HERMOSA BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Steel Sports’ National Youth Baseball Championships (NYBC) was honored as “Best Amateur Sports Event Series” for its 2017 season during the SportsTravel Awards gala in Louisville, KY. The SportsTravel Awards are held during the TEAMS ‘18 Conference, the world’s largest gathering of event organizers and travel planners from the sports industry.
“We’re thrilled to be honored by SportsTravel alongside so many other prestigious award winners such as the NCAA Women’s Final Four, the Cross Fit Games and the NFL Super Bowl LII,” said Warren Lichtenstein, chairman of Steel Sports. “This is a wonderful honor for NYBC and makes all of us proud to be involved with a business that helps build character and teaches children valuable life lessons through sports. It takes a strong team effort from our great employees to put on an event this size every summer and they do it for the love of the game and to make it a memorable experience for all the kids participating."
The 2017 NYBC season featured 16 qualifiers held around the country with 650 teams and 10,000 players. Championship Week at Baseball Heaven in Yaphank, N.Y. included 70 teams representing 12 states with games televised on CBS Sports Network and streamed on MLB.com. Bobby Valentine, Eric Karros and Frank Catalanotto participated in an MLB roundtable, and kids celebrated their wins at Baseball Heaven’s Tommy Lasorda Museum surrounded by memorabilia from the Hall of Famer.
The NYBC Championship Week is hosted every July at Steel Sports-owned Baseball Heaven in Yaphank, N.Y. It crowns national champions in 10U-14U age divisions and is televised coast to coast on CBS Sports Network and streamed on MLB.com. The event continues to grow, and the 2018 NYBC Championship Week hosted the most teams and players in its history, including two international teams. Highlights of 2018 included former MLB managers Dusty Baker and Bobby Valentine lending their coaching skills to teams, while American League All-Star and New York Yankees pitcher Luis Severino took part in the annual MLB Roundtable.
The SportsTravel Awards program bestows honors at the amateur, collegiate and professional levels in three categories each. To be eligible, events had to occur between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018. Criteria for nomination and voting included: superior organization of and attendance at the event; the event provided a superior experience for competitors and/or spectators; and the event's host city or venue served to enhance the event.
“The SportsTravel Awards are a tremendous honor as they are voted on by the organizers of sports events at all levels,” said Timothy Schneider, founder and chairman of the Sports Division at Northstar Travel Group, organizers of the TEAMS Conference. “I think it’s significant to note that this is not the first time NYBC has been honored by the SportsTravel Awards – 10 years ago NYBC founder Eddie Einhorn, the late Chicago White Sox Chairman, accepted the award ‘Best New Amateur Sports Event’ at our awards gala.”
About Steel Sports
Headquartered in Hermosa Beach, CA, Steel Sports is a social impact business with the mission of inspiring youth to reach their potential, on and off the field, by developing them as athletes and people through the Steel Sports coaching system. Through its “kids first” approach, Steel Sports is establishing a new standard in youth sports and coaching, forging the next generation of leaders by instilling Steel Sports’ core values: Teamwork, Respect, Integrity and Commitment. Steel Sports creates a positive youth sports experience for over 100,000 athletes each year. In addition to NYBC, Steel Sports operates Baseball Heaven, Team Steel, UK Elite, FCUSA and Global Team Events.
More information: www.steel-sports.com, info@steel-sports.com.
