Overview

High-quality, developmentally appropriate youth sports programs provide substantial physical, social, and mental health benefits. When delivered effectively, sport can foster resilience, promote belonging, and build life skills.

However, the current U.S. youth sports system produces inconsistent experiences due to fragmentation, lack of regulation, inequitable access, and uneven coaching quality.

Approximately 6 million individuals serve as youth sport coaches nationwide, yet fewer than one-third receive formal training in youth development and few states set policy standards for the skills and knowledge coaches should have when working with young people. This gap contributes to environments that may unintentionally increase risk for injury, burnout, exclusion, or negative developmental outcomes.

A three-part webinar series explored how policy can help address these challenges:

• Webinar 1 diagnosed the current system, including its fragmentation, inequities, and lack of oversight.
• Webinar 2 examined how other sectors have improved quality and accountability through standards, incentives, coalition-building, and sustained investment.
• Webinar 3 applied those lessons to emerging youth sports policy efforts at the federal, state, and local levels.

Together, these discussions highlight both the urgency of reform and the opportunity to build a more equitable, coordinated youth sport system in the United States.

Webinar 1: Understanding the Youth Sports System

Featured Speakers

• Dionne Koller, Director, Center for Sport and the Law, University of Baltimore
• Renata Simril, President and CEO, LA84 Foundation
• Cam Kiosoglous, Associate Professor, Drexel University, and President, U.S. Center for Coaching Excellence
• Kevin Connors, Managing Director, Susan Crown Exchange (moderator)

The first webinar established the central challenge: the United States does not have a unified youth sports system.

Dionne Koller described a landscape characterized by decentralization and limited regulation. Unlike countries where sports are treated as a public good and incorporated into national policy frameworks, the U.S. system operates largely through private organizations, market forces, schools, national governing bodies, nonprofits, and local governance structures.

These organizations frequently operate independently, resulting in:

• Inconsistent standards for safety, coaching, and program quality
• Limited coordination and accountability
• Significant variation in resources and access
• No central body responsible for overseeing the youth sports system as a whole

Renata Simril explained how this structure contributes to deep disparities in access. Participation is often determined by family income, geography, transportation, and the availability of local programs. As costs continue to rise, youth sports increasingly function as a marketplace rather than a broadly accessible developmental opportunity.

Coaches as a Critical Leverage Point

Coaches shape whether young people feel safe, supported, included, and motivated to continue participating. Yet systems for recruiting, training, developing, and retaining coaches remain inconsistent.

Many coaches are volunteers who face barriers such as:

• Training costs
• Time constraints
• Administrative burdens
• Repetitive or overlapping requirements
• Limited access to continuing education

Cam Kiosoglous provided international comparisons showing that other countries take a more coordinated approach. Governments may establish national standards, prioritize equitable access, and integrate sports into broader youth development and public health strategies.

These models demonstrate that stronger public leadership is possible—and that coaching can be treated as a workforce requiring clear expectations, support, and ongoing development.

Moving Beyond Fear of Regulation

Efforts to create standards often encounter resistance from those who worry that regulation will disrupt or diminish youth sports. Koller described this concern as fear of a potential “sportsopocalypse,” or the demise of youth sports.

But, as she emphasized, it is not sports that need protection—it is young people.

Maintaining the status quo means accepting existing inequities, safety concerns, overuse injuries, burnout, exclusion, and dropout. Meaningful reform will therefore require systemic change, not only isolated programs or incremental fixes.

The first webinar made clear that before policymakers can improve youth sports, they must recognize that its challenges are not simply the result of individual programs or coaches. They are rooted in the structure of the system itself.

