2026 BAOC Youth Program
We are pleased to announce a new BAOC Junior Group for 2026. Juniors are under 21 years old.
Join US - send an email to juniors@baoc.org and we will get you signed up.
Current Junior activities and meet-ups are running at the following regular Spring BAOC events:
Youth Leaders
A note from our Leaders Petra Sundstrom and Julia Doubson Our goal is to create a fun, social group for BAOC youth to meet up, practice, and develop their orienteering skills by course reviews and skill practices. Hopefully some social events can also be arranged! We are aiming for kids and youth that already have some skills and are familiar with the basics of orienteering, as the plan is not to run beginner clinics.
We plan to have most of our meet-ups at the same places and times as regular BAOC events to make logistics easier for parents and caretakers of participants, as well as having courses, permits, etc. already taken care of, but the group might evolve into having some practices of our own as well. Our goal is to create a fun, social group for BAOC youth to meet up, practice, and develop their orienteering skills by course reviews and skill practices. Hopefully some social events can also be arranged! We are aiming for kids and youth that already have some skills and are familiar with the basics of orienteering, as the plan is not to run beginner clinics.
A short presentation about ourselves:
Petra is a life-long orienteer from Sweden who moved with her family to the Bay Area in 2021 and has since taken part in BAOC events as well as discovering the joy of Rogaining and Desert orienteering. Growing up, her whole family did orienteering - they went annually to the O-ringen and other competitions. She has now succeede in making her husband a decent orienteer, but is struggling to convince her kids (14, 11 and 8) about the sports superiority (but is hoping for improvement). Julia has been orienteering with BAOC since she was five. She has competed internationally as a former US National Team member. More recently, Julia has been involved with junior coaching with the Orienteering USA Youth Development Program.
– Petra and Julia November 5, 2025