Eight Seasons as an i9 Sports Parent, Now Jeremy Dillard Is Franchise Owner No. 300

i9 Sports is the nation’s largest multi-sport provider focused solely on community-based youth sports, with more than 5 million registrations across recreational leagues, camps, and clinics in sports including flag football, soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, and more. The brand’s approach is simple: helping kids succeed in life through sports by creating a fun, welcoming environment where kids of all skill levels can play, learn sportsmanship and teamwork, and try different sports without feeling pressure to specialize too early.

Part of the Youth Enrichment Brands portfolio, i9 Sports has grown its national footprint through a franchise model that brings that same community-focused approach to families across the country.

i9 Sports recently reached a major milestone with the signing of its 300th franchise, a new territory in Greater York, Pennsylvania, owned by Jeremy and Katie Dillard. The Dillards’ path to ownership is a unique example of the connection i9 Sports can build with families. After eight seasons as i9 Sports parents, they’ve now launched their own territory.

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We spoke with Jeremy about how his family first discovered i9 Sports, what ultimately made him want to become an owner, and what he hopes to bring to families in Greater York.

Franchise Chatter: Jeremy, you and Katie just became i9 Sports’ 300th franchise owners. Before we get to the business side, how did your family first find i9 Sports?

Dillard: We were looking for a flag football league for our kids. We found i9 Sports through a simple Google search, so we signed up for a season. Our son came home from that first Saturday more excited about sports than we’d seen before. He had a good coach (his dad), he was having fun, and he didn’t feel like he had to be the best kid on the field. We signed up because we appreciated the low time commitment and sportsmanship-focused approach of the i9 Sports program, but we kept coming back because our kids loved it and the overall i9 Sports experience.

Franchise Chatter: You spent eight seasons as participants before deciding to become owners. What changed?

Dillard: It really came down to seeing the impact it had on our kids over time. Our boys loved the flag football program, and when they tried other leagues in our area, the experience didn’t compare to what i9 Sports provided. Both of our boys learned how to be good teammates and how to handle winning and losing, which was just as important to us as learning the sport itself.

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At some point around season five or six, I started asking our local owner more about how the business worked. It was mostly curiosity at first. But by season eight, we’d seen enough of what i9 Sports could do for families that owning a location of our own started to feel like a real opportunity for us.

Franchise Chatter: i9 Sports puts a big emphasis on making sports fun, teaching sportsmanship, and giving kids the opportunity to try multiple sports. How did that show up for your family?

Dillard: It showed up in a lot of ways, and that’s a big reason why we decided to do this. We’ve seen other programs where the focus can shift toward competition and travel teams pretty early. That wasn’t our experience with i9 Sports.

Our kids were learning the sport, but they were also learning how to encourage their teammates, shake hands, work together, and handle a loss. And being able to try different sports was huge. My son wasn’t naturally athletic, but he found out he really enjoyed playing flag football. If he had only been exposed to some of the other leagues we experienced at a younger age, he might have given up on sports and never found his love for flag football.

For us, that’s what youth sports should be about. Give kids a chance to try something, have fun, and figure out what they enjoy.

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Franchise Chatter: Once you started looking at i9 Sports as a business, what about the model stood out to you?

Dillard: The one-day-a-week league format was a big part of it. I had already experienced it as a parent, so I understood how the model worked and why it was convenient for families.

But the biggest thing was knowing the mission was already built into the business. I wasn’t looking at a franchise and wondering how I could make it meaningful in our community. That part was already there. The fun-first approach, the focus on sportsmanship, and the opportunity for kids to play multiple sports are all part of what attracted us as parents in the first place.

Franchise Chatter: You’re opening your Greater York, Pennsylvania territory this September. What’s it like going from experiencing i9 Sports as a parent to now being responsible for that experience?

Dillard: It’s definitely a little surreal. For eight years, I was on the sideline watching our kids have that experience. Now I’m responsible for creating it for other families.

Being a longtime i9 Sports parent has actually been helpful because I know what families are looking for. I know what makes a season memorable and what makes a kid want to come back. We want every kid who comes through our program, whether they’ve never played before or they already love the sport, to feel welcome, have fun, and leave with more confidence than they started with.

Franchise Chatter: What would you tell another parent sitting in the stands right now who’s wondering whether something like this could ever become more than just a Saturday activity for their family?

Dillard: Pay attention to how your kids feel about it. That was probably the biggest thing for us. We noticed that our kids were excited to show up, they were learning how to be good teammates, and they never felt like they didn’t belong because they weren’t the most skilled player.

If you find yourself impressed by the way a program is run and by the person your child is becoming through it, I think that’s worth paying attention to. You probably understand more about the business than you realize because you’ve already experienced it as a customer.

Franchise Chatter: Now that you’re on the operator side, what do you appreciate about i9 Sports that you might not have fully understood as a parent?

Dillard: How intentional everything is. As a parent, you see a well-organized league where the kids are having fun. As an owner, you start to see how much goes into creating that experience.

The focus on fun, sportsmanship, teamwork, and giving kids the opportunity to try different sports is a huge part of the training, the curriculum, and the way coaches are expected to work with kids. Making sure every skill level feels welcome is also something that has to be intentional.

That’s probably the part I feel most responsible for now. We had a great experience with i9 Sports for eight years, and I want to make sure families in York County have that same experience.

Franchise Chatter: What are you most looking forward to with your own location?

Dillard: Being that person for another family. We relied on our local i9 Sports owner for eight seasons, and now we get the opportunity to be that person for families in our community.

I want a kid in the Greater York area who has never played a team sport to be able to come out, have fun, and discover that they love being part of a team. If we can create that kind of experience for families and give kids a place where they feel comfortable trying something new, then we’ll feel like we’re doing it right.

And maybe, years from now, another parent will sit on the sideline watching their kids and wonder if they should take the next step with i9 Sports. If that happens, I’ll know we made the kind of impact we were hoping to make.