The Vote that Moved 2.7M Players ⚽️🗳️

Good morning ☀️ This week the top of youth sports got bigger and the people who run it finally got counted: US Youth Soccer ⚽️ voted itself into U.S. Soccer, 2.7 million players and all, GameChanger is closing in on $150 million a year 💰, and a thousand people got a tax form for working your kid's games. We're tracking the consolidation, the safety calls at the gate and the youth money written into pro stadium deals 🏟️, plus a pink protective kit for six-year-olds 🎀, a baserunning drill that wins the extra base before first ⚾️ and a Labor Day viewing calendar with two World Cups on it.

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GEAR — Barbie™ x CCM Back to Hockey Collection (Part 2)

The Part 2 youth protective kit — shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, pants and shin guards, sized for ages 2–7. Image: CCM Hockey

CCM and Mattel launched Barbie™ x CCM in March with a pink JetSpeed FTW Pro stick, a mini stick and apparel, and promised a second drop of gear for “Back to Hockey” in August (CCM Hockey). Part 2 is live, and it is the one that matters if you run a Learn-to-Play program: a full youth protective kit — shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, pants, shin guards — and a multisport helmet, both sized for ages 2 to 7, plus a youth baselayer set with a built-in cut-resistant neck guard, a senior FTW stick and pink grip tape (ca.ccmhockey.com).

It earns the pick because it aims at the right problem. CCM calls it “making hockey accessible, approachable, and fun from day one,” and the numbers say the door is open: Hockey Canada registered 121,000 women and girls in 2025-26, up 5% and a record (The Hockey News), and USA Hockey passed 100,000 female players for the first time (USA Hockey). Anyone who has run a first-year session knows the opening battle is getting the gear on. A kit a six-year-old asks to wear is a retention tool, not a fashion play.

The honest part: it is a Canadian launch in Canadian dollars — C$209.99 for the protective kit, C$89.99 for the helmet, C$129.99 for the baselayer kit, C$109.99 for the stick, C$9.99 for the tape, apparel from C$29.99 to C$99.99 — and we could not find the Part 2 youth gear online at a U.S. retailer yet; CCM’s locator points to authorized dealers, so ask your local shop. The Part 1 sticks did cross the border (HockeyMonkey, $289.99 for the junior). Shop the Barbie™ x CCM collection →

THE HIRING HUDDLE lands Sunday evenings now, giving you the week's best openings before Monday's kickoff 🏈. Yesterday's edition ran 31 open roles across 20 companies, 13 of them posted in the last seven days, led by the Chicago Fire Foundation's Director of Development & Foundation Programs. Also on the board: IMG Academy hiring a national head coach for girls lacrosse, a $140K–$160K senior product designer seat at GameChanger, and PlayMetrics posting four business roles at once. It goes to subscribers only and isn't posted anywhere else — if you missed it, it's in Sunday's inbox. Reading a forward? Subscribe free and the next Huddle lands Sunday evening.

• 🏈MaxPreps Game of the Week · Fri 9/4: St. Joseph's Prep (Pa.) at Brentwood Academy (Tenn.), 8:00 PM ET, free on the MaxPreps YouTube channel and MaxPreps.com, also on NFHS Network. The only national high school football window of the week. (How to watch →)

• ⚽ FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup · Opens Sat 9/5 in Poland with a 24-team field, the largest ever at this age group. USA–Italy is Sun 9/6 at 12:00 PM ET on FOX Soccer Plus, with Spanish coverage on Telemundo and UNIVERSO. The rest of Group D follows Sept 9 and Sept 12. (Roster and schedule →)

• 🎾US Open Junior Championships · Junior qualifying begins Thu 9/3, main draws Sun 9/6 at Flushing Meadows. Girls' 18s national champion Thea Frodin, 17, holds wild cards into both the junior and the women's draws. Order of play posts the night before; ESPN lists no separate junior window. (Dates and draw →)

• 🏄‍♀️ Virginia Beach Super Girl Surf Festival · Sat–Mon 9/5–9/7 on the Oceanfront, free to attend, with more than 5,000 female competitors across 14 sports. Streams free Sun and Mon, 8:00 AM–4:00 PM ET, at supergirlvb.com and on Twitch. (Festival info →)

• 🏀FIBA Women's World Cup · Team USA opens against China Fri 9/4 at 8:00 AM ET, plays Italy Sun 9/6 at 2:30 PM and Czechia Mon 9/7 at 2:30 PM, all from Berlin on TNT and HBO Max. The WNBA is dark for the tournament, so the Labor Day tip is the team night. (Full TV schedule →)

• Also this week:College volleyball doubles up Sun 9/6 from Bridgestone Arena — Louisville–Texas at noon ET on ABC, Tennessee–Indiana at 3:00 PM on ESPN2 — and the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship opens Fri 9/4 in El Salvador.

The dashed line gets you a single. The two feet of foul ground get you a double.

The Banana Peel — three cones, one base, six to eight reps each.

Run it: Three cones down the first-base line. One at 30 feet. One 10 feet short of the bag and two to three feet into foul ground. One a stride past the bag in fair territory, pointed at second. Runner sprints the line, drifts out to the middle cone, cuts back in, hits the inside corner of the bag with the left foot and keeps going. Next runner.

Coaching point: Use a "'banana'-shaped path to the first base bag," hitting "the inside corner of the first base bag with the left foot, leaning into the turn and squaring the shoulders toward second base." Don't let them chop steps to get the left foot there — "breaking your stride slows you down, so if your stride results in your using your right foot to touch the first base bag, then so be it." (Wilton Little League)

Why it works: The extra base is won in the two steps before first, not at second. A runner who arrives straight has to stop and restart. One who arrives on the arc is already going.

One for the softball coaches: the turn changes which half of the bag you touch. Rounding, it's the white half in fair territory. Running through, Little League Softball requires the batter-runner to "use the colored (orange or green) section on their first attempt" — touch only the white, and a defensive appeal is "treated the same as missing the base. The penalty is the batter runner is out." (Little League) Worth thirty seconds at practice, and it's coming to baseball: the NFHS voted to mandate the double first base in high school play from the 2027 season (SI).

Video variation:First Base Running Tips: Straight, Banana, Question Mark — ProSwingNY

An offensive line in Louisiana found a play nobody scouts:

The whole line hit the deck on cue. Ask your own team to line up straight on Tuesday and see how that goes.

Then ESPN’s Little League World Series broadcast asked Canada’s Daniel Huang for his dream job:

Retirement. The only person in youth sports this month with a clearly stated exit plan.