Issue #6 — August 24, 2026
SafeSport banned him 🚫 but he kept coaching 🤨
Plus: participation fees hit a 22-year low, Rich Paul eyes youth sports and eight Iowa schools drop varsity football.
In partnership with
GAME PLAN
Good morning ☀️ This week, participation is reaching record highs and pay-to-play fees are falling, but cost, safety and accountability continue to test the systems around young athletes. We’re tracking the money entering the space, the governance gaps still showing and the people building better ways forward plus a locker-room essential, a practical volleyball drill and a championship-heavy viewing calendar.
NUMBER OF THE WEEK
38%
Share of Michigan high schools that charged an athletic participation fee in 2025-26. The lowest in the 22 years the state association has counted, down from a 57% peak in 2013-14.
"The scholarships and the draft will come, but when you’re young, just go out there and have fun."
— Chase Burns, Cincinnati Reds pitcher, on the advice he’d give Little Leaguers this week (via ESPN)
THE FACEOFF 🤼
The FACEOFF conversation is now moved to Thursday/Friday release, giving the week’s biggest stories room to take center ice 🧊. Read this past week’s edition on a founder creating a marketplace for schools with empty space needing income with coaches with money looking for space. Check it out here: THE FACEOFF VOL III — Carlos Rivera & Subler.
THE SCOREBOARD 🏆
Everything that moved across youth sports last week, in one line each.
RULES & CONDUCT 🧑⚖️
A permanently banned volleyball coach kept coaching by putting an employee's name on the club — and re-registering with two bodies SafeSport does not bind (The Washington Post).
A Florida soccer club treasurer is charged with $146,686.73 across 2,841 transactions and eleven years — Disney trips, Las Vegas vacations, jewelry, sporting events (WENG).
Florida fined a school $2,500 and took a year of a coach's career over a text message — to a softball player who had already left (WINK News).
Guntersville's defensive coordinator resigned after a public-intoxication charge while scouting the opponent his team opens against Friday (WAFF).
Seven of eleven football coaches at one Wisconsin school resigned over a staff group chat — days before the season opener (FootballScoop · Athletic Business).
A 16-year-old spectator ran onto a middle school field and tackled a player mid-game — lifetime district ban, plus a year from the TSSAA (Athletic Business).
A Toledo youth football team was denied entry into a new league — the league cites safety standards; parents call the vote unfair (13abc).
Florida's one-time EKG mandate takes effect this season — and a Miami sports-medicine physician is on record calling it lower-yield than a sideline AED (UMiami Health News).
MONEY & DEALS 💰
Rich Paul says youth sports is his next big thing — the Klutch founder warns NIL money is reaching kids "before players have any framework for what to do with it" (Newsweek).
LOVB hired Inner Circle Sports to advise on expansion, ownership and long-term strategy — atop a junior network of 98 clubs and 27,000-plus players (Sports Illustrated).
Former Intel president Renée James bought Softball America and took a stake in the AUSL — and says Rule42 is "going all-in on softball" (Business Wire).
New Era and Little League extended one of youth sports' longest-running sponsorships — the World Series cap deal dates to 1994 (Little League).
Topgolf and Special Olympics committed $1.5 million over three years — with the growth published: tournament participation up 32%, Unified partners up 48% (PR Newswire).
Academy Sports is opening eleven stores across six states in Q3 — pushing past 300 locations in 21 states (Academy Sports + Outdoors).
Monumental put numbers on a pro-sports youth strategy at scale — 6,000-plus students in free shoes, 13,000-plus girls equipped across 39 DC schools (Monumental Sports).
Kim Kardashian is producing a reality show about baseball moms — "Team Moms: Baseball" premieres September 24 on Paramount+ (Sports Illustrated).
A California district sold 19 buses against a $9.5 million shortfall — Plumas Unified says its remaining fleet "will not serve athletic events" (Plumas Sun · Sierra Daily News).
The Jaguars turned their annual stadium run into a downtown Prowl 5K — 1,500-plus entrants Saturday, proceeds to the Jaguars Foundation and local youth sports programs (Race Roster).
FIELDS & FACILITIES 🏢
A Georgia high school opened a 2,130-seat gymnasium — part of a ten-year district building program (Athletic Business).
TECH & PARTNERSHIPS 📲
A 40-plus-event Gulf Coast soccer operator handed SkillShow video exclusivity across its entire footprint — 300,000 park entrants a year (PR Newswire).
Little League and Boys & Girls Clubs of America are wiring their networks together — 25 pilot programs in 2027 across BGCA's nearly 5,500 clubs (Little League).
Arizona high school football is back on weekly primetime TV — an 11-game Thursday-night slate on CW7 Arizona, August 27 through November 5 (Fiesta Sports Foundation).
XbotGo's AI sideline cameras passed 230,000 users and 1,000 partner clubs — now expanding across the UK, France, Germany and Benelux (PR Newswire).
PlayOn's MaxPreps Game of the Week returned for a second national season — top matchups streaming free on YouTube, opening with No. 1 St. John Bosco vs. No. 2 Bishop Gorman (PR Newswire).
ON THE FIELD 🏟️
American sports participation hit a record high and inactivity a record low — 81.3% and 18.7%, with 26.9% saying out-of-pocket cost changed how they play (SFIA).
