INTRODUCTION - Sports Network International, Inc. (SNI) began as a small, family run company organized with the intent of producing first-class, youth athletic competitions throughout the United States. Over the past 30 years, SNI has grown to become one of the oldest & most prestigious companies in North America involved in the production of national sports and sports-related competitions for youth. Serving as the Event Manager and overall event coordinator for several major events held in large cities from coast to coast, SNI maintains its headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida.

SNI BACKGROUND - Begun in 1972 in Plantation, Florida, a small group of Optimist International members decided to work together to host several Northern youth football teams to play Thanksgiving youth football bowl games in a warm, sunny climate. That initial competitions held in 1972 was played on two dirt baseball diamonds marked out as football fields with four youth football organizations attending from Alabama, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida. Named the Little Yankee Bowl, that early four-team football tournament were the beginnings of the National Youth Football Championships.

The Little Yankee Bowl competition hosted 8-12 teams each year as more and more teams continued to spread the word about the fantastic football weekend. The number of fields, officials and hours of set-up needed to host this competition was growing. The growth of the event both honored and humbled our founders. Sports Network International was truly begun around this time to handle the rising costs associated with producing this enormous youth football competition.

With few hotels located in then tiny Plantation, Florida. SNI decided to move the event to Orlando, Florida in 1979 to ensure all of the attendees could easily find a place to stay. Also, the name of the event was changed to be the National Junior Super Bowl. The event grew rapidly to host roughly 20-24 teams.

Around this time, one of the youth football teams attending were coaches by a Junior ROTC Army Instructor. He was completely impressed with numerous aspects of the event and lamented the fact that JROTC competitions were largely not handled with such organization and professionalism. The longer we spoke to this gentleman, the more we liked the idea of becoming involved with Junior ROTC. Talking with several dozen JROTC Instructors, as well as numerous active duty and recently retired military personnel, SNI was confident we were ready to host a world-class military drill event.

With the assistance of several key recruit instructors from the now closed Orlando Naval Training Center, In 1982, Sports Network International served as the Event Manager for the first ever National High School Drill Team Championships. This event was held outdoors at Evens High School in downtown Orlando, Florida. Hosting roughly 18 schools, the event was a success as the drill talent on display was outstanding.

Around this same time, our teams felt the event had lost something moving to such a large city as Orlando. They did not enjoy their experience as much as they did when the event was held in a smaller, coastal beach city. While the draw of Walt Disney World and the other area attractions was an nice addition for many people who attended both the drill and football competitions, SNI felt certain the future of the event should be built around a smaller beach city where attendees could come and have a wonderful, beach family vacation weekend, then travel to the theme parks if they wished.

In 1982, SNI moved the NYFC to Cocoa Beach, Florida and changed the name of the competition to the now familiar National Youth Football Championships. This move was a turning point in the event. The number of teams literally exploded and within one short year, SNI soon found itself without the facilities it needed to expand in Cocoa Beach much as was the case previously. After a great deal of research and offers being considered by several cities in the Southeastern United States, SNI moved its main event venue to Daytona Beach in late 1982, bringing both the football event and the drill event to the mid-sized beachfront town.

After several more years, the NYFC event had exploded to maintain roughly 100 football teams annually. Both the football and cheer competitions were over-full each year and many quality football teams were being turned away. At the urging of several teams who attended the event from California and other western states, SNI began the National Youth Football Championships - Western Division in 1987. Originally conducted in Sacramento, California for a single year in 1987, the Western Division of the NYFC was moved to its permanent home of Las Vegas, Nevada the following year and has remained there ever since. The event now fills annually with 100+ teams attending from throughout the Western United States and Canada and maintains the same fantastic competition as it's senior brother, the National Youth Football Championships - Eastern Division.

Both the NYFC and the NHSDTC events continued to gain more notoriety for their excellence from around the globe. Teams from Hawaii and Canada began to attend the football competition and teams from across the United States and Puerto Rico began to fill the drill competition. A large turning point for both competitions came in 1985 when the beautiful Ocean Center Arena and Conference Center first opened their doors. This 8,000 seat county-run facility quickly became the shrine to the NHSDTC and an outstanding home for the NYFC Eastern Division Awards Ceremony. The drill competition was now held entirely indoors within a completely first-class facility and almost immediately attendance was able to be increased from nearly 30 or so schools to a capacity of around 60 schools in just a few short years.

With such an increase in attendance, SNI made the decision to relocate its headquarters from Cocoa Beach to Daytona Beach as well in late 1987. The beach-type, smaller town atmosphere of Daytona Beach, combined with the number of beach front hotels, along with the ease of attendance by interstate car, air, bus and train travel to Daytona Beach, Florida has been a successful mixture and made Daytona Beach the home of two of the largest events hosted by SNI.

At this time, the United States Army Cadet Command began to take notice of what we were doing with the NHSDTC. In 1990, Cadet Command decided to become a sponsor of the NHSDTC event. The folks at Army JROTC sent representatives to the event and were impressed with what they saw. They wanted to expand what we were doing in Daytona Beach for youngsters that maybe could not afford to bring their teams all the way to Daytona Beach, Florida. Therefore, in the Spring of 1992, SNI was hired to host the National Capital Drill Classic. This military drill competition was designed for schools within the greater Washington, DC area to have their own outstanding regional drill meet. The meet was exceptional and was at or near capacity every year for over a decade.

