Youth Sport At All Costs: Lack Of Accessible, Local Youth Sports Programs Drives A Generation Of Loneliness (Photo) -10/11/24

The $20B business of youth sports has a problem. 

It’s not just that overall participation numbers for kids 6-12 years have declined by approximately  5% over the past 5 years with only 36% of kids playing organized sports (the worst numbers in a decade), but right here in Oregon kids are spending less time on the field and more time online.

According to survey data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), between 2019 and 2022 participation by kids 6-17 years here in Oregon dropped 4.7% for those that only occasionally played an organized sport. Where the real impact happened is for those kids, ages 6-17, who previously played club sports. That number dropped 11.1%, or 63,584 kids right here in Oregon alone.

Nationwide all levels of participation are down, but they are most pronounced in girls (dropping to under 50% for the first time) and the hispanic population (dropping to just 42.1% in 2022).

So why are kids leaving organized sports?

The easy answer is COVID. The pandemic pulled all kids off the field for upwards of 18-24 months, requiring them to find other ways to entertain themselves in the virtual world and current data shows that they decided to stay there with children ages 8-12 in the United States spend 4-6 hours a day watching or using screens, and teens spend up to 9 hours.

But the problem goes deeper than that. Even for kids that want to get back on the field, the social and rising financial barriers make it almost impossible for many of them to do so. Jon Solomon, Aspen Institute's Sports and Society Program, asserts that "increased privatization of youth sports" — marked by a shift from local community leagues to private travel leagues — has taken a toll on sports participation for families who can't afford the latter.

So how do we get the kids back on the field? 

“You start by making sports accessible for everyone,” said Rob Willey, founder of the Oregon-based non-profit Athletes in Residence. “The cost and time commitment of organized sports has always been a barrier to families but rising costs and lack of local field availability make it even more difficult since most families can’t afford, and don’t have the time, to participate.”

Athletes in Residence (AIR) was founded to remove these barriers. WIth the mission of “Team Sports for Social Good”, AIR is creating a place where kids can get on the field and play. Working to reduce the impact of the past four years through play, AIR wants to get young kids in the community back on the field, offering scholarship opportunities for families, providing better facilities,and allowing kids better access to year-round team sports. 

The non-profits will host its first major fundraising event - the AIR Charity Invitational is a youth baseball and softball tournament being held this Saturday, October 12 & Sunday, October 13 at Gordon Faber Fields in HIllsboro, OR.

The organization has support from the YMCA, Sport Oregon, Explore Tualatin Valley, Hillsboro Hops and many other community based organizations and is quickly working to raise more funds to support the kids in the community who want to get offline and back on the field. 

That’s team sports for social good.