PROJECT PLAY SUMMIT 2020 | DAY 2
Watch Day 2 Sessions
COVID-19 Will Transform School Sports
New Models, New Athletes
Long before she was a starter on the U.S. women’s soccer team, Crystal Dunn was the only Black girl on her youth team growing up in a predominantly white New York neighborhood. She said she didn’t face discrimination and had healthy relationships with teammates. But she often thought what it meant to look different and why she didn’t see representation in her sport.
“It was quite lonely at times,” Dunn said at the Aspen Institute’s Project Play Summit 2020.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams – a rare Black pro athlete who was breaking down barriers in another White sport – was a role model to Dunn. Williams, like Dunn, faced backlash from critics over her thick body and strength. Dunn had muscles as a child, too, and could do more pullups than the boys.
“Sometimes young athletes might feel like they need to have a platform or a following (to speak about racial inequities). But we all have a following in our own lives and it looks like our families and friends. Having some of those conversations and finding small ways to bring that to action is a great start for a young athlete."
— Allyson Felix, Olympic track and field champion, on how students can advocate for racial equity
“I definitely got made fun of, in a kind of fun way but it still hit close to me,” Dunn said. “I felt like, ‘OK, so being strong is not feminine? What does that mean?’ Serena put strength on the map for women and made people feel like women can dominate their sports and it’s important you don’t let anybody limit you or tell you that you don’t belong in a sport. You belong.”
Yet today, Dunn said, girls of color face obstacles to play school sports that other youth don’t encounter, such as caring for siblings after school and needing to take a job. “There are challenges in the Black community that people don’t know about,” Dunn said. “We have to first tackle those issues.”
How do schools make room for underserved populations that need to be included more intentionally? What are the ways to grow participation for girls who are Black or Latina, youth who are LGBTQ, students who are late-blooming athletes, kids who have disabilities, and so many youth shut out of playing at early ages due to costs and well before school sports?
This was the question Project Play posed in conversations with several professional athletes as they reflected on their childhood and the barriers preventing all kids to have a quality sports experience.
Laurie Hernandez, Olympic gold medal gymnast and “Dancing with the Stars” winner, says Latinas must be encouraged to play sports. She recommends dancing as a high school sport.“If you see kids that are maybe shy because they speak two languages, especially the young ones who are still adjusting to a new environment, encourage them. Talk to them. Try to get to know them. In the Hispanic culture, it’s just making sure there’s family and trust and love all around you. When that’s kind of ingrained in you, making friends can seem a little scary. … And it’s not just for young Latino kids, but also young Black kids and making sure they’re not excluded because that’s a subtle form of racism.”
Welsh professional soccer player Jess Fishlock used sports as her safe place growing up gay. She could act care-free while with her soccer club.“Truly the most important thing is you take the time to understand your athletes as humans and as people, and make sure they’re OK and it’s a safe place. … If the kid is talented, that will come anyway. What will be a problem (without guidance) is how they think and behave and their self-confidence and how they interact. Sometimes, especially in America, that gets lost because winning is far more important than anything else.”
“Find out issues that are going on. Find out areas you care about and you’re passionate about. Become educated in it. Use your platform on social media. Educate your peers, educate your family members and don’t be afraid. Have courage. There’s no time like now."
— Demario Davis, New Orleans Saints linebacker, on how students can advocate for racial equity
Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, a late bloomer, says schools have a responsibility to make sports available to all kids. He didn’t become a high school starter until he was a senior and was hardly recruited by colleges.“You don’t want to crush a kid’s dreams or aspirations by limiting their abilities or opportunities to play with some of the elite athletes. That can lead to other issues – depression, all types of things, to where a kid may feel like he doesn’t belong. If programs and schools start minimizing their participation, that can lead to other problems.”
Tatyana McFadden, a 17-time Paralympic medalist, won a lawsuit as a high school student to permit students with disabilities to play sports. State law from her case became a federal mandate, but students with disabilities still face barriers.“Coaches need to be more welcoming for students with disabilities. If you’re not welcoming and you’re not encouraged, why would I want to continue trying out for that team? I think we still need to educate coaches about adaptions. It’s really not that hard to do, but it’s about breaking that misconception. It’s about being respectful that adaptive sports are real sports and my racing chair is like a baseball glove or a pair of running shoes. … Parents are so powerful and I think they can collectively say, ‘These are the facts,’ and present that to the school because you want solutions.”
Jeffrey Hammonds, a former Major League Baseball Player now working with the league’s players association, believes parks and rec must know they’re needed now more than ever. The play places he grew up on are no longer readily available to youth.“You don’t see access to fields. You see chain-linked fields. Understand that the growth and the profit that has been generated through youth and travel sports – the playcation – they’re putting a lot of money on these fields. The maintenance of these fields is not for the public to go practice and just play on. It has to remain to a certain level of standards, so they lock the gates … because they’re protecting their investment. I don’t understand how you have to pay $10, $15, $25 just to go out there and play, or you’re being pushed off the field because you don’t have parental supervision or didn’t sign up on a website for that block of time.”
