A few years ago, there were about 30 carriers offering youth sports insurance. Today? Just a handful. And rates are skyrocketing, all of which impacts the provision and affordability of programs.

That makes Players Health, one of the few carriers still writing policies, a key actor in the rapidly evolving, largely disjointed landscape of youth and school sports.

It’s one big reason why the Aspen Institute is excited to welcome Players Health to 63X30, the Project Play roundtable of national organizations leading the call to action to lift sport participation to 63% of youth by the year 2030 (up from 54% in 2022, the latest federal data available).

Kyle Lubrano, chief mission delivery officer for Players Health, joins CEO Tyrre Burks in representing the company at that table. She recently talked with Tom Farrey, executive director of the Sports & Society Program, backbone organization for Project Play, about what the Minnesota-based firm brings to that table as it develops opportunities to get and keep more children playing sports.

Tom Farrey: Why does insurance matter in the world of youth sports?

Kyle Lubrano: In organized sports, you can't really get on any playing surface without insurance. It ensures that if somebody is injured, they have the ability to get the medical care that they need, or be reimbursed for any catastrophic property damage. Then in the general liability piece, there is an additional layer that would include sexual abuse and molestation coverage. That is becoming harder and harder to obtain.

Tom: Why is it getting harder to obtain?

Kyle: Claims coming to fruition, insurers actually having to pay out. Look at the Larry Nassar case and the USA Gymnastics part in that, and the amount of payments that they had to make out in claims ($380 million in 2021). So fewer carriers are offering coverage. There's only a handful, including Players Health, that continue to offer the sexual abuse and molestation piece. It becomes almost impossible for some organizations, mostly smaller ones, to obtain those coverages.

At the end of the day, if programs cannot get certain coverages, there will be no sport, right? That's why it's important that companies like ours exist.

Tom: If Players Health leaves that market, what happens to the world of youth sports?

Kyle: Well, those claims won't be covered. Then the organization has to make a decision as to whether or not they want to tread those waters without those coverages. If they have a civil or criminal case against them, it could put them out of business, and therefore the accessibility of that sport in that location goes away.

Tom: What's been the downstream impact of fewer companies offering coverage?

Kyle: Higher costs. And that increases what programs have to charge (customers) for membership, registration fees, and background check fees. It becomes almost impossible for some families to do multiple sports, even at the rec level.

Tom: Are there certain sports that are getting harder to cover than others?

Kyle: Football in particular, but really anything that is equipment intensive. When you're putting equipment on an athlete, there are higher risks. People think they're a little bit more protected, and the athletes go a little bit harder. And as you know, ACL knee injury rates keep going up (26% over the past 15 years), so sports like soccer and lacrosse are also high.

Tom: How can insurance companies help improve the delivery of youth sports?

Kyle: We can educate our customers on what we need them to do to improve safety. We show them the way – that if you do these things, your rates could go down (or at least stabilize). It helps the athletes get the coverages they need if anything happens and the organizations get the coverages they need when things do happen, because they will.

Tom: You and Tyrre sit on our National ACL Injury Coalition, with the Hospital for Special Surgery and other leading organization in school and club sports. Tell us about the incentive program Players Health is introducing to promote the reduction of ACL injuries in the high school population.

Kyle: We see a problem with the increase of ACL injuries and know that those programs are part of the solution. They need to implement neuromuscular training exercises (which can help cut the incidence of injuries in half). We will give them an upfront credit for simply doing that, then if we’re seeing ACL injuries trend either lower or staying the same there is an additional credit. That second credit is a lot larger, potentially thousands of dollars in savings. From the carrier perspective, it behooves us to offer this because we're going to see a reduction in claims. It’s a carrot to get people to do a really important thing.

**NEW PROJECT PLAY RESOURCE**

Learn about the five ways states are supporting and governing youth sports

Download

Tom: Tell me about this new Colorado law that you helped draft to protect youth athletes. What is in there and how did it come together?

Kyle: A client from Colorado (youth football organization) came to Tyrre and said, “I'm so fearful for what this season is going hold.” They’d been facing a lot of bad behavior, mostly by spectators and parents charging the field or confronting officials. We worked with that client and his state senators who ultimately sponsored the bill that became a law.

Each organization that offers youth sports has to create a code of conduct for coaches, parents and athletes. If coaches see something that is prohibited conduct, they must report it. Background checks are required (for most coaches and staff). Coaches also must take annual abuse prevention training that teaches them about safe one-on-one interactions, what is prohibited conduct and how to report it.

Tom: Any other states with a law like this?

