For the Team: How to Improve the Youth Sports Experience for Everyone

A unique exploration of the emotionally charged adult youth sports experience.

Fewer than 2% of athletes ever play Division I sports, and for those who do, it's not always a positive experience. The pressures begin in youth sports and rarely let up. "Team Adult"--the parents, coaches, and administrators facilitating youth, high school, and college sports--need to turn inward and explore their own motivations and intentions in order to effect real change for the benefit of young athletes everywhere.

In For the Team: How to Improve the Youth Sports Experience for Everyone, sports mom, former Division I athlete, and coach Meagan Frank provides an invaluable guide for the adults in the youth sports landscape. She urges them to take personal responsibility in creating an emotionally healthy place for kids to learn, play, and grow, no matter the level of competition and no matter the stakes. Frank takes a deep-dive into highly-charged topics surrounding youth sports and shares key strategies "Team Adult" can adopt, including actively listening to the young athletes, respecting their choices, encouraging sports activities outside of the competitive environment, and carving out time for the family and other interests.

Full of personal insights, interviews with experts, discussions with coaches, and surveys from hundreds of parents and children, For the Team features emotional discoveries and practical advice that will improve family and team dynamics and bring youth sports back to where it should be--as one small yet important part of a child's development into a healthy, confident, and happy individual.

Meagan Frank has been a part of nearly 200 sports communities since her time as an athlete at Colorado College where she played NCAA Division-I soccer and Division-III basketball. She has coached boys' and girls' teams at the college, high school, and youth levels, parented three active athletes, and has held board member positions for four separate sports associations. Meagan regularly gives presentations across the country on the subjects of sports parents and women in sports. She lives in Wisconsin.