The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe

Lee Schwartz is the author of Raising Giants, a memoir about raising his two sons, Geoff and Mitch, both of whom reached the NFL. What started as a father's journey through the world of competitive football became something deeper — a reckoning with the real risks of brain trauma, CTE, and the long-term consequences of repeated head impacts in contact sports.

Lee doesn't shy away from the hard questions. In this episode, he shares what he wish he had known earlier, how families can make more informed decisions about contact sports, and how to balance supporting your child's pa...

Welcome to the 36th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.

This week's word is Ritual.

Not your child's. Yours.

Every athlete has pregame routines — a signal to the body and mind that it's time. But parents have rituals too, and most of us have never examined them. What does your drive to the game sound like? What happens in your body the...

A few weeks ago I was at Queens, watching the semifinals in person. And Fran Cerúndolo gave me three things I haven't stopped thinking about.

He arrived with no momentum, no narrative, no pressure. Nobody was writing about him as a contender on grass. And maybe that was exactly the point — when you carry no expectations, you carry no weight. How often do we load our kids with our hopes and timelines before they even step on the court?

Between points, Fran and his coach Nico Massú had intense exchanges in real time. Not tact...

Coach Sheri Gazitt is a certified coach and founder of Teen Wise, dedicated to helping teen girls and their parents navigate the complexities of adolescence with more confidence and less chaos. With a background in counseling and psychology, Sheri specializes in friendship dynamics, inner confidence, stress management, and emotional resilience — and brings the perspective of a mom who gets it firsthand.

In youth sports, girls don't just face physical and competitive pressure — they face social pressure, friendship drama, and an inner critic that can be louder than any coach. In this episode, Sheri breaks down what's really goin...

Welcome to the 35th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.

This week's word is Enough.

Not as a consolation. As a foundation.

One of the quietest pressures in youth sports is the feeling that love and approval are tied to performance. Kids rarely say it out loud, but many of them feel it — that a bad game means something about who they...

No guest this week. Just Netflix, two hours, and Rafa Nadal being completely honest.

Rafa was the King of Clay. Grass was Roger Federer's territory. Then he decided to change — not his game, his relationship with the surface. Three years later he was Wimbledon champion. That's not talent. That's a choice.

His body was breaking down from the very beginning. What he built wasn't the ability to ignore the pain — it was the ability to separate the signal from the story. Match by match, crisis after crisis.

And the one that stayed with me...

Three years ago, Hernan launched The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe with a simple mission — to create a space where parents could feel seen, supported, and better equipped to raise resilient, happy athletes.

What followed was something he didn't fully anticipate: a global community of families navigating the beautiful chaos of youth sports together.

In this solo episode, Hernan reflects on the journey — where it started, what it has become, and where it's going.

This one is a thank you — and an invitation to keep going.

If today's conversation resonated, I will send o...

Welcome to the 34th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.

This week's word is Voice.

In youth sports, feelings pile up fast. And most kids don't have the words for them yet — they need us to create the space before they can find them.

Voice is the tool that turns emotion into understanding. When a child learns to express what they feel...

The World Cup just started in the United States. And the lesson this week comes from Messi — not at his peak, but at 39.

For years he was the best player in the world and the most questioned man in Argentina. The narrative was clear: he can't do it for his country. He kept showing up anyway. Qatar 2022, Copa América 2024 — two titles in two years after decades of near misses. That's not luck. That's what happens when someone refuses to let the story end before it's finished.

And now he's back. Playing on tired legs again...

Mayra Clay and Marc Krusin are a husband-and-wife team who have spent over 30 years in design and more than 15 years teaching meditation through Ishaya's Ascension (Bright Path). As parents themselves, they have woven mindfulness into the fabric of family life — not as a technique to perform, but as a way of being.

Mayra is also a children's book author, bringing these ideas to life in ways that speak directly to young people. Together, they help families create calmer, more conscious homes where kids can feel grounded even when the pressure of competition is high.

In th...

Welcome to the 33rd Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.

This week's word is Doubt.

Not your child's doubt. Yours.

