The Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative is interested in what’s working in youth sports – promising solutions finding success at the community level that hold the potential to be scaled across the country with the help of motivated organizations. Here’s one model worthy of study, which we will explore in depth at the 2024 Project Play Summit, May 14-15 in Baltimore.

TAKOMA PARK, Maryland – It’s 3:40 pm on a fall afternoon, and as classes let out, about 40 children flood into the outdoor patio at Rolling Terrace Elementary School. They come for snacks and soccer and receive life lessons along the way.

On this day, many are antsy to play soccer, tying their free cleats and chatting loudly with friends rather than listening to their mentors discuss what optimism and persistence mean. Lukas Barbieri, a high school student who is the youngest of Rolling Terrace’s soccer mentors, eventually quiets the kids down.

“Does anyone remember what optimism means?” Barbieri asks.

“Helping your friends,” says one child. “Being thoughtful,” adds another.

“Sort of,” Barbieri replies. “Optimism means you have to believe in yourself.”

In a sense, this scene represents what optimism for youth sports looks like.

Recognizing the need for an alternative to the expensive, up-or-out model that has dominated the culture, the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association (MSYSA) created a playbook on how to get and keep more underrepresented children playing sports. Seventeen Title I, or high poverty, elementary schools in Maryland now offer a free, eight-week afterschool program, engaging more than 900 children. The MSYSA program is called Let’s Play!, made possible with the help of innovative partnerships, funding from government that aims to improve the mental health and educational achievement of students, and incentives to recruit coaches from the community.

Let’s Play! launched in fall 2021 with four schools serving 175 children. Other schools quickly heard of it, causing MSYSA to rapidly expand. If not for challenges hiring coach-mentors, MSYSA officials said Let’s Play! could be scaled up in more than 200 schools across the state.

Count Rolling Terrace Elementary as one that wants more programming. It has seen the impact.

Located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C., the elementary school’s enrollment is largely minority students (75% Hispanic or Latino/a and 16% Black). Student math and reading test scores are about three times lower than all of Montgomery County Public Schools. Rolling Terrace uses Two-Way Immersion, an educational model in which students typically receive lessons from two teachers – one providing instruction in English and the other in Spanish.

COVID-19 exacerbated academic and social challenges at the school, which was searching for ways to help kids. Let’s Play! is so popular at Rolling Terrace that administrators turned away 15 third graders for its fall 2023 session (they will play in the spring). Due to very small fields with minimal grass, Rolling Terrace can only offer Let’s Play! once a week to each child – 60 younger kids on Tuesdays and 80 older kids on Thursdays.

“I was super persistent with (MSYSA) because I knew I had to have it here,” said Anne Koroknay, community school liaison at Rolling Terrace. “The first year there was a major difference in behavior at recess that extended into the classroom. We saw again recess soccer, which used to be unstructured. Now kids structure play more themselves: ‘I’m on Team Tuesday, I’m Team Thursday.’ I just wish I had more space to offer this to more students.”

Nationally, 1.2 million fewer youth ages 6-17 participated in sports on a regular basis between 2019 and 2022, according to the Aspen Institute’s State of Play 2023 report. Our sport system remains fundamentally flawed – 25% of kids in homes earning under $25,000 regularly play sports vs. 39% in homes earning $100,000 or more. Many families simply can’t afford club sports. If children aren’t exposed to sports at young ages, especially at free or reduced costs within schools, the chances increase that they will never play as they get older.

When Soccer America wrote about Let’s Play!, it piqued our interest within the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. And with good reason. Although there are challenges still being navigated and opportunities exist for more growth, MSYSA identified through Let’s Play! a systems-level local solution that can increase participation not only for soccer, but other sports too.

Here’s how MSYSA does it – and how other sports providers can adopt all or portions of this playbook too.

1. Recognize the gaps created by the commercialized youth sports model.
COVID-19 shined a bright light on inequities in youth sports access and the challenges that recreational sports, especially in low-income communities, had recovering from the pandemic. As programs in these communities struggled to return to play, MSYSA president Mark Cantor gave his board a directive: it’s time to serve more Black and Latino/a children.

