A coached session every week, kit that fits, a place on a side, and matches to play in. Cricket is an expensive game, and our players are refugee, immigrant and local young people, most from low-income families. Donations pay for all of it, so no family has to.

Twenty-five young people have come through since 2025, and fifteen train with us every week. More are waiting. A second practice group would let them in, and that needs indoor space this winter and field time in the spring.

Our aim is to enter the Northwest Cricket League in 2027 as the Spokane Otters, Spokane's first youth team. Whether we get there depends on funding, and on players being ready.

Bats, pads, gloves, helmets and shoes in usable condition go straight into the shared kit. Youth sizes are the most useful, since our players are nine and up. We check every helmet, and cannot use one that has been struck or is more than five years old.

Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org and we will arrange a drop-off or come and collect it.

That's only possible because the community carries the real costs behind the season: Northwest Cricket League participation fees, the city's fee to use the Underhill Park cricket pitch, coaching, equipment, travel to away games, and water on the field.

The Academy relies on donors and grants for all of it. Seven of our coaches came up through this program as players, and all of them are studying or working alongside coaching. None of them is paid, and neither is the head coach. Paying for their hours is how this program outlasts any one person.

A year of this program costs about $15,000. Around $7,000 of that is equipment, bought once and used for several seasons, so from 2027 running a season settles at about $8,000 a year, not counting a paid head coach.

The Otters play the short format from late July to the first week of September.
Next year the program will cover the fuel and the food, rather than a few adults absorbing it between them. That is what makes it last.

We hope to cook our own food for away games. Students and adults would take turns, the program would provide the groceries, and the team would eat together at the park after the day's two matches: the team meeting and the meal in one.

We are also looking for a twelve-seat van we could borrow from mid-July to mid-September, which covers the season with a little either side. We leave in the morning and come back the same day. A background-checked volunteer with a valid license would drive, with a second adult on board, and we would make sure the van's insurance covers volunteer drivers.

The travel items above cover the fuel. The food we are working out. The van we are asking to borrow.