You can register your child online by visiting the official Sherrills Ford Optimist website at www.sfoptimist.org. Be sure to follow our Facebook pages for notifications on when registration opens for each season. 

Sherrills Ford Optimist offers a wide variety of youth sports throughout the year, including baseball, softball, tackle and flag football, soccer, tee-ball, cheerleading, and volleyball. The full list and when the seasons open is located at www.sfoptimist.org/sports

Yes, every child gets to play! That may look different according to the sport. For example, our soccer program requires that each player play at least 50% of a game. Volleyball, due to to rotations, will allow all players to play. Baseball and softball have innings played requirements, and football requires a certain number of snaps. Please ask the director of each sport to clarify this question for a particular sport. 

SFO offers recreational sports and therefore anyone can sign up to play, even if they have no previous experience. 

While this is techinically possible, we HIGHLY discourage children from attempting to play more than one sport per season. Practice and game times will often overlap, meaning your child will not be able to be at all practices and games. This is unfair to players who attend all games and to teams who may have less players to choose from on game day. 

Yes! Through partnerships with groups such as Trojan Country Athletic Boosters, we are able to offer a limited number of athlectic scholarships available every year.  You can apply by clicking the "Financial Aid Request" link in the footer of the website. Also, if you have Medicaid, you can request that your insurance add Sherrills Ford Optimist as a provider. Most providers offer a voucher of up to $175 per per child per year. 

In general, refunds are not available once you register except for the following specific cases.

Refunds will be provided for players that try out AND make their middle school or high school teams AND let us know on the registration form that they are trying out for the team. This should currently affect only middle school boys soccer, middle school basketball, and middle school and high school volleyball.

If a refund is approved, an administrative fee of $25 will be deducted.

Registration fees vary depending on the specific sport . The registration price will be posted on the specific sport's page. 

Yes! For the safety and security of our players, we perform background checks on coaches. 

For our youth sports, depending on the sport, we serve 3-year-olds to 18-year-olds. For adult sports, we serve 18-year-olds to as old as they still feel like playing. 

In general we don't allow parents to request a coach or to be on a team with a certain friend. The exceptions are that we, unless asked not to, place siblings on the same team unless they are in a different age bracket. We do this for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a logistics nightmare for a sports director to attempt to please everyone, and second of all, it makes it much more difficult for coaches to attempt to "stack" teams due to players needing to be on the same team for "carpooling" purposes. 

Depending on the sport and how many teams might be in an age bracket for the same sport, a sports director may hold tryouts or evaluations so that teams can be evenly matched. If there is only one team in a age bracket, obviously no evaluations are necesssary.  Some sports, such as U13 soccer, group their teams by age. There might be (mostly) 10, 11, and 12-year-old team. This is to allow the players to play together longer. The exception to this is to allow siblings in the same age bracket to play on the same team. 

Age cut-offs depend on the sport. For instance, football, cheer, and soccer use the child’s age as of August 31st of the current year, while baseball typically uses May 1st. Volleyball and basketball are divided by school grade. 

The main park is located at 1752 Mollys Backbone Road, Sherrills Ford, NC 28673.

The mailing address is P.O. Box 32, Sherrills Ford, NC 28673. 

While many games are played at our Park, especially field sports, we play other organizations and often play at their facilities. Most of our basketball and volleyball games are held at Catawba Elementary School. 

No, pets of any kind are strictly prohibited at the park or any facilities used for practices and games. We love pets, but our insurance specifically forbids them. 

Sherrills Ford Optimist Park is a tobacco-free facility. No tobacco products of any kind, including electronic cigarettes and vaping, are allowed. 

Yes, fields are available to rent. You can send inquiries regarding field availability and pricing to rentals@sfoptimist.org. 

SFO is operated 100% by dedicated volunteers from the Sherrills Ford and Terrell communities, relying heavily on community support, fundraisers, and sponsorships.

If you are interested in head or assistant coaching, you can indicate this on your child's registration, attend the seasonal coaches' meetings, or reach out directly to a sports director on the director's page at www.sfoptimist.org/sports-directors

Local businesses and individuals can support youth sports by visiting the donation and sponsorship pages on the SFO website to help keep the park operating for local youth. 

We are always interested in working with people who want to volunteer their time and talents. Please reach out to us and let us know how you are interested in helping  our contact page.

You can reach out to the SFO board mutiple ways.  

Email: info@sfoptimist.org 

Phone: 828-979-6481

Contact Form:  SFOptimist.org/contact

SFO is operated by a volunteer Board of Directors and volunteer community members who coordinate sports, manage facilities, and coach.

You can share feedback, submit ideas, or contact board members directly by emailing info@sfoptimist.org, by requesting to speak at a board meeting, or by completing the contact form located at www.SFOptimist.org/contact

SFO is funded through registration fees, facility operations fees, local business sponsorships, community donations, and seasonal fundraisers. We are not taxpayer funded in any way. 

Sherrills Ford Optimist Park is private property dedicated to youth sports. Public use or field rentals require advance approval from the organization.

Guardians are responsible for the safety and supervision of their children at all times. Additionally, visitors must clean up after themselves, avoid parking between the fence and the road, refrain from using foul language, and remember that facilities close at sunset or after the final game. 

More details can be found at www.sfoptimist.org/moreinfo#ParkRules