For 45 years, MSYSA followed the path of many state soccer governing bodies. It hosted the Maryland State Cup (the state-level tournament in the US Youth Soccer National Championship Series), an Olympic Development Program that aggregates top club players, and skills-focused summer camps that can help players get looks from college scouts. But all of this programming caters to kids from wealthier families that can afford paying thousands of dollars a year in fees and travel costs, a model that disproportionately excludes many minority children, especially as kids move from town-based rec programs to private clubs starting around age 11 or earlier. State Cup play in Maryland now starts at 11U after previously beginning at 12U.

More than 60,000 children participated in MSYSA-sanctioned programs. Yet, there are more than 1.1 million youth ages 5-13 in the Maryland and Washington D.C. area, a statistic MSYSA leadership began to focus on.

“We decided this is a real opportunity for growth, but the growth won’t happen by continuing what we did for 45 years,” said Greg Smith, MSYSA executive director. “If we’re going to be somewhere else in the next 45 years, we have to do things differently.”

Part of doing something differently meant MSYSA accepting that Let’s Play!, a free, early-entry point for children, is not designed to promote emerging talent and for children to elevate into competitive leagues, above all else. Smith said the goal of the model is caring for underserved families through sustainable programming that’s operated by and for members of the communities in which kids live.

The next, untapped challenge is sustaining the ability of students to play into high school, where interscholastic teams with limited roster spots often go to players with club training, leaving less skilled or competitive players without an opportunity to continue playing.

“Is it likely that at some point to build upon this there should be something else within the same model, so it doesn’t cost older players anything?” Smith said. “Yeah, we should think about that.”

2. Partner with schools, especially designated “community schools.”
The rise of community schools nationally in recent years can unlock government funding for extracurricular programming that goes beyond what happens on the field. Let’s Play! works in large part because it focuses on developing the student, not simply the game of soccer.

“When a program is focused on sports for youth development rather than just sports for sports, there’s much more access to funding,” said Nathean Meadows, MSYSA director of outreach and grassroots for Let’s Play! “Very few people are willing to just throw money at sports.”

Community schools promote positive, equitable outcomes by providing students and families with the physical and mental health, academic, and extracurricular supports needed to thrive. They serve as hubs that bring families, communities and partners together, and provide a wide array of wraparound services to neighborhoods that have been historically underfunded.

In Maryland, community schools can either be identified by a local school system or through receiving the Concentration of Poverty Grant. Schools with 75% or more students eligible for free and reduced meals receive these grants, which provide schools with startup funding and permanent per-pupil dollars to launch and sustain community schools.

Nationally, schools are eligible for federal Title I dollars if at least 40% of students are from low-income families, as defined by the U.S. Census. From there, complex formulas are used to determine Title I funding. Schools apply for funding and must describe how the funds would be used to improve academic performance.

The U.S. Department of Education distributes funds to State Educational Agencies, which distributes funds to Local Education Agencies, which then provides funds to specific public schools that are in need. Every local education agency in Maryland receives Title I funds, which can be used to support social-emotional learning, extra instruction in reading and math, additional teachers, materials of instruction, and after-school and summer programs to extend and reinforce the regular school curriculum.

Meadows said that schools adopting Let’s Play! report “increased relationships between students at school, especially more boys talking and playing with girls at recess, which in many of our Hispanic schools, there’s a disconnect because they don’t like to play together.”

At Rolling Terrace, about two-thirds of the student soccer participants are boys and one-third are girls. Girls on the Run, an afterschool running program that encourages girls to recognize their individual strengths, is also offered at Rolling Terrace.

“Not as many girls in our community will naturally feel welcome to play soccer,” said Koroknay, whose full-time job as community liaison is to bring in additional programming and wraparound services to children at Rolling Terrace. “I highly encourage girls to be part of it.”

3. Identify other funding sources to scale inclusive programming.
Initially, MSYSA charged families $10 so they would be more likely to stay engaged with the program. The association transitioned to free programming after receiving a three-year, $80,000 grant from U.S. Soccer’s Innovate to Grow program which promotes new models. For any school that can’t pay for Let’s Play!, MSYSA covers costs through grants or association reserves.

