E. NARRATIVE

LIFE SKILLS

The Greater 69th Street Wildcats organization prides itself on providing a quality youth Athletic program. The program is designed to teach children how to compete in athletics at a young age and to take the life-skills learned from our program with them to High school. In the Wildcats organization, we are interested in building more than just athletic skills; we are also interested in improving the entire person.

Through practice and game situations, we are building character, developing leadership skills and encourage mental toughness. Practice sessions are held Monday through Friday at the 69th Street AA Field (across from the Rita’s Water ice stand / near the intersection of 69th Street and Ruskin Lane / down the street from the 69th Street Pathmark) from

6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. We also have a second facility provided by the Upper Darby School District and the Department of Leisure – located at the Beverly Hills Middle School, Garrett Road and Sherbrook Lane in Upper Darby. We also like to relate life-lessons with the principles of football and competitive cheerleading, such as teamwork, preparation, practice, being able to work with others and the ability to follow positive leadership among your peers.

Another principle we stress is hard work. Developing a sense of how to work, what work means and how having a great work ethic translates into success (on and off the field – regardless of what’s on the score board sometimes) – is what we want to instill in every child. Even more important is the principle of respecting, listening and applying the instruction given by sound, professional adult supervision. Finally, we promote and teach these children how to have a winning attitude in the midst of adversity (past or present).

WE TARGET THE ENTIRE FAMILY

We do not target children alone, but reach out to the entire family. In doing so, we incorporate the whole family in the development of the young people who are taking part in Wildcat activities. (For example, while the son(s) or daughter(s) are learning how to play football or be an outstanding cheerleader, mom and dad are being recruited to help out with the concessions, additional fund-raising activities, field management, coaching and/or FAN-FARE (where parents and/or guardians recruit family members and friends to come to the games and cheer for all the young people competing, while adhering to the FAN-FARE Code of Ethics). All of these contributions’ are vital to having a comprehensive approach to influencing the lives of these young people. As a result, we are able to recruit families from both Delaware and Philadelphia counties (Upper Darby, East Lansdowne, Yeadon, Cobbs Creek, West and Southwest Philadelphia). Some parents drive as far as the Mount Airy and Germantown areas of Philadelphia so their children can participate in our organization.

We will be developing a valuable partnership with non-profit organizations that provide family therapy and education – to help the adults become better parents, develop stronger bonds within the family infrastructure, increase mentorship opportunities within their family circles, manage economic situations better and more. Eventually we will create CAT1 and CAT2 so the Wildcats can be a one stop shop for resources that can strengthen the entire family structure. Our strategic plans for CAT1 & CAT2 is in progress and should be complete by December 12, 2006.

WHY ARE THE WILDCATS A GOOD FIT FOR SPONSORSHIP?

Through this expanded drawing area, the organization has experienced a growth spurt in enrollment over the last five years. We attract between 250 and 500 fans to each level of competition, Flag -80lb – 100lb – 120lb – and 145lb games. During the 2002 season we attracted 228 children to our program, a 17% increase from the year before. We retain 88.7% of the players and cheerleaders that participated in the year before. In 2003 we graduated 19 football players and 11 cheerleaders that participated in our program for 5 or more years. We registered 315 children in 2003 and finished off with 328 children in 2004. The growth (averaging between 15% to 35% a year) has been an unexpected privilege, and a welcomed opportunity to build partnerships with additional sponsors. In 2005 we registered a record setting 371 children. On average, we are estimating that we have 28 signage opportunities for sponsors at various practices and games. We influence approximately 328 different households that connect with 3,400 people in any given year.

This past season (2006) we broke all records by registering 394 children. 341 football players and 53 Cheerleaders. For the first time in our history we had the largest number of FOOTBALL players in the Bert Bell Memorial Football Conference.

This, along with the 501C3 status, the profile of professionals volunteering for the organization, the success ratio and philosophy of the “student/athlete” concept and the evolving strategic plan for the organization to become self-sufficient, provides for a unique opportunity for companies like NIKE, AND 1, Independent Blue Cross, Johnson and Johnson’s, WAWA, Pathmark Stores, Inc., Citizens Bank, Modell’s Sporting Goods, Pepsi and others – to establish a three to five year partnership with the Greater 69th Street Wildcats.