Am I pushing too hard or not enough? Is this the right sport, the right coach, the right decision? Are they happy? Are they thriving? Am I doing this right?

Doubt is part of the job. It shows up in...

A few weeks ago, Alexander Zverev won the French Open — one of the four Grand Slams in tennis. And the lesson he left me with didn't come from anything he said.

For most of his career he played in someone else's shadow. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Alcaraz. Every time he looked up, someone else was holding the trophy. He won his first Grand Slam at 29. Not because the competition disappeared. Because he never did.

Simon Sinek calls it the infinite game — where the goal isn't to win, but to keep playing. Are we teaching our kids to p...

Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers is a licensed marriage and family therapist, sex therapist, and emeriti professor with over 25 years of experience helping individuals and families heal shame and build genuine connection. She is the author of Shameless Parenting — Everything You Need to Raise Shame-Free, Confident Kids (and Heal Your Shame Too!), a guide that breaks down exactly what kids need developmentally from birth through age 18.

Long before her career in therapy, Dr. Tina was a competitive figure skater and an Olympic hopeful from the age of five through her mid-adolescence. That experience gave her a firsthand understanding of...

Welcome to the 32nd Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.

This week's word is Connection.

Not the kind that happens on the sideline or in the car after a game. The kind that doesn't need a result to exist.

It's easy to fall into a rhythm where most of our conversations with our kids revolve around sport — training, performance, what went well...

Last Sunday, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli won the Monaco Grand Prix — one of the most prestigious and unforgiving races in Formula One history. And nothing about what he showed had anything to do with speed.

He stepped into Formula One at 18 with a quiet, almost unreasonable belief that he belonged — not arrogance, just certainty. Are we building that in our kids?

Ten laps to go, comfortable lead, red flag. Two hours of racing reset in an instant. Lewis Hamilton right behind him. Kimi came out composed, led, and won. Monaco doesn't reward panic. It rewards whoever is m...

Lisa Richer is a certified Neurodiversity Consultant and founder of Journey 2 Bloom. As a former elite athlete and mom of two neurodivergent boys, she brings a rare combination of lived experience and professional expertise to the families she works with.

Lisa helps parents and educators stop trying to fit their kids into systems that weren't built for them — and start building environments where neurodivergent athletes can actually thrive. Her work centers on three things: understanding how each child is wired, building on their strengths, and giving them the clarity and confidence to find their own path.

...

Welcome to the 31st Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. 

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Pressure — a force sports parents must manage carefully, because too much of it can quickly drain motivation and turn youth sports into a source of stress instead of growth. 

It’s not about removing all challenge or ambition — it’s about distinguishing between healthy push and harmful pressure so your child ca...

Adam Roach left me with three things I couldn't shake.

Transformation doesn't start when everything is perfect — it starts when you stop pretending. Community won't fix you, but it will quiet the voice telling you that you're broken.

The people who changed Adam's trajectory weren't the loudest ones in the room. They were the ones with real scars and perspective. Who are those people in your life? In your kids' lives?

And then the one that hit hardest — he hired a relationship coach not because something was wrong, but because he wanted to be w...

Adam Roach is a driven dad raising two kids, Addison and Amelia, with sport at the heart of family life. A former collegiate tennis player, Adam has carried his passion for the game into fatherhood — regularly playing tennis with his kids and building a family culture around competition, growth, and fun.

Beyond the court, Adam brings a wealth of real-world experience to the conversation. Over two decades as an entrepreneur, he has built and scaled businesses across real estate, recruiting technology, and coaching . Today he leads I Love Coaching Co., where he helps leaders build meaningful, performance-driven bu...

Welcome to the 30th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. 

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Joy — an essential element for sports parents to protect, remembering that the main reason children play sports is to have fun, feel alive, and enjoy the game. 

It’s not about winning or constant improvement — it’s about making sure your child stays connected to the pleasure of playing, moving, and c...

Gosia Betancourt didn't stumble into great parenting — she designed it. Two ideas from this conversation worth keeping.