Webinar 2: Lessons Learned from Regulating Other Youth-Serving Sectors

Featured Speakers

• Susan Jagers, Executive Director, Association of Ohio Health Commissioners, and former Co-Chair, Smoke Free Ohio Campaign
• César De La Vega, Managing Director, ChangeLab Solutions
• Jessy Newman, Principal Researcher, American Institutes for Research
• Joel Ryan, Executive Director, Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP
• Julie McCleery, Co-Director, University of Washington Center for Leadership in Athletics (moderator)

Once the first webinar established the weaknesses of the current system, the second asked a practical question: How have other fragmented sectors successfully improved quality, access, and accountability?

Speakers examined policy change in public health, childcare, education, school wellness, and out-of-school-time programming. Several common lessons emerged.

Evidence Can Create Urgency

Across these sectors, policy change often followed clear evidence of harm or inequity.

Susan Jagers described how smoke-free policies gained momentum after public health research definitively demonstrated the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke. Similarly, childcare reforms were shaped by research on brain development and the importance of early learning environments.

Youth sports concussion laws followed a comparable pattern, emerging in response to evidence of harm and data showing the prevalence of injuries.

These examples suggest that youth sports reform will require strong research and data—not only to identify problems, but also to build public understanding and political will.

Local and National Action Must Reinforce Each Other

Successful policy movements also relied on early local experimentation, coalition-based advocacy, sustained funding, and partnerships between local and national actors.

César De La Vega described what happened after Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which established new baseline requirements for local school wellness policies. Federal policy created a foundation, but state and community-based partners were essential to building the infrastructure, knowledge-sharing systems, and local capacity needed for implementation.

The lesson for youth sports is that national or state standards alone will not be enough. Effective reform will also require trusted local partners that can translate policy into practice.

Standards Can Strengthen Existing Good Practice

Policy tools used in out-of-school-time programs, childcare, and school wellness have included:

• Quality standards
• Regulatory frameworks
• Funding incentives
• Accountability systems
• Workforce training and professional development

Jessy Newman noted that the out-of-school-time sector initially experienced pushback to standards and accountability systems. Over time, however, practitioners came to see that the standards movement was not necessarily about imposing an entirely new way of working. It was also about naming the strong practices already taking place and encouraging programs to be more intentional and consistent.

This framing may be particularly useful in youth sports, where concerns about regulation are common. Standards can help identify and spread effective practices rather than simply adding new requirements.

Incentives Can Support Adoption

Other sectors have often used incentives in addition to mandates, linking funding eligibility or other resources to adherence to quality standards.

This approach can create accountability while also helping organizations cover the costs of implementation. For youth sports, public agencies and funders could similarly use grants, contracts, or other funding mechanisms to encourage participation in shared quality systems.

Quality Improvement Must Be Continuous

Out-of-school-time and childcare systems have also emphasized continuous quality improvement rather than one-time compliance. Joel Ryan described how the childcare sector developed program quality standards alongside:

• Increased workforce training
• Ongoing support and technical assistance
• Evaluation
• Continuous professional development

This is especially important because expanding access without addressing program quality can lead to mixed outcomes. Youth sports policy should therefore support coaches and organizations over time, rather than treating a single training or certification as sufficient.

Messaging Should Focus on Protecting Young People

Messaging played a critical role across these policy movements. Successful campaigns often reframed debates around protecting people—particularly children—rather than regulating systems or industries.

For youth sports, this means focusing less on whether organizations are being asked to follow new rules and more on whether young people are receiving safe, inclusive, and developmentally appropriate experiences.

Together, the examples from other sectors demonstrate that large, fragmented systems can be better aligned through coordinated policy, shared standards, incentives, coalition-building, and sustained workforce investment.

They also provide a bridge to the third webinar: how these lessons are beginning to shape actual youth sports policy.

Webinar 3: Turning Lessons into Youth Sports Policy

Featured Speakers

• Ben Schornack, Executive Director, Laureus Sport for Good USA
• Dawn Anderson-Butcher, Professor and Co-Executive Director, LiFEsports Initiative at The Ohio State University
• Jack Crowe, Founder and Chairman, CoachSafely Foundation
• Vince Minjares, Program Manager, Aspen Institute Project Play (moderator)

The third webinar highlighted recent policy work at federal, state, and local levels, as well as overviewed strategic approaches to advancing youth sports reform.

