Kempsville Recreation Association

While KRA shares the same address as the Kempsville Rec Center, I believe it is run separately from Parks & Rec. KRA offers youth sports such as tee ball, baseball, fast pitch softball, football, basketball and cheering. You can register online or in person when they hold sign-ups. This review is only for the tee ball program. Our son played tee ball with KRA in the Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011. He had a different coach each time. Both were nice, patient guys and good with the kids, but the first coach was far superior to the second in that he wasn't soft spoken and could lead the team. Kids in the tee ball age group need a lot of firm direction. When my kid is on that field, whether it be practice or a game, coach is in charge. You do as coach says the first time he says it. It can still be fun, but if the whole team is sitting around playing in the dirt, no one is getting anything out of that. Either way, I give these guys a lot of credit for their patience.The kids received team hats and shirts that they were able to keep. The shirts were not personalized with their names. The parents buy their child's glove, pants, socks and cleats. We found little bat bags at Target for $10. The beginning of the season seemed disorganized. After sign ups it took an awful long time to find out when practice would start. I don't understand why practice start dates wouldn't be set ahead of time. I know each team practices at a different time and place, but I couldn't even get an answer to what week practice would start. Once practice did start, the seasons ran smoothly. The coaches were provided with practice equipment, including batting helmets. In the Fall season we traveled to different locations in the area to play, and home games were played at the fields by the Rec Center. The Spring season all games were played at the Rec Center. That was so much more convenient.Overall, our experience with the tee ball program was OK. I know it's run by volunteers, so it is what is is. I don't know how the other programs are run. We did football and basketball with West Kempsville Youth Athletics in 2011 and loved it, so we tried out tee ball with them this year. That review is coming next. I would say that the KRA Tee Ball program is better than the West Kempsville Tee Ball program, but I'm not a huge fan of either. Next year we are going to try out the Kempsville Pony Baseball league.KRA has a Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kempsville-Recreation-Association/ They should utilize it more.