Generating upwards of $7 billion a year, youth sports is a great business. There are new customers born every day, and where else can your six year old star appear on his or her own baseball card or Wheaties Box?
While opportunities seem boundless for product makers, marketers and training professionals, it seems to me that this incremental boundlessness has turned the game itself into a consumer product.
I recently read a poignant blog titled, “I Never Thought It Would End This Way,” where the author, Karrick Dyer, reflects on his daughter’s team sports trajectory after seeing her miss a penalty shot, effectively ending her team’s season.
After seeing her head held high after the game, he reflected not on her performance, effort or results, but rather the sum total of sports’ effect on her maturation, personal development and principles as a young woman. He challenges sports parents against training their children to take the dramatic game winning shot, and instead, prepare their sons and daughters for what happens if they fall short.
The true measure of our success is not the number of children we teach soccer, basketball or tennis. Certainly not the splashy uniforms or t-shirts we provide. Our impact will register if a child has enough courage to stay in school, walk away from an altercation, or make a positive choice about what they eat. Our contribution and legacy will be determined not by today’s wins, but how our losses will shape a legacy of strength and resiliency.
Our mission at Backyard Sports Cares is to use the power of the playing field, to teach a full multi-dimensional approach toward the joy of sports, not just the clinical, not just the opportunistic. In fact, our goal is to teach the lessons of the game, which can literally follow the player home from our programs into one’s family, school, and community life.
By, Danny Bernstein
Head Coach, Backyard Sports Cares