Federal Policy Can Address System-Wide Challenges

At the federal level, proposed legislation such as the Let Kids Play Act seeks to address rising costs by targeting predatory business practices and increasing oversight of private equity involvement in youth sports.

Federal action can help address market forces that cross state lines and bring greater national attention to youth sports as a public policy issue.

States Offer Multiple Entry Points for Reform

State-level initiatives demonstrate that there is no single pathway to systemic change.

Ben Schornack described how Illinois established a Youth Sports Commission to study and advance policy related to access, equity, and program quality. He also emphasized the central role coalitions can play by bringing together stakeholders across sectors to advocate for funding, policy change, and stronger system alignment.

Dawn Anderson-Butcher shared a different example from Ohio, where a statewide coalition helped establish training requirements for school-based coaches. Those requirements emphasized mental health and positive youth development, expanding the focus beyond basic health and safety compliance.

These examples show how states can use commissions, coalitions, and training requirements as different entry points into broader reform.

Policy Must Work for Volunteer Coaches

The examples discussed also suggest that policy development will be incremental, iterative, and shaped by local context. Approaches will need to be adapted across communities, states, and regions, with opportunities for continuous learning.

Reducing barriers for volunteer coaches has emerged as a particularly important strategy. Policies should consider:

• The cost of required training
• Redundant requirements across organizations
• Administrative complexity
• Ease of access
• The need for ongoing learning and support

Combining health and safety requirements with positive youth development training can also produce stronger and more comprehensive outcomes.

Accountability Turns Policy into Practice

Accountability mechanisms—including tracking systems and oversight structures—are essential to ensuring that policies lead to actual changes in practice.

Jack Crowe, Founder and Chairman of CoachSafely Foundation, described how states, like Alabama, use a software platform to track coach compliance with the Coach Safely Act, a comprehensive state law requiring all volunteer or unpaid youth coaches of athletes age 14 and under to complete annual safety training covering concussions, emergency planning, heat illness, cardiac issues, physical conditioning, and equipment use.

Momentum is building across government actors, but sustained coordination and shared learning across states are needed to scale impact.

Cross-Cutting Challenges

Several persistent challenges appeared across all three webinars:

• The absence of national coordination and shared standards
• Limited and inconsistent coach training
• Inequitable access driven by cost and geography
• Fragmentation across systems, sports sectors, and stakeholders
• Weak accountability and enforcement mechanisms
• Limited data for monitoring participation, access, quality, and outcomes
• Policies that focus narrowly on safety compliance without addressing broader developmental quality

At the same time, the series identified several reasons for optimism.

More states—and the federal government—are beginning to consider a stronger policy role in youth sports. Coalitions are forming around issues such as coach training, access, and data-driven storytelling. Funders are also increasingly recognizing youth sports as an important investment in youth health, development, and well-being.

Comprehensive Recommendations

The webinar series points to several priorities for policymakers, funders, advocates, and youth sports leaders:

1. Establish coordinated state-level oversight structures to align fragmented systems and guide policy implementation.
2. Center policies on the needs and well-being of young people, rather than the preservation of existing systems or institutions.
3. Define minimum standards for coaching, safety, and program quality while allowing flexibility for local implementation and innovation.
4. Expand and standardize coach training with a focus on positive youth development, mental health, safety, and supportive sports experiences.
5. Reduce barriers for coaches by addressing cost, redundancy, time demands, and administrative complexity.
6. Build accountability systems that track training, certification, compliance, and program quality across settings.
7. Use funding incentives and grant requirements to encourage organizations to adopt standards and participate in continuous quality improvement.
8. Invest in data infrastructure to monitor access, equity, participation, quality, and outcomes.
9. Frame youth sports as a public health and youth development priority, recognizing that success in sports extends beyond competition and performance.
10.  Address financial barriers and business practices that increase costs and limit participation.
11.  Build cross-sector coalitions that can sustain reform efforts and align stakeholders around a shared vision.
12.  Integrate youth development principles throughout sports programming, ensuring that experiences prioritize safety, belonging, well-being, and growth.

