The History of the AYAC

Two local residents, Lou Bloom and Cliff Johnson, formed the idea of the club. Lou and Cliff had been involved with youth athletic programs for over 30 years. Both graduates of Amelia High School, they witnessed the decline of the football and cheerleading programs at the Amelia middle school and high school levels. Additionally, they would travel through Amelia and watch many of the youths with nothing to do during the fall season. With their past experience with youth athletic programs, they decided to start a private club that would offer a variety of youth sports for the benefit of the youngsters in Amelia. Their idea was to start the club with football and cheerleading the first couple of years, and expand it to offer basketball, baseball, wrestling, etc.

During the early summer of 1998, Lou and Cliff approached several local youth coaches with the idea. Everyone they talked to thought that it would be the spark that the community and the schools needed to help Amelia grow. It would take many volunteers and a lot of hard work to get the club up and running.

The first couple of months, meetings were held at a local church, to discuss how the club could be funded, where to play, as well as putting together the first set of bylaws. It was after the second meeting that Cliff applied to the state of Ohio for the purposes of the club becoming a non-profit corporation. By the middle of July, the first registrations were held and the club was up and running. The club then moved its meetings to Abbott's restaurant located in the heart of Amelia.

Operating as a non-profit corporation, the club operated with very few officers and trustees. Lou and Cliff pulled double duties with Lou acting as President & trustee and Cliff acting as V.P. of Football Operations & trustee. They would hold these positions for the first two years until the club could build it's membership and hold elections.

By the beginning of August, the club was accepted into the C.Y.F.L. (Community Youth Football League). The club stayed with C.Y.F.L. for the first four years.

After the second season of football, the club decided to try and promote youth basketball in Amelia. The community already offered a youth program for youths in grades four thru six. The only place where A.Y.A.C. could help was with the youths in the middle school grades that did not make the school teams.

Joe Dale started the basketball program for A.Y.A.C., during the winter season, of the clubs second year. A.Y.A.C. had one team the first season, with Joe acting as head coach and Randy Sprague as his only assistant coach. The team entered into the Southwest Ohio Youth Basketball League. He used this first season as a trial, to gage the interest of pursuing a basketball program for the seventh and eighth grade students. The first season was a huge success; with eight of the twelve players on the team making the schools team the following year.

At the conclusion of the first season, it was apparent that there was a lot of interest in continuing the program, but the cost of playing in an outside league as well as the travel involved presented problems for many of the players. The club did not provide a team during the third year. Joe and Randy used this time to research and form a new local league. During the winter of A.Y.A.C.'s fourth year, the club began operation of the Clermont County Youth Basketball League.

The league, which is operated by A.Y.A.C., has teams from other local school systems in the Clermont County area. The school systems entered in the league are Amelia, Batavia, Bethel, and New Richmond. The first year of the leagues operation was such a huge success that, all four school systems returned for a second year of play, which had another successful year. The league is preparing to expand to include other local school systems as A.Y.A.C. enters into its sixth year of operation.

At the conclusion of A.Y.A.C..s fourth year of operation, the club looked into other football leagues that would better suit its players and members. After much discussion, the club voted to switch leagues for the football program. The club entered into the Clermont County Youth Football League for its fifth year.