Variety is a method, not a detour. Most parents wait for their kids to find their passion. Gosia chose something different — she gave her boys width before depth. Not because she didn't care about excellence, but because she understood that breadth is how you build a richer, more capable person. Early specialization feels like a shortcut. It's often a ceiling.

Finding the way is the lesson. Gosia's life is proof that conditions are never perfect — and that waiting for th...

Gosia Betancourt is a dedicated mom raising two boys, Joshua and Jake, who are actively involved in competitive sports. She strongly believes in multisport exploration, encouraging her children to try many different sports before specializing so they can discover their true passions.

To better support her sons’ demanding training schedules while maintaining strong academics, Gosia enrolled them in Crimson Global Academy (CGA). The flexible online learning model has allowed her family to reduce stress, create better schedules around training, and give her sons time to train, study, recover, and still enjoy being kids.

In this ep...

Welcome to the 29th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. 

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Letting Go — a necessary practice for sports parents to avoid suffocating your child’s passion and natural drive in youth sports. 

It’s not about caring less or lowering expectations — it’s about releasing the need to control, push, and constantly direct so your child can keep their love for the game an...

After speaking with Jack Dempsey, one line stayed with me.

He doesn’t trust the word “partnership.” He sees it as a polite disguise for a transaction. What he values instead is something much harder to build — a real relationship where both sides are genuinely invested and focused on what they create together.

Then he dropped a powerful analogy: building relationships is like dating. If you rush it, friction appears. And once that friction is there, it doesn’t just disappear — it leaves a mark.

That hit me hard as a parent. How often do we...

Jack Dempsey brings nearly 10 years of experience at Laurel Springs School, one of the nation’s leading accredited online private schools. With a background in admissions where he personally helped enroll over 2,500 students, Jack now leads strategic partnerships and development. He works closely with athletic academies, training programs, and families of competitive athletes to create education solutions that fit intense training schedules.

In this episode, Jack shares insights on the realities of online education in 2026, how Laurel Springs supports NCAA-bound and elite athletes, and practical advice for parents trying to balance academics, sports, and family life without sa...

Welcome to the 28th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. 

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Failure — an important experience for sports parents to normalize, understanding that allowing your child to fail is essential for developing confidence, creativity, and long-term growth in youth sports. 

It’s not about celebrating losing or lowering standards — it’s about removing the fear and shame around mistakes so your child can tak...

After my conversation with Bill Hooper, one idea stayed with me: adjustment.

Not adjusting when things fall apart — adjusting when things are going well.

Bill talked about how easy it is to settle once life feels stable. But the moment you stop paying attention, the drift begins. In parenting, that drift often looks like relying on old patterns instead of staying present with who your child is becoming.

What really resonated with me was his perspective on coaching teenagers. Every kid is different. Different personalities, different needs, different ways they feel understood. Connection co...

Bill Hoopes is a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer who served 20 years, rising through the ranks after enlisting at age 19. Raised in a single-parent household, he left high school at 16 to help support his family, later earning his GED, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Child Development, and a Master’s in Juvenile Policy and Leadership.

After retiring from the Navy and moving to Florida, his daughter’s involvement in softball led him into youth sports. He now serves as Florida State Director for Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF), organizing high-level tournaments across the state. Bill i...

Welcome to the 27th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. 

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Comparison — a habit for sports parents to manage carefully, as constantly measuring your child against others can quietly damage their confidence and motivation in youth sports. 

It’s not about ignoring standards or competition — it’s about shifting focus from other athletes to your child’s own progress, effort, and personal de...

After my conversation with Hannah Huppi, something clicked for me about what high performance really means.

We often focus on the grind and the glory, but Hannah highlighted something many people overlook: the return. She rowed over 600 miles across the Arctic Ocean, set world records, and came home forever changed. Same city, same routines — but a different woman.

Achieving something that big is incredibly hard. What many underestimate is what comes after — how do you integrate that experience and step back into daily life as a new version of yourself?

Parents face this cons...

