For nearly 20 years, children have gathered at select NCAA championship sites to enhance their sports skills and learn about athletics from collegiate coaches and student-athletes. With the assistance of new sponsor Power-Ade, the Youth Education through Sports (YES) clinics, long a mainstay of championship events, will expand and shift their focus beginning with the winter championships season.

The YES clinics, grass-roots educational workshops for children ages 10 to 18, are administered by the National Youth Sports Corporation (NYSC) in conjunction with NCAA championships.

In an effort to reach a different audience, clinic organizers will appeal to more ethnic minorities and girls who otherwise might never be exposed to a certain sport or would be hesitant to attend a YES event.

At some locations, student-athletes will actually go into the schools to do exhibitions in physical education classes. At others, YES clinic hosts will partner with local boys and girls clubs or other organizations, bringing the educational experience to a traditionally under-served population.

Participants will start seeing changes with some of the winter championships, including Division III women's basketball at Virginia Wesleyan College, which will involve student-athlete advisory committee members from four institutions: Virginia Wesleyan, Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and Hampton University.

Some of the spring championships, including Division I and Division III women's tennis and Division I men's golf, will serve as test sites for the exhibition clinics at middle schools with large ethnic-minority enrollments.

Debra Turner, director of the YES program, said the change will help the program reach kids who might not otherwise be involved in organized athletics.

Officials also hope to eventually make an impact at all 88 championships. NYSC Executive Director Rochelle Taylor said the number of YES clinics did not grow as the NCAA added more championships, and the pilot programs are an effort to eventually have some form of outreach at all championship events.

"The NCAA wanted to expose kids that may not normally participate in that particular sport, to that sport," Taylor said. "It's really more of a grass-roots involvement. We wanted to get more ethnic minorities and girls exposed to sports participation as well."

John Williams, NCAA director of championships, said the clinics had become magnets for kids who already were participating in a certain sport, leaving little opportunity for beginning players or kids just starting to be familiar with the sport. Reaching out to specific audiences and getting involvement from SAAC members at championships will benefit both the student-athletes and the kids who learn from them.

"I think (the expansion) is a good thing. It's going to give us the opportunity to branch out to more of our championships, and if we get the SAAC kids involved, they seem excited about it," Williams said. "I think we're headed in the right direction."

Williams said he also hopes more clinics are conducted at locations closer to the championship site. In some cases, he said, the YES clinics are too far away from the championship site to allow the kids the opportunity to have the full experience.

"We want the kids to have the opportunity to be at the championship, to see the championship. In the last couple of years we've kind of struggled with that," he said "We're looking at it when we pick (championship) sites, where the YES clinics can be held. That's what we envision, that's the way it should go."

The experience of being a mentor to the kids that attend the clinics is helpful to the student-athlete as well, Williams said.

"It's a great experience for the student-athletes. When we do autograph sessions, (the players) get as much of a kick out of signing the autographs as the kids get. They just eat it up," he said.

Taylor called the student-athletes who assist with the clinics "vital" to the program's success because the players are the ones who stay with a specific group of kids throughout the day, answering questions and talking about what it's like to be involved in college athletics. Coaches provide the instruction, Taylor said, but the student-athletes are the role models.

"The student-athlete is the one person the kids really have a chance to get to know a little bit during that time and really form a relationship with," she said. "It does give them that connection, that bond."

Overall, Williams said the new focus and the expansion are a "step in the right direction" for a long-standing program at NCAA championships.

"We're at this crossroads, and I think it's a good idea to make sure we're attaining the goals that need to be reached," Williams said. "I think it's going to be a great program."