By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

As we at the MHSAA work toward promoting the benefits of a multi-sport experience at the high school level, we – with our Multi-Sport Task Force – realize these messages will be most valuable when they reach parents of children at the youth levels.

Below is an 18-minute TEDx talk by Travis Dorsch, a former kicker and punter at Purdue University and with multiple NFL teams who went on to receive his doctorate from Purdue and currently serves as an assistant professor at Utah State. He has conducted significant study on children’s youth sport participation and its impacts particularly on family relationships. 

In this talk, he speaks on proper expectations for young athletes and how financial costs of youth sports have twisted those expectations.

Dorsch will speak at the 6^th Annual Kristen Marie Gould Endowed Lecture on Sport for Children and Youth on Sept. 6 at Michigan State University. He will be lecturing on “From Sandlot to Stadium: What We Know, What We Don't, and Best Practices for Parent Involvement in Youth Sport.”