Too many youths face barriers to participation in sports.

Youth sports like baseball and softball have changed. Budget cuts to school and community programs have reduced the number of affordable options, and a commercialized youth sports enterprise has emerged to fill the gap. For talented student-athletes, the most prominent path to continuing to play in college is through expensive travel teams, tournaments, and private coaching.

Percent of six to twelve-year-olds who regularly play a team sport^*:

Families struggle and sacrifice to participate in this pay-to-play ecosystem. Others must opt-out altogether. This inequality flies in the face of our national pastime–we have seen a decline in participation in baseball and softball among socio-economically disadvantaged youth. This is discouraging because we know sports participation can be a valuable access point to college for hard-working student-athletes.

Those who participate in sports grow not only in physical skill but in emotional and social ways that provide lifelong advantages, including:

• Improved self-esteem
• Higher grades
• Effective goal-setting
• The ability to take initiative

Participating in youth sports creates pathways to excellence. We want to make excellence available to everyone regardless of their economic status.

* Sean Gregory, “How Kids’ Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry”, TIME, August 24, 2017.
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