Conclusion

The U.S. youth sports system is at a pivotal moment. While deeply fragmented, it also presents significant opportunities for transformation.

By leveraging lessons from other sectors, strengthening policy infrastructure, and prioritizing youth development, stakeholders can create a more equitable, coordinated, and impactful system that benefits all young people. We hope this three-part webinar series guides further critical thinking and action.

In youth sports, we often focus on what happens between a coach and a young person.

A coach helping an athlete build confidence after a setback. A team learning how to communicate through conflict. A trusted adult creating a space where every young person feels valued and supported.

These moments matter. They shape how young people develop on and off the field.

But behind every transformational coaching moment is something less visible: a system.

Policies influence access to training. Funding structures determine what organizations prioritize. Organizational practices shape how coaches are supported. Cultural narratives affect how we value coaching and the role it plays in young people’s lives.

For the past five years, the Million Coaches Challenge (MCC) has focused on helping coaches build the skills needed to create positive youth experiences. Together with our partners, we’ve reached a milestone that once felt ambitious: training one million coaches in evidence-based youth development practices.

If we want every young person to experience the benefits of quality coaching, we must also transform the systems that shape coaching itself.

That’s why we’re excited to announce Empower Every Coach (EEC)—a new national initiative designed to advance systems-level change across youth sports and help make quality coaching the norm, not the exception.

A New Chapter for MCC

The Million Coaches Challenge was built on a simple belief: coaches matter. Outside of a young person’s family, a coach is often one of the most consistent and influential adults in their life—and yet coaching remains one of the most underinvested roles in youth development. That gap is exactly where focused investment can do the most good.

Research shows that coaches can play a powerful role in helping young people develop life skills, build resilience, strengthen relationships, and support their overall wellbeing. 

But coaches do not work in isolation. They operate within organizations, communities, policies, and systems that can either support or hinder their success.

The barriers that keep young people from quality coaching are rarely about a coach’s commitment. More often, they are structural.

Empower Every Coach represents the next phase of MCC’s work—one that focuses not only on coach development, but also on the conditions that make quality coaching sustainable and accessible at scale.

From Training Coaches to Transforming Systems

Empower Every Coach was designed around a central question:

What would it take to make quality coaching the default experience for every young person in America?

The answer extends beyond training.

It depends on the conditions that surround every coach and on changing those conditions deliberately, rather than leaving them to chance.

Those conditions are reflected in MCC’s 2025 Calls to Action, a field-wide roadmap that identified four areas where systems change is needed:

• Insights
• Narrative
• Organizational Practice
• Policy

Through strategic funding and cross-sector collaboration, Empower Every Coach is designed to accelerate progress across all four.

Introducing the Inaugural Cohort

With support from Susan Crown Exchange, MCC is investing more than $2 million in ten organizations working to strengthen the systems that shape youth sports. It’s an investment grounded in a clear conviction: young people thrive when the adults closest to them are prepared to support their growth, and coaching is one of the most powerful—and most overlooked—ways to reach them at scale.

The inaugural Empower Every Coach cohort includes leaders from research, policy, public health, youth development, communications, and coach education.

Their projects address a range of challenges facing the field.

Some are focused on shifting public understanding of coaching and youth wellbeing. The Ad Council will lead a national communications effort centered on youth mental health through sports and coaching, while the Center for Healing and Justice through Sport will advance healing-centered approaches through storytelling, research, and resource development.

Others are generating new evidence to inform future action. Adelphi University will pilot mental health guidelines for youth sport in the United States, and the Sport Industry Research Center at Temple University will explore policy and funding solutions through a Youth Sports Tax and Revenue Policy Consortium.

