'Is it worth it?': Red flags to watch with youth sports programs

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'Is it worth it?': Red flags to watch with youth sports programs

Stephen Borelli, USA TODAY · USA TODAY Sports

Sun, Aug 3, 2025 ·

12 min read

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USA Hockey didn't invent the line, but Ken Martel has used it when he talks about succeeding in sports.

"As many as possible for as long as possible with the best environment possible," the organization's senior director of player and coach development told USA TODAY Sports in an interview last year.

He was referring to the American Development Model program he helped install more than a decade and a half ago, when the sport was losing young players in our country.

The ADM, which has become the cornerstone of USA Hockey's message , has helped bring them back to the ice in droves and, in Martel's thinking, continues to help generate world junior championship titles .

"When you have more kids playing, certainly a few more of them will turn out to be good and you'll see 'em on TV, right?" he says.

USA Hockey created the ADM to help keep kids, parents and coaches engaged while, at least in theory, giving everyone a chance to organically develop to his or her full athletic potential.

It starts with getting boys and girls enthused from an early age, infusing a love of competition (without a laser focus on winning) and engaging them into adulthood.

USA Hockey reports 577,864 registered players (kids and adults) for 2024-25, up from 465,975 in 2008-09.

"Geography is no longer a predetermining factor in who can be good in our sport," Martel says.

USA TODAY reported Aug. 1, however, about how one NHL club has a monopoly over North Texas ice. It effectively controls the pathways by which the region's young players advance, Kenny Jacoby writes , and has reminded (and even threatened) parents they can block it at any time.

Inside the StarCenter ice rink in Mansfield, Texas.

"You get so beaten down, and you see your kid get screwed over for opportunities, and you decide, 'You know what? Maybe I do have to play by their rules to get where I want to be,' " says Kat Pierce, a hockey mom whom a Dallas Stars employee attempted to reprimand when she criticized them in a social media post.

The power to decide to play a sport, and to stick with it, is ultimately the choice of our kids. As parents we have a right to speak up to a coach or organization without fear of them being penalized.

We know from this story and others about the so-called "professionalism of youth sports" that the system isn't always that simple. Here are eight red flags to watch with youth sports programs:

You don't feel like you have a say with anything

USA Hockey delegates much of its authority to regional affiliates. The Texas Amateur Hockey Association oversees Texas and Oklahoma.

Member associations' votes are weighted by the number of players they register and, as USA TODAY reports, tilt heavily in the interests of those in Stars leagues or with teams that rent Stars ice.

It's an issue with which many of us can relate, at least to some degree. Running a youth team or league is entrusted in the hands of a few – club owners or the board. All too often, it seems, they prioritize their own interests: Making a steep profit or giving their own kids All-Star slots.

You should never feel you don't have power, though. Volunteer for the board, file a complaint with the league about a nepotistic coach or speak to other parents if something doesn't feel right. It probably isn't.

Band together in your opposition. A board or coach can brush aside one complaint but a collective one isn't as easily ignored, and it isn't good for business.

Coach Steve: How do I deal with a bad coach? Here are three steps

You fear if you speak up, your kid will be penalized

OK, maybe it's not that simple. When Jacoby, my USA TODAY colleague, reported about the Stars' heavy influence in North Texas, he came across a number of parents hesitant to raise concerns out of fear of retaliation against their kids.

One dad who coached at a Stars complex inquired about coaching at a competing rink after he felt the Stars had failed to address a safety concern. The Stars fired him when he did so, according to emails he provided, and allegedly banned his 5- and 7-year-old daughters. (A Stars employee denied banning his daughters.)

No one wants to risk putting their kids' dreams, or even their playing time, in jeopardy. But think about the concern for a moment. Is being on a team where you're afraid to rock the boat really a situation you want your child to have to endure?

Before you do anything, talk to your son or daughter about their experience. They might not want to be there anyway. You always have a voice in their sports journey.

You fear if you leave, there will be no 'better' options

Think of yourself as an investor in your team or league. Its leaders should be open to your constructive criticism on how to make it better.

Don't take to social media to complain, where you risk making someone feel public embarrassment. Instead, schedule a private meeting where you can mention your concerns diplomatically. The reaction you get will give you a good indication of where you stand.

If they aren't willing to consider spreading out rink fees over a larger group of teams, or giving every kid equal playing time when you're paying for a college showcase experience, for example, this might not be worth your time.

No single team will make or break whether your child reaches an elite level of a sport, but a single experience might determine whether they keep playing at all.

We can help. Submit your feedback here about how the corporatization of youth sports has affected you and your kids. We wrote in a line specifically for those of you who've faced retaliation or threats.

You feel pressured (or are outright told) not to play other sports

An internal study the NHL and NHL Players' Association conducted in 2018 found that out of the 700-plus players on rosters, 98% of them were multisport athletes as kids.

"Get out, play multiple sports," says USA Hockey's Martel. "Look, if your passion's not ice hockey, you're never gonna really turn out to be a great player if you don't truly love it. And if you find a passion that happens to be another sport, wonderful."

The American Development Model recommends multisport play until at least age 12. Arguments can be made to take it longer.

"I am dead set against single-sport athletes (while kids are growing up)," former football coach Urban Meyer has said . "When my son was playing baseball I had many people tell me that he should just stop playing other sports and focus on baseball. I got in big arguments with people, and a lot of those kids that (at) nine, 10 years old were great - they blew out. They burned out, and they're not playing anymore ."

