The National Youth Sports Program’s lasting legacy at CWRU
For more than five decades, the Case Western Reserve University campus has hummed with the summertime energy and enthusiasm of more than 300 participants in the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP)—an annual five-week experience that helps shape young lives.
Attendees, ages 8–16, play basketball and soccer, take swimming and dance lessons, experience campus life and participate in educational and enrichment sessions to help build their confidence, sense of identity and life skills.
“Sports aren’t for everyone, but our program is,” said Dennis Harris, who directs the camp and has been involved in it since 1988.
NYSP began as a federally funded program and, at its peak, was offered at more than 200 sites across the country. But as financial support ended, so did all the camps—except the one at CWRU, which is committed to the program and, along with the City of Cleveland and others, continues to fund it.
The impact can be life-changing.
“I honestly owe my life to the National Youth Sports Program,” said Kevin Peeples, a ’91–’94 NYSP participant and U.S. Navy veteran who nearly drowned while stationed in Italy. “The dead man’s float I learned at NYSP helped me conserve my energy.”
Illustration by Rinee Shah