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When Scott McIntyre founded Athletic Haven in 2016, he never imagined the volunteer-based, nonprofit organization would reach where it is today.

Athletic Haven served 249 youth athletes from the Capital Region during the 2024-25 academic year, offering free or low-cost sports clinics, leagues and travel teams. Already based in facilities in Troy and Rensselaer, Athletic Haven is expanding to Albany this fall.

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Athletic Haven

Website: athletichaven.org

Contact: [email protected] or 518-545-4876

"This has just grown to a point that I did not expect, I did not foresee," McIntyre said. "I'm just blown away. I'm excited every time I sit down and work on it. It really just means the world to me."

He started Athletic Haven in honor of his son, Tyler, who died in a car accident in Milton in 2012. Tyler, 6, was a passenger in a car driven by Scott.

McIntyre, who has five other children, has since remarried. His current wife, Chana, serves as Athletic Haven's president.

"I think it helps really keep us connected to Tyler every single day and it really helps us focus that loss and missing piece and focusing on doing better in the world we live in without him," Chana said. "I think on a personal level, that's the biggest thing. And at a community level, the longer we do it the more clear it is how sorely needed this time of programming is."

In the early days of Athletic Haven, one clinic was offered per month. Now they run programs five days a week for beginners and advanced students, concentrating on basketball and soccer. They're open to children throughout the Capital Region.

In Troy, they operate out of St. John's Episcopal Church and Public School 12, both on 1st Street. They also run clinics out of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Rensselaer County in Rensselaer.

Athletic Haven held a three-on-three recreational basketball league in spring 2025 that had 55 children. They had a fifth-grade boys' travel basketball team and are adding a girls' travel team with tryouts in January or February. McIntyre said Athletic Haven also offers soccer clinics and a four-on-four indoor recreational soccer league.

All of Athletic Haven's recreational programs are free, with a nominal cost for travel teams that was $50 last year.

Nine years after founding Athletic Haven, McIntyre said the number of children enrolling is proof that the demand for affordable youth sports is greater than ever. 

"The trajectory of youth sports is more and more people are trying to make more and more money and it's creating environments that are not healthy from a mental, even a physical, standpoint," he said. "They're not building self-esteem. It's win at all costs. It's pay to play and it's an awful environment for kids to learn and develop and that's why I'm so proud of what we've created, the opportunities that we've created."

Besides financial backing from sponsors, Athletic Haven relies on fundraisers. The annual Orange Party will be held Sunday, Nov. 16 at the Troy Country Club with guest speaker Jumaine Jones, a former NBA player who will run youth basketball clinics at the Rensselaer Boys & Girls Club through Athletic Haven the day before.

Athletic Haven also put on a golf fundraiser in May at The Fairways of Halfmoon that raised about $17,000. They plan on holding a 10th anniversary celebration next year at a date and location to be announced. It will be a special milestone for McIntyre, who said Athletic Haven's survival was "probably in danger" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Services were temporarily ceased and they lost volunteers.

McIntyre plans to expand operations into Albany by Dec. 1. They'll hold clinics at Roots Academy and are awaiting approval on a gym on Ferry Street in partnership with the Salvation Army.

"It's significant because it's a whole new demographic," he said. "It's a whole new group of families that could use the programs."

He's especially proud of Athletic Haven's partnership with The Melodies Center for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disorders at Albany Medical Center. Two or three times a month, Athletic Haven volunteers visit the patients to play games and give them small sports challenges.

He had a staff of six or seven when Athletic Haven began. The organization is up to almost 30 employees now - three on the payroll and the rest are volunteers, though McIntyre welcomes extra help.

"We're finding more volunteers, but we're also launching more new programs constantly," he said. "I'd say right now, to be completely honest, we're slightly on the short-staffed side of it."

McIntyre, 48, and his wife live in Loudonville. He teaches part-time at Hebrew Academy of the Capital District and works at Colonie High as an assistant varsity softball coach and junior varsity golf coach.

He would like to expand operations into his hometown of Schenectady and possibly see Athletic Haven someday build its own training facility.

"I don't have specific goals," he said. "I just want to keep expanding our opportunities and helping more kids."