Meyer said he looked at kids who played football and another sport at a high level. Brenda Frese, another national championship-winning coach, also loves recruiting basketball players who play multiple sports.

"We just see the benefits of it – you know, mentally, physical, socially, you name it," Frese's husband, Mark Thomas, told me in an interview for a 2023 profile of the Maryland women's coach and her family.

"At an early age, teams try to take over your calendar. A key little tool I learned is that as long as you're playing multiple sports, you give yourself some leverage that they can't take over your schedule completely because you have commitments to multiple teams. Eventually, you may have some hard-line coaches."

When one of the couple's twin sons played club soccer in seventh grade, Thomas recalled the coach telling parents and players: We expect you to only play soccer now and if you're not just playing soccer, then we don't want you.

"From the soccer club's end, why wouldn't you keep more kids involved?" Thomas said. "I mean, he was never a kid who was gonna be a professional or anything like that. I didn't understand the point."

The National Athletic Trainers' Association recommends playing for one team at a time, playing a sport for less than eight months per year and at no more hours per week than your age.

You can always specialize the year before high school if you are concerned about making a specific team, but playing other sports recreationally on the side will make you a better athlete.

You're on a team with a primary focus of winning titles

As Martel looked to reinvent American hockey, he discontinued a 12-and-under national championship.

"The only pushback we got was from a few adults that run programs; it was more about them than it was about the kids," he says. "Why do we need to run across the country at 12 for a championship? If you're gonna run a 12U national championship, the 10U coach starts aggregating players because we need to get them all together so that they're ready by the time they're 12. And it just starts the race to the bottom sooner."

Project Play, a national initiative of the Aspen Institute to build healthy communities through sports, surveys children. When it asks them what they like most about playing sports, having fun and playing with friends always ranks at the top and by a lot, according to Aspen Sports & Society community impact director Jon Solomon.

Solomon says winning games and chasing scholarships rank lower, such as in the Washington, D.C. State of Play report .

Yes, kids thrive off game situations. But instead of loading up on age-specific travel tournaments, play the 8- through 12-year-olds together, as USA Hockey suggests. Prioritize small-sided games in practice over "boring" drills, as Martel calls them.

"We do different things in that to get them to work on different technical abilities and different tactical situations," Martel says. "But kids have fun. They get to problem solve. There's autonomy to that. And you see that in our play."

It costs a lot less, too.

A team - or a tournament - requires you to stay at specific hotels with no flexibility

We love the adventure of traveling with our kids through their sports. Hitting the road can give them exposure to top competition. It's also a prime intersection for collusion.

For years, according to USA TODAY reporting, three Stars executives organized tournaments that required out-of-town participants to book minimum three-night stays at select hotels. At the same time, they ran their own for-profit company that took a cut of the revenue.

After our investigation, the Stars say they will be "loosening" the policies.

Although stay-to-play arrangements remain common across youth sports, I have never encountered one over about eight years of traveling with my sons for their baseball teams.

The hotels our team or a tournament recommends are always suggestions. I book at a better rate through my rewards program if I find one.

We sometimes run into tournaments that are a couple of hours from home. Once the game times are announced, we might choose to return for one of the nights.

Having that choice improves our quality of life, and our satisfaction with the team.

The coach has a chummy relationship with a few of the other players' parents

The most effective coaches maintain a cordial yet arm's length rapport with parents.

They lay out the ground rules in a meeting before the season – no parent coaching from the bleachers, perhaps? – and say something to parents who violate them.

Playing for close friends is inevitable when kids are younger. When they are preparing to play high school ball or competing in front of college coaches, though, there are enough distractions without having to worry about your coach favoring someone over you.

You can't answer affirmatively: 'Is it worth it?'

Brent Tully was a former defenseman who helped Team Canada win two world junior championships in the 1990s. He later became general manager for an elite junior hockey team in Ontario and has coached younger players. He's also a father of two athletes.

He has seen first hand the long hours and travel, the tens of thousands of dollars spent, the living "hand-to-mouth," as Pierce, the Texas hockey mom, described in my colleague's story.

All for what?

"I can't imagine parents at the end of that last year (when) their child isn't drafted," Tully said in 2024. "And that's the end. The disappointment of the ending, it's all too frequent.

"My oldest son, back when he was playing, they were an average to below average team. And they stayed that way, even beyond the years he had stopped playing. I knew some of the fathers pretty well. And one father, at the end of nine years of minor hockey - and he complained all the time, complained about his son's ice time, about the coaching - I remember saying to him, 'So was that all worth it?' Was that fun? All the money you spent. Your son's now gone to college, and he's working a job and you could have had him play house league, probably left with a lot less frustration. And he can still play the game his whole life at the level he's playing. ...

"Regardless of where a boy or girl plays, that should be a great experience."

Coach Steve: 10 questions athletes should consider if they play on a travel team

With the right experience, his sport can be ingrained in someone from "cradle to grave," as USA Hockey's Martel describes.

"Hockey is played with no contact in a lot of places," he says. "We have 70-and-over national championships. It's really low impact and it's a lot of fun. There's people that play when they're 100. So hopefully you come back to the sport and you're involved over a life.

"You don't see that in American football. No one wants to go out and get tackled and have to go to work the next day."

Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons' baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here .

Got a question for Coach Steve you want answered in a column? Email him at sborelli@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Red flags in youth sports programs, how to spot and respond to them

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