Webinar | Navigating Risk in Youth Sports: Protecting Your Parents & Players
Presented by LeagueApps & Ankored | June 2026
Youth sports is changing fast, and three forces are driving it at once: technology, the structural consolidation of the industry, and powerful societal shifts. For the organizations that run programs, that means the way things work today won't be the way they work tomorrow, and the operators who understand their families best are the ones who will thrive through the change.
In this recorded panel, LeagueApps President Jeremy Goldberg sits down with three of the sharpest minds studying youth sports: Jon Solomon of the Aspen Institute's Sports & Society Program, author and former coach Linda Flanagan, and consumer-research expert David Sikorjak. Together they dig into what parents and kids actually want from sports, why the gap between what families say and what they do creates so much pressure, and how organizations can deliver experiences that build belonging instead of burnout.
The research is consistent: kids play to have fun and to be with friends, with winning and college scholarships ranking near the bottom. Yet the system around them has grown commercialized, time-intensive, and expensive, with parents pulled by fear of missing out and the long odds of an elite outcome. The panel reframes the real prize as relational, not transactional: the shared experiences, the time in the car, the years of bonding that families value most when they look back.
Safety sits underneath all of it. None of the benefits of sports are possible unless kids feel physically and emotionally safe, and the panel makes the case that safety isn't a checklist parents tick, it's a feeling that frees them to be partners rather than adversaries. When organizations get the basics right and communicate openly, trust follows.
The conversation closes on what operators can actually do this week: offer multi-sport options instead of early specialization, minimize unnecessary travel and cost, be radically transparent about fees and policies, act like the professionals families need, and take a long-term view of developing the whole athlete. The takeaway for leaders is simple and hopeful: you have the power to drive this, and the organizations that lead will deliver safer experiences and unlock everything that makes youth sports worth it. Watch the full recording below for the complete conversation.
Featuring:
Jeremy Goldberg — President, LeagueApps (Moderator)
Jon Solomon — Sports & Society Program, The Aspen Institute
David Sikorjak — Founder, Dexterity Consulting
Linda Flanagan — Author, Take Back the Game