It’s almost impossible to talk about youth sports in the Grand Traverse region without one woman’s name coming up: Barb Beckett. As Pop Warner Football at the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA prepares to celebrate its 30th year, our sports director Mike Craven sat down with Barb to get the story behind her ‘reason Y’.
M: Barb, you’ve been with the Y for a long time. How did you get started?
B: Back in 1982 I had just gotten started as a basketball referee. Some of my ref friends said I should try reffing for this local league, referencing the YMCA’s “Y Ball” program which is now the Y’s adult basketball leagues. I reffed a few games, and fell in love with the people I met. When the opportunity to take the Y’s Sports Director role came up a year later, I jumped on it and never looked back.
M: So your relationship with the Y started in 1982? That’s over 40 years. What did you do during that time?
B: I oversaw both youth and adult basketball, softball, flag football, lacrosse, tennis, pickleball, soccer, racquetball, and Pop Warner. Fitness programs too. A little bit of everything really, except aquatics.
M: What do you remember most, looking back?
B: The growth within lots of the programs that I was lucky enough to start. But the biggest plus was all the community relationships that I have had through all those years. Also how far and wide we have been able to spread the Y mission has been a huge blessing. Covid year was one of the most rewarding years looking back at it, just from how much we had to consider in order to pull it off for the program for the participants in the community. Pop Warner was the biggest lift in regard to how much needed to be considered as it pertained to players safety, fans, concessions, availability of local fields to play at, the ever changing rosters due to quarantines. Things changed on a daily basis that season, but it was so worth it seeing how happy the kids were, to have something that brought them a sense of normalcy.
M: How did Pop Warner get started here?
B: In 1994 a whole slew of high school football coaches around the area wanted to have some feeder programs for the youth because they weren’t playing until they got to the middle school level. They approached the Y and asked if we would like to be involved in it. We along with the coaches looked through the United States to find the best organization to follow and found that Pop Warner aligned with the rules and mission we were going for in this youth program. The following year in 1995 was the first season of Pop Warner football in the Traverse City area with only six towns playing in the league. 30 years later we now have 32 towns and close to 2,000 kids served throughout the region.
M: You mentioned the effort to run Pop Warner during COVID, and how rewarding it was when you pulled it off. Why was that so important, to get that program running?
B: I think we all saw during the first year of the pandemic what happens when sports are impacted, and it wasn’t a pretty picture. It’s something that brings communities together like nothing else, and the kids are extremely negatively impacted when they don’t have sports as an outlet and a way to make friends and play, just be kids really.
So I just knew there had to be some safe ways in which we could still run these programs. We worked through it with constant checks with the governing health bodies, MHSAA guidelines and the YMCA guidelines that allowed kids to participate in programs safely. MHSAA really laid the ground work to run the sports safely, and that was really how we were able to pull the Pop Warner season off. In September of 2021 we canceled the Pop Warner season, but then a week later we were playing because of guidelines the MHSAA had updated. We really didn’t skip a beat with Pop Warner. Some of the towns opted out due to the health concerns stemming from covid, which was fine, we didn’t want to pressure anyone that didn’t feel safe during the period. And it was different for sure, the kids playing had to wear plastic facemasks attached to their football helmets, and there were no handshakes at the end of the games. But it was the most rewarding year for sure.
M: And now, Pop Warner is going on 30 years of play. After a long career with sports and the Y, and Pop Warner, how has it felt to transition into retirement?
B: I’m pretty fortunate to have built so many relationships during my time with the Y, and that even though I’m retired now I’ve still been lucky enough to keep quite a few of them. To see you in this role (as Sports Director), still able to grow Pop Warner after it’s been around for 30 years is huge. I know I left it in good hands.
As I went through the interview process for the Sports Director position everyone kept on mentioning Barb, her wealth of knowledge and how long she has been here (40 years.) It wasn’t until I started here and getting to know Barb that I fully understood how impactful she has been through the community, and really the state. She is one of the most humble individuals I have ever come across in my lifetime and the above is just a small snippet of her lifetime accomplishments.
Barb’s story and her “Y” closely align with my story and “Y” I’m at the YMCA. Sports have always played a huge role in my life, from playing Little League as a kid to spending a decade working in Minor League Baseball. While sports are great, nothing is better than building relationships and the impact you can make on individuals and the community as a whole. The football program that Barb oversaw truly embodies both. Traveling around the 32 towns the football program is in and seeing the impact of the kids learning life lessons on the field, the kids enjoying being out on the field, and seeing the community come together to put on the football games every Saturday is one of the most satisfying feelings I have had in my career.
To be mentored by someone who has so many relationships in our community, it still amazes me every day how many people she has connected with and who have been impacted by her in a positive way. Pop Warner is one of the biggest programs we run through the Y due to its vast spread across northwestern Michigan. It is thanks to the relationships that Barb built over time and her reputation throughout the state, that growing the youth football program has been possible. The foundation Barb has created within the program the past 29 years is the reason that youth football is such a successful program. It would be nearly impossible to pull off the football program at this scale without her connections within the officiating community, and her assistance as an MHSAA assigner finding the refs for Saturday football games in the fall.
As we move into Pop Warner’s 30th year and Barb starts enjoying more and more of her well-deserved retirement, one of the questions I constantly get asked is if Barb is still around. I’m always happy to reply that she isn’t going anywhere.
-- Mike Craven, Sports Director at Grand Traverse Bay YMCA
For more information on the youth football program or to get involved in becoming a sports official, reach out to Mike at mike@gtbayymca.org.