{"id":18743,"date":"2026-04-23T15:01:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/?p=18743"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:02:56","slug":"more-than-a-game-alan-jeffers-devotes-himself-to-territorial-sports-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/more-than-a-game-alan-jeffers-devotes-himself-to-territorial-sports-program\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than a Game: Alan Jeffers Devotes Himself to Territorial Sports Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Alan Jeffers is president of the nonprofit Territorial Sports Program for Elmira, Veneta and surrounding areas. (Photo by Caydence Farrar \/ Falcon News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

an Jeffers, president of the nonprofit Territorial Sports Program for Elmira, Veneta and surrounding areas, says seeing \u201call the kids, seeing them have fun\u201d has kept him motivated in his role for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TSP provides sports programs \u2014 including soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball \u2014 for more than 700 elementary and middle school students in the community. Since 1977, it has helped fill a gap within the Fern Ridge School District, which doesn\u2019t provide school-sponsored sports programs until high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffers said he began with TSP as an involved parent. He enrolled his children to play the sports they wanted, and he eventually started to volunteer his time to represent Veneta Elementary School. As the Veneta representative, Jeffers coordinated practice schedules and collaborated with other schools. He quickly took over as the baseball director, managing the day-to-day operations of the baseball program, scheduling of games, coordinating with the coaches and parents, and taking care of any conflicts. Shortly after, he became board president while continuing as a baseball director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As president, Jeffers serves as the official face of TSP. He oversees the board of directors, defines the vision and goals of the organization, and ensures the financial stability of the program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinding someone to replace Alan, who cares so deeply about TSP, that\u2019s going to be hard. You have to find someone who is willing to put the kids and community first. Most people aren\u2019t there to look at the larger picture, but Alan does,\u201d TSP treasurer Denea Meister-Farrar said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costs for general sports fees are $85 per child at the elementary school level, and at the middle school level it is $150 per child. TSP tries to keep costs affordable, and as part of that effort, the program hosts auctions and relies on donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffers said a common misconception about where the money goes is that board members are paid for their time. In fact, he said, most people who are part of TSP volunteer their time for the community, which is what makes this program so special. The fees pay for referees, the costs of equipment and upkeep, buses, and scholarship opportunities for the referees to help further their career goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expanding the program is a top priority to the organization, and as a result, the sports complex is undergoing a full renovation. The plan for the new complex started in 2010-11. However, the project saw little progress until around a year ago, which is when the remodeling started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first the process involved meetings with the City of Veneta. Now, the city is putting millions of dollars into making the complex a reality. To accommodate the city and show appreciation, TSP has come up with a plan to take care of the facility and support the upkeep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the new complex, TSP leaders hope to have more tournaments, which means more games, and are considering renting it to outside teams, with TSP still getting priority. Jeffers said TSP is just happy to provide more to the community and thinks it will be a good addition to possibly bring in more attractions and tourism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffers said the largest drawback that the program is facing has nothing to do with the kids; it\u2019s getting parents and volunteers involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s hard to get umpires or referees,\u201d Jeffers said, \u201cbut it\u2019s really hard to get adults involved, as coaches or on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TSP is always looking for volunteers. All board meetings are open to the public. A calendar is posted on the TSP website, and it\u2019s regularly updated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, Jeffers continues to lead TSP with a steady hand with an eye toward a future providing more opportunities for young athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He says expanding TSP is a top priority, and a complex renovation is underway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":18745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"category-news","9":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18748,"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18743\/revisions\/18748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ehsfalconnews.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}