Eight Iowa high schools have cancelled or forfeited varsity football this season — on low participation and safety concerns (KCRG).
A Kansas junior collapsed at practice on the first day of school and died that night — the fifth Kansas football death in eight years, all in August; cause undetermined pending autopsy (KCUR).
The nation's longest losing streak ended Saturday night at 101 games — Columbia High of Huntsville 41–14 over Greensboro, its first win since 2015 (FootballScoop).
A Jacksonville academy canceled the rest of its football season after two people were shot near its opener — "the safety and well-being of our student-athletes come before any game, trophy or season" (Action News Jax).
East Bernard is rallying after athletic director and head coach Jeremy Jenkins and his wife Brandy, a teacher, died in a crash — a town remembering the couple who "put kids first" (Houston Chronicle).
Lightning pushed five Dayton-area football games from Friday night to Saturday — Beavercreek's makeup ended on a last-second field goal, 17–16 (WHIO).
COACH'S FAVORITES ⭐️
One thing we'd actually use, and why it earns the pick.
If you’ve ever driven home with the windows down after practice, this one’s for you. Vapor Fresh is made specifically for the helmets, gloves, pads and bags that can’t go in the washing machine. Spray the gear, let it air-dry and pack it away without the sticky residue or harsh scent of a household cleaner.
It earns the pick because it solves a problem nearly every sports family knows. The plant-powered formula is designed to neutralize odor without damaging equipment and one bottle works across sports and seasons.
The idea started in 2008, when University of Maryland hockey player Stephen Steinberg needed a way to keep his pads from making his dorm smell like a locker room. We’ll feature Stephen and the story behind Vapor Fresh in an upcoming FACEOFF 🤼.
THE HIRING HUDDLE 🕵️🕵️♂️
We’ve moved HIRING HUDDLE to Sunday evenings, giving you a fresh lineup of the week’s best opportunities before Monday’s kickoff 🏈. This past Sunday featured 49 open jobs across 23 different companies. Only available to subscribers!
WHAT WE'RE WATCHING 📺
Elite youth, high school and college events streaming this week plus the pro game worth building a team night around.
⚾ Little League World Series championship week · Games continue Mon–Thu on ESPN, followed by the International and U.S. championships Sat 8/29 on ABC and the title game Sun 8/30 at 3:00 PM ET. Phenix City (Ala.) faces elimination Monday at 7:00 PM. Saturday’s Challenger Division exhibition begins at 10:30 AM on WVIA. (Schedule and bracket →)
🏈 ESPN High School Football Kickoff · Fri 8/28: St. Joseph Regional (N.J.) at Mount Carmel (Ill.), 7:00 PM ET on ESPN. Saturday’s slate features Bishop Gorman–Christopher Columbus, DeSoto–St. Thomas Aquinas and an Arizona championship rematch between Chandler and Basha. (Full slate →)
🏈 College football Week 0 · Sat 8/29: North Carolina–TCU from Dublin at noon ET on ESPN, San Jose State–USC at 3:00 PM on NBC, NC State–Virginia at 3:30 PM on ESPN and Memphis–UNLV at 10:00 PM on FOX. (Week 0 slate →)
🎾 US Open Fan Week · Free grounds admission through Sat 8/29 with a Fan Access Pass, including singles qualifying Mon–Thu. The main draw begins Sun 8/30 on ESPN. (What to know →)
🥏 PDGA Pro Worlds · Wed 8/26–Sun 8/30 from Kensington Metropark in Milford, Mich., live on Disc Golf Network. Kids 10 and under attend free with a ticketed adult. (Event page →)
Also this week: The FIVB Boys’ U17 World Championship concludes in Doha, and the FCS football season opens Thu 8/27.
COACH'S CLIPBOARD 📋
One drill you can run at Tuesday's practice. This week: volleyball, middle school and high school.
The Butterfly — six players minimum, full court, two balls, ages 12–18.
Run it: Three per side: a server behind the end line, a passer in the back row, a target at the net. Serve down the line. Passer sends it to the target, target catches it. Then everybody follows their ball. Server jogs the sideline to become the passer across the net, passer moves up to target, target takes the ball back to serve. Run it for three minutes; count passes the target catches without moving.
Coaching point: The pass is won before the ball arrives. Get in ready position before serve. Use the step-hop footwork to achieve balance. Extend your platform directly behind the ball's path. Kids swing their arms; good passers move their feet and put the platform where the ball is already going. (Coaches Insider)
Why it works: No lines, no standing. Twelve kids touch a ball every few seconds, and the score on the board (Schmidt's bar is 30 clean passes in three minutes) turns a warm-up into a contest. The rotation is the trick: nobody has to be told where to go next, because they go where their ball went.
Video variation:Butterfly Drill — Tod Mattox, The Art of Coaching Volleyball
THE LOCKER ROOM 🙊
Something to end on.
At a youth hockey game, the parents took “getting involved” a little too literally:
Strong forecheck. Tough night for the parent code of conduct.
Then a U8 defender scooped up a fumble with the entire field open until Dad called him over from the sideline:
Nobody had the angle. Dad had his attention.
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The Coach's Board by Paul Variano
The weekly executive roundup for youth sports leaders.
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August 24, 2026