With the world situation changing in the Fall of 2001, Sports Network International immediately took great effort to evaluate the overall safety factor of every youth competition we host throughout the United States. This top-to-bottom evaluation included both internal review of safety considerations for all attendees at and around SNI events, as well as getting external input from security experts in the field regarding all facets of these tremendously exciting and beneficial competitions.

The first thing we felt needed to be evaluated was, "How could we make our people safe from any possible unfortunate incident". The simple answer is, IT CANNOT BE DONE! No amount of security that could reasonably be expected at any youth athletic contest (or any school, church, or other public facility) could stop any individual willing to trade their life for the lives of those he would wish to harm. This is why school shootings, child abductions, gang activity and other violent acts will continue to occur despite our best efforts to stop them. Therefore, with this knowledge, our focus shifted from "total umbrella protection" to "how can we provide reasonable assurances that our people will be safe".

With this knowledge, we began to look at how we could exercise reasonable security measures, while also protect people by selecting a safe venue from the outset. Several factors that prior to 9/11 we had not taken into consideration were now on the top of the selection criteria. These factors included: Proximity to primary medical services (hospital); proximity to nearby terrorist targets (key government buildings, historically significant structures, etc.); Sufficient staffing and security patrols to keep an eye on both the facility and the attendees; as well as using facilities that are located well off of main access roads that are more easily patrolled and less prone to use by non-attendees. Fortunately, after looking at these and other important aspects of event safety, the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex Field House was evaluated as overall a very safe facility.

This county-run venue maintains several features which make attending this event a fantastic, fun and very safe experience for competitors and spectators alike. The Complex is accessed by only a single road, with parking secured and designed at a sufficient distance from the facility to provide a reasonable amount of safety from any truck/car explosion. As a county building, the facility is staffed by not only event staff, but by building security personnel from the minute the doors open until the doors are closed and the parking lot is empty. Additionally, both the Maryland State Police and the Prince George's County Police have been notified of the event and will be providing random drive through patrols. Lastly and very importantly, as a JROTC drill event, literally dozens of military personnel will be in attendance as judges & instructors. Their years of experience and training assist in many areas make attendance at this competition generally more secure.

While the venue is not closed to the public, historically those learning of the event and attending are school mates or family members of the teams involved. As a target, this event remains vastly lower than hundreds of thousands of other events within the United States. Along with a twenty-plus year history of solid success at competition like the one held in Landover, Maryland.

It is the belief of Sports Network International after reviewing endless reams of documented facts regarding all aspects of safety, that the cadets who attend this event are just as safe as they would be at home. Unfortunately, evil people and horrible accidents occur just as often at home as they do at school as they do on field trips. Curtailing the off-campus activities of the future leaders of our nation based on perceived, unknown threats seems to be based more on emotion than the actual increased risk of unfortunate incidents occuring through these excursions.