GENERAL FAQs
 

ARE YOUR LEAGUES, TOURNAMENTS AND SPORT PROGRAMS SAFE, FAIR & RESPECTFUL?
Premier Sports Leagues goes to great lengths to ensure the players, coaches, officials and our volunteers are safe, treated fairly and respected and that decisions are made in a fair and fact based manner.

To ensure understanding and consistency within our Clubs, we have established guidelines, Safe Sport Policy, standards and codes of behaviour that must be followed by all involved. 

• Play sport policy & guidelines, safe sport checklist
• Youth protection policy, harassment, discrimination & bullying policy
• Working with children guidelines, supervision policy
• Risk management policy, first aid policy
• Coach screening guidelines and coach background checks
• Venue selection standards
• Diversity and inclusion policy
• Coach/ official/volunteer code of conduct contracts
• Team formation guidelines
• and even a FUN policy (just to remind everyone why we do what we do)

Additionally, we continually train our Club operators, coaches and officials so they remain current and up to date on new guidelines, policies and standards.

Premier Sports Leagues strives to stay ahead of the curve to provide a place for all participants to be safe, be treated fairly and respectfully.

WHAT DO YOU REQUIRE FROM PLAYERS, COACHES, OFFICIALS, VOLUNTEERS, PARENTS & SPECTATORS?
In order for our leagues, tournaments and sports programs to operate successfully it takes many people with each having to do their part and be responsible to each other during our events.

With that, Premier Sports Leagues has created a number of Codes of Behaviours to serve as reminders for players, coaches, officials, volunteers, parents and even our spectators so that we can create an environment of play that is safe, fun, exciting and respectful of all:

• Players Code of Behaviour
• Coaches Code of Behaviour
• Officials Code of Behaviour
• Volunteers Code of Behaviour
• Parents Code of Behaviour
• Spectators Code of Behaviour

HOW DO YOUR SPORTS MEASURE UP TO THE MORE TRADITIONALLY KNOWN SPORTS?
Most of Premier Sports Leagues choices in sport are ones that are relatively new, global emerging sports that are lesser known but have an established presence internationally and are starting to garner more attention.

In some cases, sports like futsal and floorball are currently played in 70+ countries worldwide, host international championships, have been chosen to participate in the World Games and offer some kind of semi-pro leagues where professional players, coaches and officials earn a living from their sport.

The one thing our chosen sports have in common, and the reasons we have chosen them, is that they:

• are less aggressive in nature (no body checking or hard hitting)
• over emphasize safety and respect in play
• are easy to learn & play (does not require early skill specialization)
• do not require expensive facilities in order to play
• are genderless (male and female can equally play together)
• are affordable
• require very little equipment
• are suitable for any age and ability
• are complimentary sports to use as cross training for more known sports
• do not have established cultures associated with these sports
• do not place any high expectations on athletes to conform to professional levels
• are newer sports and a refreshing change from the old traditional sports
• have less registered players in the country so a better opportunity to advance to higher level teams

Our aim is to provide an environment where players, coaches and officials can come together to safely play, learn new sport and life skills, become better all round athletes, earn confidence, challenge themselves and enjoy playing sports together.

Premier Sports Leagues realized that culture plays a vital role in determining this environment and so we do what is necessary to advocate against, and prevent, the fostering of a culture where “winning at all costs” and “elite athlete preference over less skill players/coaches/officials” may prevail.
 
Unfortunately, this is not the case with some of the more traditionally known sports.  Regrettably some community organized sports continue to foster that culture in order to validate their leadership or because parents buy into the need to identify their child by their athletic ability only or because players get too attracted to the hype imposed on them from highly paid professional players in their sport.

Premier Sports Leagues places more value on the spirit of sports and the life values it provides athletes and therefore, we advocate to our leadership that sport serves a much greater cause and is not the end game in itself.  

For more on Premier Sports Vision and Values click HERE

HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION DIFFERENT THAN OTHER SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS?
The vast majority of organized sports in Canada is community based and operated by volunteers.  And, although there are many good community sports organizations, the common challenge for these type organizations are that they

• have high turnover in volunteers
• seldom retain long term leadership talent
• often do not have qualified leaders in critical roles
• are not able to recruit volunteers who have skill sets for key roles
• allow personal agendas to creep into decision making
• seldom provide ongoing training or proper age development criteria for coaches
• loose sight of the long term vision due to short term leadership
• are pressured to invest more into elite athlete development in order to produce wins
• have no accountability for decisions that affect the present or future cultures
• will exist in spite of the lack of quality programs or customer care they offer
• have limited resources (volunteers have other personal/ professional responsibilities)
• operate in a silo; mostly do not share knowledge, training concepts or ideas with their peer sport organizations to make each better

In spite of all the challenges and shortcomings many volunteer community sports organized push through an do offer a reasonable service to their membership

Premier Sports Leagues explored many of the current organized sports structures, including the semi pro and professional sports franchises and opted to glean from each best practices, policies and standards. 

Our sights continue to be on creating a sports environment and culture that would mitigate most if not all of the above challenges and provide a place for players, coaches and officials to thrive while holding the leadership accountable and responsible to provide the resources, tools and training to accomplish this outcome

All our Clubs are independently owned and operated by local community people with the mandate to:

• provide a culture of inclusion, fair play and equal opportunity for all players, coaches and officials
• create guidelines and boundaries for leadership to follow that stays aligned with our long term vision and values
• hold leaders accountable and responsible for their decisions and actions
• properly recruit individuals who best suit their roles and work to retain them long term
• be available to players, coaches, officials and parents so that they are not restricted access to decision makers
• put the interest of players, coaches, officials above their own interests
• make fair and reasonable decisions for the common good of all (no agendas)
• provide great services and ensure customers expectations are met so they return
• continue to invest in training, tools and resources to improve our players, coaches and officials
• share ideas with other owner/ operators in the network for the betterment of all the participants

Our owner/ operators have a vested interest in their Clubs and continue improving so they can provide products and services that are best for their customers.  Being a business means upholding high quality standards and maintaining exceptional relationships with customers.
 
The Premier Sports Leagues team is here for the long haul and will always endeavour to provide a better sports experience for all participants.