Several organizations are working to strengthen coaching infrastructure and organizational practice. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) will integrate quality coaching standards into local parks and recreation systems. LiFEsports at The Ohio State University and the Ohio High School Athletic Association will build statewide coaching infrastructure through Coach Beyond. Positive Coaching Alliance will continue advancing positive, equitable, and accessible sports experiences, while the United States Soccer Federation will redesign its coach licensure framework around athlete-centered learning.

Other projects are focused on creating more inclusive systems. The University of Washington Center for Leadership in Athletics and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) will work to strengthen the pipeline of women coaches in high school sports.

Together, these efforts recognize that quality coaching is not solely an individual responsibility—it is a systems challenge that requires coordinated action.

Why Collaboration Matters

The challenges facing youth sports are complex, and no single organization can solve them alone.

That’s why Empower Every Coach is more than a funding initiative. It is a collaborative learning community.

Facilitated by Aspen Institute’s Project Play, cohort members will participate in quarterly convenings, shared learning opportunities, and collective problem-solving over the next 18 months.

By bringing together experts across sectors, the initiative aims to accelerate innovation, identify opportunities for alignment, and advance solutions that can create lasting impact.

Looking Ahead

Reaching one million coaches was an important milestone. Now, Empower Every Coach invites us to think even bigger.

What becomes possible when systems are designed not only for athletic success, but for youth development and wellbeing?

The answers will emerge through the work of this inaugural cohort and the broader community committed to transforming youth sports.

Because empowering coaches has never been only about coaches. It’s about creating the conditions for every young person to thrive. 

SCE’s founder Susan Crown reflects on the mentors who shaped her leadership long before she had the credentials to justify their belief in her, and why that kind of investment created a deep sense of responsibility to pay it forward. She shares why the strongest relationships are rooted in candor, humility, and genuine connection rather than constant contact, and how building a culture where people debate ideas, not intentions, has been central to her leadership.

Read the full edition here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/connected-6801146159718109184/

When we launched the Million Coaches Challenge in 2021, we did so with a hypothesis: that training coaches in evidence-based youth development practices at scale could change the experience of young people in sport. Not just on the field, but in the ways they build confidence, find belonging, and develop the skills they’ll carry into the rest of their lives.

Four years later, with 18 national, state, and local Partner organizations, MCC has trained more than 1 million coaches. We’re proud to share Winning Beyond the Game, the Million Coaches Challenge Implementation Study—an independent, multiyear research effort conducted by the American Institutes for Research that documents what that work has produced.

What the Research Found

The study draws on one of the most extensive data sets on youth coaches to date including survey responses from more than 13,800 coaches across 18 national Partner organizations.

The findings are clear:

• 88% of coaches said training made them a better coach, gaining confidence in:
  • supporting athletes’ life skills and building strong relationships
  • creating inclusive environments
  • supporting athletes’ mental health
• 72% believed their athletes were more likely to stay in sport
• 66% observed more joy among the young people they coach

These aren’t small gains. They represent a meaningful shift in how coaches show up and what that means for the millions of young people in their care.

Why This Matters Beyond the Numbers

One of the study’s most significant findings is one that’s harder to quantify: alignment. Across 33 trainings from 10 MCC partners, coaches were converging around the same core principles — building relationships, creating safe and inclusive environments, prioritizing effort and growth, and supporting their own well-being. In a youth sports landscape that has historically been fragmented and inconsistent, that alignment is itself a model.

The research also affirms something we’ve believed from the start: training is necessary, but not sufficient on its own. Its impact is strongest when embedded in systems — supported by mentorship, peer learning, and organizations that prioritize youth development at every level.

A Kick-off, Not a Finish Line

This work would not have been possible without the 18 Partner organizations who trained coaches, contributed data, and helped build the evidence base, as well as AIR, whose rigorous, independent research gives these findings their weight.

