Anyone start a youth climbing team?

hello all. My son is wanting to start competitions this fall with the indoor climbing comps, however the closest facility is 2 1/2 hrs away. We climb on real rock as every other week but now he is wanting to start to practice for wall stuff. So I have built a small wall area at our home and realized that our church has a 20' four sided commercial made wall (not the portable one) that they have abandoned becaus of changes in the youth leadership and no one knows too much about it.
My thought is to start a local youth club to train together and aphave a good fellowshiping time. I pretty much have all the equipment due to being outside, plus several hundred holds at this point.
Is there any references or people that would be able to help guide me in making this a reality.
Thanks!

I was in a group like the one you are proposing for the last 7 years. It was one of the largest influences on my life and I had some of my fondest memories with that group. I hope it works out for you!

I imagine this will be a non profit deal, not a business venture - but liability insurance is still a good idea if for nothing else your personal protection. The church insurance policy may or may not cover it - but it would be good to check.
I run, initiated, built, etc a non profit climbing wall that belongs to the village I live in and would be glad to help any way I can. PM me if interested and I'll give you contact info.

Liability is always an issue that I always look at. Thanks for the inquiry about it. I am currently structuring a small questionnaire that will take only a few minutes. I will send it out hopefully in a couple days to allow a few more people to chime in. It is good to hear that this has been done before and that I may be able to seek help from others that have gone this route before.

Some of the items I am looking for is:

1. What type of facilities do I really need? My church has a commercial built unit in the youth area that has 20' vert with four usable sides (8' on each base)and approxiamtely 8 ropes stations. I would say ~750 climbable square foot surface. It does have some inverted sections towards the top on one side.

2. Where did the kids come from?

3. Was there any type of training plan established?

4. What was your instructor/climber ratio?

5. How often did you meet?

6. What was the age range?

7. Where they charged? keeping it something of value

8. How did you train the other helpers?

9. Did you make it competitive? Did you travel to other gyms to compete?

Feel free to comment on any or all the questions, or even some I have not even thought about.