From travel teams and private coaching to year-round specialization and rising safety concerns, youth sports are no longer just games. They are increasingly shaped by adult expectations, financial investment and dreams of future opportunity.
Join the Sports and Society Institute and the Department of Sociology for a public conversation on the professionalization of youth sports.
The event will feature:
Ohio State sociologist Chris Knoester, SSI's research director and lead researcher on the National Sports and Society Survey;
New York Times writer Ken Belson, , whose work has explored youth football, concussions, mental health, artificial turf and the pressures surrounding modern sport.
- Brad Foltz, Jameson Crane Sports Medicine Institute
The conversation will examine how youth sports are changing, who is affected and how communities can create healthier, more accessible and more meaningful sport experiences for young people.