The above insights will inform the work of Project Play’s new Reimagining School Sports in America initiative (see Announcements and Actions below for details).
High school sports face financial, health challenges during COVID-19
High school sports are back in many states during the coronavirus pandemic. No sport is more important financially than football, which generates the most athletic department revenue at many schools. Some state high school athletic associations lost between $200,000 and $2 million by cancelling winter and spring championships, National Federation of State High School Associations Executive Director Karissa Niehoff said. There are associations facing “very dire fiscal situations” and at great risk of not remaining open, she said.
“Revenue has not been the driver in my experience as to why decisions are made (to reopen),” Niehoff said. “It’s been more about readiness, consideration of the big picture, and whether resources are there.”
“It sucks. It’s not a good situation because I know I and a bunch of my teammates rely on football as an outlet and a release after a long school day and having fun with your teammates. We’re missing that part of sports right now. The mental health aspect, it clearly shows."
— Drake Lewis, 12th grade football and baseball player at Maret School (Washington D.C.) on no sports during COVID-19
As high schools head to winter seasons, indoor sports will become trickier because the virus is believed to spread more easily inside. “You look at a sport like wrestling, the bodies are so close together for an extended amount of time, your risk is higher there,” Niehoff said. “We’re seeing USA Volleyball and a couple states looking at staging outdoor volleyball to play in the fall on AstroTurf situations. Folks are being very creative.”
As the pandemic continues, Niehoff said she expects pre-participation physicals required by high schools will need to better explore cardiac issues. A study published this month in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that pediatric patients 18 and younger with acute or prior coronavirus infection can have a broad range of cardiac findings, even though they are experiencing mild symptoms. “I think we’ll be doing a broader swath of education now about health and wellness, and I think mental health is going to be part of that,” Niehoff said.
Announcements and Actions
Jamieson School in Chicago was awarded $10,000 as the winner of The Great Middle School Sports Search in partnership between Project Play and Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes’ Mission Tiger. The national search aimed to find inclusive, quality programs that middle schools can adopt, regardless of available funding. Jamieson was recognized for hosting morning practices, which allows students to leverage their afterschool time for competition or other activities, and for using technology to communicate with families and virtual training/exercise opportunities even before COVID-19.
“I definitely miss everybody. I miss the competitiveness. I miss being out there and playing like it’s life or death."
— Anduena Kraja, 8th grade basketball and volleyball player at Jamieson School (Chicago), on no sports during COVID-19
Four other finalists each received $2,500: Coliseum College Prep Academy (Oakland, California), Girls Athletic Leadership School (Panorama, California), King Intermediate School (Kaneohe, Hawaii) and Strive Prep (Denver). Also, Project Play and Kellogg’s released a best practices guide for middle schools at as.pn/middleschoolsports and MissionTiger.com. The guide shares innovative strategies used by middle schools across the country for educators and coaches to employ at their schools.
Project Play recently launched a major new phase of its work called Reimagining School Sports in America. The multiyear initiative consists of a national search for exemplary high schools that make healthy opportunities available to students. Eight high schools will each receive $20,000 in awards made possible with the support of adidas/Reebok, The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation and Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). Apply here for your school’s opportunity to win. Winners will be announced in 2021.
Call for Leadership — Embrace Sports Governance
In a Zoom room co-hosted with the PLAY Sports Coalition, more than 100 leaders discussed opportunities to Embrace Sports Governance, one of the four areas of opportunity elevated in Project Play’s Call for Leadership. In a live poll, most (52%) identified the following sector-specific idea within that plank as the one they are most enthusiastic about:
Policymakers and Civic Leaders: Governors have seen the benefits of creating outdoor recreation commissions, to work with industry partners across sectors, develop effective policy and elevate recreation resources and opportunities. They should do the same with sports, as in Puerto Rico where its Department of Sports and Recreation registers all providers, provides safety protections for children, and ensures all coaches get trained with background checks. It also serves as a vehicle to collect and distribute grants from sports betting proceeds, an emerging opportunity.
In the discussion, one participant recognized that regulation “can be unpopular” given the dysfunction that the public perceives in government today, particularly at the federal level. But there was also broad recognition that the marketplace, left alone, does not have incentive to prioritize access and quality and that state-based commissions are best positioned to “reclaim youth sports as a public good” as is the case in other countries. Roles for a state-based body include data collection, injury prevention strategies, COVID-19 return to play guidelines, and giving sport providers a seat at the table to help develop policies.
“Developing a standard of care is important. As a sector, we need to align on issues of safety, health and quality. Until we have a baseline, efforts to make progress in some of these areas are going to be challenging. Developing standards will help risk mitigation. Therefore with issues of insurance, for example, there could be a reduction in costs. So there's an economic call to action for organizations to participate."
— Wayne Moss, executive director of the National Council of Youth Sports
Each day during the Summit, attendees can explore a new plank in Project Play’s platform for action and share ideas with the PLAY Sports Coalition on policy actions. Coming Thursday: Enhance the Capacity of Local Providers. The Zoom rooms are open to all Summit registrants.