Kyle: There are states that have specific background check laws, I think maybe 11 of them at this point. California has mandated abuse prevention training as well but as far as I know, Colorado is the only state that has mandatory reporter training and a code of conduct. I think it could be a template for other states to build on.

Tom: Players Health has created a guidebook on state laws on background checks, concussion, return to play, and sudden cardiac arrest. How well do states do in protecting youth athletes from injuries?

Kyle: It depends on what type of injury we're talking about. Concussion and return-to-play policies are in all 50 states. With sudden cardiac arrest, I think the first one we’ve seen is New York. What happens is there's a headline like Damar Hamlin (nearly dying from heart failure), and we start to see that it's an issue. It's usually one person who has a strong passion or personal connection to a cause and carries it forward. That's great, but we don't want to focus only on X and leave out Y or Z because we have a champion who was passionate about, say, ACLs but they don’t have a connection to, say, mental health.

I don't want to say it's the Wild Wild West, but injury and safety is something that we haven't necessarily focused on regulating in sport. Federally and at the state level, we need a better handle on protecting athletes and having agencies designated to do that. Because if not, we're going to get these piecemeal laws as headlines come up. We want a holistic approach to keeping athletes healthy and safe and mentally, physically, emotionally.

Tom: Players Health is joining the table of national leaders of our 63X30 effort. How can Players Health work with these groups?

Kyle: When you look at the three strategic priorities of 63X30 – Encourage Sport Sampling, Revitalize In-Town Leagues and Train All Coaches – from a carrier side, or even our brokerage side, there’s nothing that is going to equate to safer environments for athletes. Sport sampling and more rec play lead to fewer (overuse and other) injuries.

I think we can provide a lot of leadership, in both directions. Not only from bringing what we're seeing in our clientele to the table, but also taking back the things that the group is saying and educating our clients on this is how you can increase your participation, decrease your injury rates, keep kids playing longer — and your coaches are going stick around too because you're actually training them!

Tom: Speaking of sports sampling, you are a veteran of the U.S. Olympic Movement. You’ve held roles with USA Baseball, USA Field Hockey, and US Lacrosse. The Paris Olympics, which were amazing, inspired a lot of people and made young people open their eyes to new sports. LA is next, but in the United States we really don't have a system that easily connects kids to new sports and turns inspiration into sustained participation. We've seen this in in past where in the year after the Games the participation rate goes up in a particular sport, then it falls back to where it was. That’s a missed opportunity, I think. What do NGBs need to do in order to take advantage of the once-in-a-generation moment that is LA in 2028 and Salt Lake City (winter Olympics) in 2034.

Kyle: I don't think there's a silver bullet, one solution. There are multiple layers.

In our sport system, you have the opportunity to become elite – but you need that access first. Other countries are much more adept at finding those rare talents. Coming from sport development, I always wondered, why not just put a field there and put equipment out and see what happens? Now being on the insurance side, I see why that doesn’t happen. There’s technology, iPads, kids are overscheduled going from game to game and practice to practice and sport to sport. They are lacking opportunities for free play.

The physical education system has changed over the course of time, and there's only six states that require PE every single day. The majority of the sports that I know about, I played in PE. A number of NGBs have a phys ed curriculum, but that’s an area where more could be done. If you want a student to be excited about a sport, they have to see it.

Tom: Perhaps the greatest legacy from Paris is what the government of France did to build a healthier nation. It introduced a national sport and health strategy. A new law was passed requiring 30 minutes of physical activity in all primary schools, and that's on top of PE requirements. Physicians can now write sport prescriptions that can be used to help cover the cost of training under qualified coaches affiliated with national federations. Their Ministry of Sport also created a financial voucher of €50 for every child and young adult to cover or subsidize registration fees for local clubs. These efforts should pay dividends for decades as kids develop more active lifestyles.

What do you think is fair to ask of our federal government? Or maybe just the State of California, which will be hosting the ‘28 Games? Or the State of Utah for 2034?

Kyle: I like the voucher piece of it. We put together a grants program where families could apply for this grant to be able to cover one athlete for a year. Especially in a place like LA, as these young athletes start to see the Olympics coming together in their city and their state, and they’re thinking, my mom, my dad, my grandpa, whoever their caregiver is can’t afford that, having a state-funded grant program to increase participation would be super rewarding, particularly as new sports come up that are now going to be in the Olympics.

I’ve also had this dream of taking the American Development Model and instilling that in what we require of organizations, to make sure that we're not pushing kids into pay for play models until they self-select into it. The good news is we're seeing more organizations get back to promoting rec and the power behind recreational play.

Learn more about the 63X30 national table and read other interviews with industry leaders.