Grantees of the Innovate to Grow program must stay in good standing with the federation through paying basic member dues, collecting player registration data, and adopting the U.S. Center for SafeSport abuse prevention policies that apply to all members of National Governing Bodies of Sports certified by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Grantees also must:

Show that funds used can scale up and expand access to the game
Embrace U.S. Soccer philosophies on player development, coaching, and player safety
Identify financial investment into the program, including the organization’s own funds, other donor/sponsor funding, reinvesting program revenue, or in-kind contributions

MSYSA receives additional support from other partners. The Maryland Sports Commission made Let’s Play! part of its unsuccessful 2026 World Cup bid and has continued its financial support. Nike provides a free soccer ball for every child. Leveling the Playing Field gives every child free cleats. The youth sports registration platform TeamSnap – which, like Nike and the U.S. Soccer Federation, is a member of the Project Play 2024 industry roundtable – increased its initial contribution of $5,000 to $20,000 by sponsoring specific schools in Maryland.

“It’s a tremendous program by exposing kids of color to high-quality coaching and connections that they can’t normally access,” said Lance Lee, TeamSnap director of impact. “It’s absolutely a model that should be replicated in cities across the country, and not just soccer. It could be done for tennis, lacrosse and other nontraditional sports for kids of color.”

The costs to operate Let’s Play! for an entire year generally run between $10,000 to $20,000 per school, Meadows said. The cost for a single season is generally $5,000 or less. Different variables impact costs. For instance, some schools need transportation to run Let’s Play! after school in order to provide an equitable experience for all kids. Other schools cost less because students walk home.

Staff expenses for coach-mentors and MYSAA program coordinators covers about half of the costs. MSYSA hired two full-time employees to coordinate the Let’s Play! program in 17 schools, in addition to Meadows’ role. MSYSA uses a ratio of one coordinator for every 12 schools.

4. Hire younger people as coaching mentors and pay them.
Coaches at MSYSA are called coach mentors – and they’re critical. If needed, the Let’s Play! model is nimble enough so costs can be cut significantly if a school finds volunteer coaches. But the reality is it’s increasingly hard at any level to find coaches, so MSYSA budgets in coach mentor pay while trying to keep the ratio to one coach for every 10 children.

Coach mentors who serve as a school’s site lead receive $23-$30 per hour. All other mentors are paid $18-$22 per hour. Mentors said they enjoy giving back but stressed that getting paid is important. Some mentors work at multiple schools and up to 10 hours a week during a season.

“We’ve made the commitment to pay because it’s one additional way we’re helping these communities,” Smith said. “We want people serving as coach-mentors from that community and we want to put more money in their pocket. We believe it’s having a very positive impact.”

About 75% of coach-mentors are college or high school-age students and about 25% are retirees. The four mentors at Rolling Terrace range in age from 17 to 25. They are intentionally young and diverse (two are Latino, one is female) to connect with students. And they’re not too far removed from playing soccer, so they remember what they liked and disliked as players.

Finding coach-mentors is the biggest challenge that prevents Let’s Play! from expanding more rapidly, Meadows said. MSYSA’s job postings on Indeed.com is its top source for hirings. About 80% of Let’s Play! schools operate twice a week. With more coach-mentors, Meadows said programming could increase to three to five days a week.

“It’s critical the program is in the community, for the community, and by the community,” Meadows said. “Many coach mentors live in the school’s community or very close by. That’s very important to us for the sustainability of the program. We don’t want to come into a school for a year and move on to the next school. We want to be there as long as they’ll have us.”

5. Use curriculum that promotes whole-child development.
Let’s Play! uses curriculum created by Coaching Corps (which has since merged with Positive Coaching Alliance) called POSE. The acronym stands for Persistence, Optimism, Self-Regulation and Empathy – all critical life skills that children need to learn and are easily transferrable in a sports context. Coach mentors are trained in the methodology through these methods:

Name it: Talk to kids about one or more of the four traits before soccer play starts.
Look for it: Identify when they see a trait happen as the kids play, or an opportunity when a child could have shown that trait. (“Don’t give up. Be optimistic!” one coach mentor told a Rolling Terrace student struggling to keep up on the field.)
Coach it: Talk with children about what they saw, or an area of growth related to one or more traits.
Share it: Ask children if there was a time during the session when they showed a particular trait in order to positively reinforce the lesson.