In 1997, the United States military had begun a dramatic expansion of JROTC units across the country. This expansion was again putting strain on the number of schools SNI could accept into the NHSDTC competition. Again facing an over-full situation within the NHSDTC, the decision was made in 1997 to begin a new competition division at the NHSDTC for newer or less experiences drill programs to attend. The "Challenge Level" competition was begun and it filled instantly in its first year. The following year, the Open Level Color Guard competition was added. These two competitions, combined with the ever expanding "Masters Level" drill competition of the NHSDTC, put forth a total, three-day weekend drill event that annually maintained over 150 schools, 220 teams, and just over 6,000 competitors and instructors. The NHSDTC is now currently recognized as both the largest and finest high school drill competition currently held, with all four military branches sending their finest schools to compete in this unparalleled collection of high school drill and ceremony talent!

As we saw the explosion in both talent and sheer numbers at the NHSDTC occuring since the mid-1990's, SNI began production of the Best of Video Series in 1995. These VHS tapes and then later DVDs were by far the most ambitious project undertaken by SNI in many years, costing over $10,000 to put together each year. Professional filming crews were scheduled and hundreds of hours of competition drill footage was put "in the can" from the Masters Level competition of the NHSDTC. Throughout the early Summer, this footage was reviewed and edited into a two-hour training and education video series featuring many of the finest performances on display at the event.

Initially, these videos were offered as a two-disk set - one "Basic" drill (Inspection, Regulation & Color Guard) and one "Exhibition" drill. Due to the overwhelming demand and input from the schools, the Best of Exhibition Video was split in 2005 to provide two different videos - Armed Exhibition and Unarmed Exhibition, making the entire series a three-disk set. This Best of Video Series has been extremely well received and now sells more than 1,000 copies a year. The proceeds from the sale of these videos help to keep the high costs of producing the NHSDTC under control, thereby keeping the costs down to all competitors of the NHSDTC event.

In the Fall of 1999, SNI was contacted by the United States Navy and asked to serve as Event Managers for their existing Navy Nationals Athletic, Academic & Drill Championships. This exciting, two-day competition pushed SNI into a new arena of military involvement. Already a solid event with outstanding support from the active-duty Naval personnel on board, the "Navy Nationals" quickly evolved into the most powerful, all-around test of Navy JROTC mettle ever put forth. Beginning at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois, the NJROTC Nationals moved to the warm weather confines of the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida in the Spring of 2001 and through the support of this fine installation, the competition continues to get better each and every year.

For several years, Air Force JROTC programs from up and down the Eastern seaboard have requested that SNI host an Air Force only drill championship just for them. After studying the issue for over a year, in the Spring of 2000, SNI brought in the millenium by beginning production of the long sought after Air Force JROTC drill competition. Commonly referred to as the Air Force Nationals, this event (officially titled the National Capital Invitational Drill Classic) annually brings together Air Force JROTC drill units from across the country to compete in the shadows of the White House in nearby Landover, Maryland. The event is always held on Friday, the day immediately prior to the Army competition.

Seeing the success of the Navy Nationals and the Air Force Nationals, the United States Army Cadet Command decided to make a major modification to the existing NCDC Army drill event. The smaller regional meet was altered in 2003 to host much larger Eastern Region and Western Region events, entitled the U.S. Army Cadet Command JROTC Championships. These exciting competitions have set the Army drill world on fire, making it possible to host many of the finest 100 Army JROTC drill teams currently in existance today on two different March weekend every year.

SNI began to look at other avenues of involvement within areas of expertise we already maintained. For many years, numerous cadets and instructors had called our company bemoaning the fact that there was no place to get hands-on training to become a better drill coach or cadet. So after several years of studying and planning, in 2006 SNI announced the formation of the National Drill Camp. Held at Texas A&M University, the NDC will provide highly qualified instructors and hours of both classroom and practical instruction on the many aspects of military drill.

Beginning in the year 2001, Mr. Abdul Al-Romaizan, a former competitor at the NHSDTC, began to rock the military drill world by displaying and featuring numerous methods to glorify the art of military drill. Begun by his famous Drill Jungle website, Abdul's reach has extended into so many areas of drill excellence, it is hard to catalogue everything. In 2004, SNI began a partnership with Abdul to produce a ten-year retrospective of the Nationals entitled, "DEVOTED". This video was a ground-breaking effort and has become the required primer for any serious military drill enthusiast. SNI looks forward to partnering with Abdul in the future under a new and exciting concept currently under discussion entitled "ECHO".

With a diverse event portfolio coupled with a spotless professional reputation, SNI has forged a business atmosphere which includes very few competitors. Sports Network does not produce any event unless we believe it has the opportunity to become one of the finest in the world.

While this requires SNI to be quite selective on the events it produces, it guarantees that those events now under production by SNI are among the finest available and getting better every year. This is shown by our 87% return rate for competitors in all SNI produced sporting events for the years 1985 through 1994! No other event management company can even come close to this success rate. SNI maintains a spotless business reputation by treating both suppliers and customers as we would like to be treated.

Largely, the numerous drill competitions as well as the football competitions are completely full. SNI looks forward to the future as the possibility remain unlimited for this dynamic company goes forward. Sports Network International remains humbled with our success and always remembers how we got here -- hard work, fairness and taking risks.