Hannah Huppi is a world-class rower and adventurer who became the first American woman to row across a polar ocean. In 2025, she set multiple world records in the Arctic Ocean, including the fastest crossing at 10 days and 5 hours. A former USA National Team member, she represented the United States in beach sprint coastal rowing, earned a historic World Championship medal, and was voted USRowing Female Coastal Athlete of the Year.

Beyond sport, Hannah is an entrepreneur who has co-founded and sold startups in fitness, rowing, and real estate tech. As a dedicated wife and mother to a...

Welcome to the 26th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Resilience — a core skill for sports parents to develop in their children, helping them learn to recover from mistakes, losses, and difficulties in youth sports. 

It’s not about toughening them up or ignoring their emotions — it’s about allowing them to face challenges directly, process setbacks, and build the mental strength and...

After speaking with Shane Watson, i9 Sports franchise owner, my perspective on youth sports shifted.

His daughter was shy and quiet at age 4. Instead of pushing her or rushing into one sport, they let her try multiple sports — soccer, baseball, basketball — in a low-pressure environment. Over time, her confidence grew. She started speaking up, engaging more, and showing up differently.

This short note reminds us: Sports aren’t just about performance — they’re about building identity and confidence.

Most parents focus on talent and early specialization. But real growth happens when kids feel safe enoug...

Shane Watson is a former professional baseball player who was drafted by the Phillies out of high school in Lakewood, California. After nearly a decade in pro baseball, he transitioned into youth sports by becoming an i9 Sports franchise owner in Southern California. As a husband and father, Shane is actively involved in coaching his children’s teams, including running 6U and youth baseball programs with the LMB Sluggers. He brings firsthand insight from both sides: the high-pressure, year-round demands he experienced as a kid that caused him to miss many normal childhood moments, and his current mission to ma...

Welcome to the 25th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. 

Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Responsibility — a key awareness for sports parents to develop, recognizing how teaching your child to own their effort, choices, and outcomes builds essential life skills in youth sports. 

It’s not about taking on more tasks yourself — it’s about gradually shifting age-appropriate responsibility to your child so they learn account...

After interviewing Alyssa Tormala on the podcast, I found myself thinking more deeply about how parents choose schools—and one idea kept coming up: we’re asking the wrong question. Most conversations focus on which system is better—online or traditional—but that debate misses what actually matters, because school is doing something far more powerful than delivering information; it’s shaping something underneath. In this short note, I share a different way to look at education—one that shifts the focus away from content and toward something most parents overlook, a small change in perspective that can completely alter how yo...

Alyssa Tormala is an experienced education leader with nearly 20 years in private and independent schools. She currently serves as Head of School at Laurel Springs School, where she leads academic strategy, oversees faculty, and supports students and families in high-achievement environments.

Before moving into education, Alyssa spent over six years practicing law after earning her Juris Doctor from Stanford University. Her transition from law to education reflects a deep interest in human development, learning systems, and how people perform under pressure.

Throughout her career, Alyssa has worked closely with driven students and families navigating high...

Welcome to the 24th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. 

Today’s word is Expectations — a crucial pause for sports parents to take, noticing how the silent forecasts and benchmarks you carry can either lift your child up or quietly steal the joy from their youth sports journey.

It’s not about giving up on dreams — it’s about freeing expectations from perfection and comparison, so they res...

After interviewing rower Cara Stawicki on the podcast, my perspective on late bloomers shifted.

Most parents think if talent hasn’t shown up by a certain age, it never will. That’s not how performance works.

Cara started rowing at 18, made the national team at 34, and won gold in her late 30s. The game-changer? She stopped seeing herself as “just someone who works hard” and started seeing herself as a racer who competes and goes for results.Once that clicked, everything followed.

In this short note I share why time is not the enemy (i...

Cara Stawicki is a World Champion rower and high-performance coach who helps athletes and leaders build confidence, overcome self-doubt, and perform at their best. As a member of the U.S. National Team, she won gold at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and spent years training and competing at the highest level of international sport.

Her journey wasn’t linear—Cara has been open about the internal challenges she faced along the way, including confidence struggles and finding her identity within high performance. Those experiences now shape her work, where she focuses on mindset, self-awareness, and helping individuals crea...