Sessions start off the field by coach mentors discussing POSE traits and the nutritional topic of the day. At Rolling Terrace, as children consumed baked Tostitos, cheese sticks and water, site leader Edwin Parada asked the elementary students for examples of an “always food” that’s green. Kids identified broccoli and apples. They struggled to name others.

“What about sometimes food?” Parada asked, meaning less-healthy food children can sometimes eat. The children easily rattled off many options – McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, pizza and many more. For many of these children, it’s not always possible to eat healthy food given their economic situations and the lack of grocery stores in their neighborhoods.

6. Focus activities on small-sided games and fun.
The soccer piece of Let’s Play! is based around playing at all costs, including pop-up goals for small-sided games. “Scrimmage time is an absolutely critical part of the program,” Meadows said. “If anything goes away, scrimmage must remain at all costs. We don’t want them standing behind a cone and learning how to dribble through cones while everyone else waits in line.”

At the end of each session, coach mentors debrief with each other about areas to improve next time. They focus particularly on whether any children needed extra attention or had a tough day and need more support next time.

At Rolling Terrace, a handful of kids said they have played on teams. Their skills backed it up. Most players appeared to be beginners.

“No one is learning elite soccer skills here,” Meadows said. “The relationship piece is the most important aspect.”

7. Reach out to MSYSA for support.
U.S. Soccer Federation leaders have long talked about its goal of making soccer the preeminent sport in the country. MSYSA leaders believe Let’s Play! can help and say they are willing to share the program’s curriculum, budgets, job descriptions and marketing materials with any party.

“The reality is it doesn’t take a state association to do this,” Smith said. “It can be a club. It can be another nonprofit. It can be a foundation. Our federation could do this. We want to give this program to whoever wants it. Call it whatever you want. Take all the credit, I don’t care. What we care about is these communities are being improved through the game and more kids are playing.”

The approach taken in Maryland should be a model for other states, said Doug Andreassen, former chair of U.S. Soccer’s diversity task force and past president of Washington Youth Soccer, the equivalent of MSYSA in that state as the recognized governing body under US Youth Soccer.

For Let’s Play! to work elsewhere, “it needs a champion in a state to drive the program,” Andreassen said. “We need to bring these programs to all of our diverse or underserved communities and not just those that are in the inner cities.”

There are other models to consider as well, beyond Let’s Play. Some state soccer organizations have successful partnerships with their Major League Soccer teams’ foundations to run similar programs, Andreassen said. States that don’t partner with MLS or lack an MLS franchise in their state may use the Soccer for Success program through the U.S. Soccer Foundation, which was created from the legacy of the 1994 World Cup and is separate from the U.S. Soccer Federation.

““The reality is it doesn’t take a state association to do this. It can be a club. It can be another nonprofit. It can be a foundation. Our federation could do this. We want to give this program to whoever wants it. Call it whatever you want. Take all the credit, I don’t care. What we care about is these communities are being improved through the game and more kids are playing.””

— Greg Smith, MSYSA executive director

In January, the American Youth Soccer Organization added to the options of low- or no-cost, entry-level options. The longtime league provider introduced a program more flexible than its traditional offering, one that is explicitly not based on teams or leagues and comes in several formats, including a one-day pop-up event, an afterschool enrichment program, and in-school curriculum.

“The success of these programs all come down to the Board of Directors,” Andreassen said. “Some of the states have a very dedicated board that wants to run these programs and sees the benefits of them to the game and their community. Others, not so much, unfortunately.”

New Jersey Youth Soccer Association and New York State West Youth Soccer Association added their own versions of Let’s Play! through schools. MSYSA has talked to other state associations without much success.

“We’re finding that it’s really hard to actually get people to want to make this a priority even if it’s all funded,” Smith said. “All you have to do is want to do it. We’ve been presenting this for two years and two states have actually implemented programs. What New Jersey did was amazing. It was exactly what we envision. But people are busy and doing their own thing. I don’t think there’s any more urgent need in our country in youth sports than to get more people participating at every level.”

Jon Solomon is Community Impact Director of the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program. For more information about Let’s Play!, contact Greg Smith (greg@msysa.org) or Nathean Meadows (nathean@msysa.org) with the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association.

Join us for a conversation on the Let’s Play! model by registering for the Project Play Summit.