THE VISION FOR THE FUTURE

In order to accommodate all the families who are interested in involving their child in extra curricular activities, we needed to develop a strategy for freezing the cost of registration, while providing state of the art equipment for all levels of competition and adding an increased number of uniforms that will be needed. The current cost of registration is $100 per child ages 7 to 15 – and $75 per child ages 5 & 6. The Greater 69th Street Wildcats are interested in outfitting (9) nine football teams and five cheerleader squads for the 2006 football season and beyond. We were successful in 2004 -establishing 9 teams in the Bert Bell Memorial Football Conference (2Flag, 80lb varsity and JV, 100lb varsity and JV, 120lb varsity and JV and a 42 roster 145lb team). We were successful at attracting 53 cheerleaders in 2004 but fell short of our goal of attracting more young ladies at the ages of 13 to 15. We are hoping that our success of attracting so many teenage boys (unprecedented in little league, since so many at that age want to impress the girls and play for their schools) – that we will have as much success in 2006 attracting a team of at least 20 girls between the ages of 13 to 15. In 2004 we set registration record with 275 football players and 53 cheerleaders – and boasted.one of the largest organizations in the Bert Bell Memorial Football Conference.

Our 42 roster senior 145lb Football Team had a repeat appearance in the Bert Bell Championship at Villanova – in 2003 losing to Darby Township 14-6, but gaining victory over The Downingtown Young Whippets in a 22-16 – 2004 season thriller. This year (2006) our 120lb Varsity and 145lb Varsity Teams both made it to the semi Final Round of the playoffs and our Small Senior Elite Cheerleading Squad took second place overall in the 44^th Annual Bert Bell Memorial Cheerleading Competition.

We would like to continue traveling our teams to in state and out of state tournaments both in the fields of football and cheerleading. Our partnership program with top area high schools has been very successful for our 145lb football team. Here, we align ourselves with some of the top academic and athletic high schools, providing the parents/guardians with additional educational options for their teens as they make the transition from elementary school to the next level. Currently we are in partnership with Bonner Catholic, Upper Darby High School, St. Joseph’s Prep., Roman Catholic, West Catholic and Cardinal O’Hara high schools. The ultimate objective is to help the parents/guardians get through the next four years of their teens struggle, track them athletically and academically and help them get a four year college scholarship. This program is in conjunction with our CAT2 program that has a college prep for testing arm.

President/Coach Joe Grier was hired three years ago to be a part of the Roman Catholic Football Coaching staff and in 2005 Coach Chris Howard was made an offer from Gil Brooks and the St. Joe’s Prep Football Coaching staff. Having these two men coaching at the higher level confirms the type of organization and system the Wildcats have – acknowledging that Roman and St. Joe’s noticed what Grier and Howard were doing with the Wildcats and saw a need in their organizations for their talents and their kids abilities. It is the plan of the organization to place more Wildcats coaches in positions at the high school level. All players must complete their last year with the Wildcats and their current school – in good standing to be placed in the PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM.

The Wildcats have a full Coaches Development program of which they rely on partners such as Villanova University, Sports Made EZ, Air Algeo, Athletes Advantage and Riddell to provide Coaches clinics for them each year. Coaches are interviewed, certified via criminal background and child abuse checks, tested to assess their football IQ’s AND assisted with improvement metrics set up and created by 2006 Athletic Director Troy L. Corbin, Sr., and was continued by his successor Coach John Jaudon.

These items contribute to the self-confidence of the children as well as the organization that serves them. As an organization, we realize that 75% of the teenagers and children in some of our serving area do not go on to post-secondary education. It is our objective to make sure that the children that participate in our program understand that they must make the grade to be able to play and cheer for us. We want to provide the children with respectable role models, a system of discipline and functional sources of opportunity to do better in life. We are an extended family to their immediate parental situation and look to assist the parents/guardians by extending the same positive disciplines that the children receive in their own homes.

We plan to expand to Track and Field in 2007 and Basketball in 2011. All of our athletic programs will encompass the full focus of linking sports and education…….”The Wildcat Way”. It is an additional vision of the organization to find some real-estate and build our own Wildcats sports park, complete with a playground, track, stands, football field and all weather score board.