouting Program the same can not be said of all the time kids spend on computers etc. playing games!

In our Troop and Company the general rule is: NO ELECTRONICS AT CAMP! Okay so if you are taravelling more than an hour they are allowed because no one wants to listen to "Are we there yet" every 5 seconds, but once we reach our destination all games, ipods etc remain locked up in the vehicles. It actually got so bad last year that the kids, despite the electronics ban, would be spending their time talking about video games! With one or two kids who were in no way interested it became uncomfortable for them so.....you guessed it no discussion either and you know what we suddenly had kids excelling at stuff thay seemingly had no interest in before.