Brett Swip

Somewhere along the way, we started treating failure in youth sports like something to avoid instead of something to grow through. You can feel it in the stands. The tension after a strikeout. The silence after an error. The immediate search for a reason—an umpire, a coach, a bad bounce—anything that explains it away. But sometimes there isn’t a deeper reason. Sometimes they just lost. Sometimes they just failed. Sometimes they just weren’t good enough in that moment. And that’s not a...

I’ve spent 26 years running a club program. I coached 11 years at the college level and 11 years at the high school level. Each environment has a purpose. Each one serves a different role in a player’s development. When those roles are respected, the system works. When they start to blur, problems show up quickly. That’s where we are now. More and more, high school programs are being run like club programs. Easy access for families to coaches and administrators. Parents speaking on behalf of...

There’s a tendency to explain problems in youth athletics as a lack of knowledge or experience. People say, “They just don’t understand the game.” And while that may be partially true, it misses the deeper issue. The real problem is not education. It’s character. Not everyone grows up in a competitive sports environment. Not every family understands the nuances of a game right away. That’s normal. What matters is how you respond when you’re behind. Do you lean in and learn, or do you stay...