Five Youth Sports Trends You Need to Know

Grab your Caitlin Clark jersey, and let's dig into this year's State of Play!

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Back in my pregnancy days, I was obsessed with the BabyCenter app. It wasn’t only about uncovering the basics of the micro-world in which my soon-to-be-child was developing. Oh look, the baby went from a kumquat to a kiwi! It was an incredible resource worthy of the time investment.

Yeah, it’s bit odd to analogize having a baby to youth sports. But it’s been a weird few weeks, and an industry bible is an industry bible.

In the world of youth sports, that bible is Project Play’s State of Play. This annual publication offers the latest data and pinpoints trends using a variety of respected sources. It’s targeted to community leaders to help frame their programming and outreach. But it’s also helpful to us youth sports parents to stay on top of the big picture. Perhaps some of the trends will inspire acute decisions or alter your viewpoint on the direction of this behemoth industry.

You can and should read State of Play 2024 in its entirety. But here are five takeaways that I found especially noteworthy.

The Caitlin Clark effect has (probably) been massive: More girls are playing basketball thanks to Clark. The numbers can’t be entirely be quantified yet but the evidence is overwhelming. Everyone has heard of Clark. Her mere presence in the WBNA has shattered viewership records, regularly drawing seven-figure audiences. As State of Play also notes, the increased demand for youth basketball in Iowa (home of Clark’s alma mater, University of Iowa) has been so overwhelming that officials are struggling to keep up. Also interesting is that Iowa at 67.8% has the second-highest rate of girls aged 6-17 participating in youth sports. (Per 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health). Maine is tops at 68.9%. One of the report’s sources from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) likened Clark’s impact to the Mia Hamm effect in the 90’s when girls started playing soccer en masse.

Start with Clark and add in proactive sport sampler events such as “Play Like a Girl” at the community level, girl’s flag gaining popularity and the new professional women’s lacrosse league, and the opportunity for more growth is enormous.

Older adults getting into coaching post-pandemic: This one shocked me. After comprising only a sliver of the youth sports coaching pool for much of the past decade (about 20% max), adults 55+ are putting on their coaching hats. Per the SFIA, 40% of youth sports coaches in 2023 were over 55. What a great way to stay active and engaged in the community.

My younger kid is in a run club through his elementary school and the coach is a retired teacher in her early 60’s, I believe. Seeing her energy and positively, not to mention her stamina, gives me all the feels.

Will climate change force football to shift to the spring? Earlier this year, we chatted with an expert from the Korey Stringer Institute all about the increasing dangers of youth sports amid rising temperatures. This was in the wake of a slew of sudden deaths among youth football players, several from cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, temperatures are only projected to rise, making sports at certain times of the year more and more dangerous. A terrifying chart from State of Play:

Of course, Texas and Louisiana happen to be two of the country’s youth football meccas. One glimpse at the reality and this prediction from Korey Stringer Institute CEO Douglas Case to USA Today, included in State of Play 2024, feels more probable than not. “I’m a big believer that in 20 years, high school football will be a spring sport and not a fall sport.”

Coaches need and want more mental health training: Per the SFIA, 39.4% of youth sports coaches in 2023 said they received CPR training, the highest percentage in a specific subject. Next came sport skills (30.2%), followed by general injury prevention (29.2%). Don’t love that concussion training comes in at just 25.6%. Nowhere on the list was mental health training.

In a 2022 surgery conducted by the Aspen Institute and Ohio State, just 18% of youth sport coaches were confident in their ability to redirect athletes to mental health resources. But 67% wanted to be more educated on the subject.

Luckily times are changing. In 2024, high school athletic associations in Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington required school-based coaches to partake in mental health training per the Million Coaches Challenge. Maryland and Ohio have state laws requiring training for public high school coaches. As State of Play spells out, these trainings help coaches recognize signs of mental health illness including depression, suicide, and substance abuse.

Pennsylvania is considering a similar bill though it’s not without opposition. State of Play cites State Rep. Jesse Topper (R-Bedford), a long time football coach, telling the Pennsylvania Capital Star, “I think something that we always have to be careful of is adding more requirements when we already have shortages of coaches, of teachers, counselors…”

I’m wary of anyone leading kids who finds the notion of mental health training to be over the top. Here’s hoping the push for more training passes in Pennsylvania and trickles to the younger ages nationwide. Attention youth sports organizations: There is zero reason not to incorporate some mental illness recognition in your coaches trainings.

Meet the newest high school sport: Of course it’s pickleball. Was there even a question? This year, Maryland’s Montgomery County became the first school district in the country to offer pickleball as a varsity sport. The district is using the slogan “Pickleball for all” as the sport is offered for all levels, including students with disabilities. Would you like to see pickleball in your school district?

Again, there is much more to digest and I highly recommend spending some time with the full State of Play 2024. It really is the youth sports bible.