As Susan Crown, SCE’s founder, put it: “The question now is how we use what we’ve learned to ensure that every coach — not just the one million coaches already trained — has what they need to show up for young people.”

This study is a milestone. It also marks the beginning of MCC’s next phase, including its Calls to Action and the Empower Every Coach initiative, which focuses on building the systems-level infrastructure that makes quality coaching the norm.

Read the full report here.

Each year, our staff and board nominate several organizations to receive Catalyst Awards: one-time contributions made as part of our year-end giving. These organizations typically work on issues beyond our primary program areas. What unites them is their distinct and promising approaches to chronic social problems.

In a year marked with profound challenges, the work of these 15 organizations feels urgent and critical. We’re proud to support their exemplary work.

Arts and Culture

Broadway Advocacy Coalition: Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s mission is to use arts and storytelling to build a more equitable society – and build the collective capacity of individuals, organizations, and coalitions to do the same.

Intonation Music: Intonation uses the art of music making as a tool to hold space for youth to find their sound and discover new depths of their talent and potential.

Community and Economic Development

Greater Chicago Food Depository: The Greater Chicago Food Depository strives to end hunger by connecting the Chicagoland community with healthy food and advancing solutions that address the root causes of hunger.

Revolution Workshop: Revolution Workshop provides training and job placement in the construction sector to dedicated individuals from Chicago’s most under-resourced communities.

Education

Girl Security: With a vision to forge equity in national security, Girl Security prepares girls, women, and gender minorities for national security careers through a National Security Workforce Development Program, mentoring, in person and e-training, and digital fluency an AI online toolkits.

Making Caring Common: Making Caring Common, works to create a better and more just world by supporting educators, parents, and caregivers in raising children, teens and young adults who care for others and the common good.

Health and Human Services

Mod Collective Diaper Dollars Program: MOD Collective exists to end diaper need so every child has a healthy start to life. It advocates to raise awareness of diaper needs and to support policies that increase access to diapers for low-income families.

New Moms: New Moms’ mission is to strengthen families by partnering with young moms as they progress towards housing stability, economic mobility, and family well-being. The organization supports moms 24 years or younger through access to housing, paid job training, college success, and family support.

Immigration

Chicago Street Vendor Relief Fund: The Street Vendors Relief Fund in Chicago aims to provide financial assistance to the street vendors facing economic hardship.

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) builds power with over 100 member and partner organizations representing diverse immigrant and refugee communities. Together the coalition works to win policies to ensure a more equitable society rooted in dignity and respect for all.

Journalism and Civic Engagement

Braver Angels: Braver Angels is leading the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.

FRONTLINE: FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.

More Equitable Democracy: More Equitable Democracy is a racial justice organization working to advance racial equity through electoral reform.

The Trace: The Trace is building the only team of journalists exclusively dedicated to reporting on our country’s gun violence crisis. It uses the power of journalism to improve public understanding, increase accountability, and identify solutions that can lead to safer homes and communities for all Americans.

WTTW: WTTW is committed to producing and presenting trusted, best-in-class content fueled by a distinctly Chicago sensibility. It engages its audiences by entertaining, inspiring, educating, and reflecting a diversity of perspectives.

Photo Credit: Intonation Music

The Million Coaches Challenge (MCC) announces Empower Every Coach, a $1 million funding opportunity designed to address the systemic barriers preventing millions of coaches from accessing the tools, training, and support they need to help young people thrive on and off the field.

Backed by funding from the Susan Crown Exchange, the initiative seeks to support 6–8 high-impact, systems-level projects that advance the MCC Calls to Action— Insights, Narrative, Organizational Practice, and Policy. Developed by MCC partners and youth sports leaders, these four sector-wide priorities represent a long-term vision to transform coaching nationwide. Grants of $100,000 to $250,000 will be awarded for projects over 12–18 months, with at least one project funded in each of four key domains.

The Million Coaches Challenge is a collective of public and private partners from across youth sports working to ensure every coach in America is prepared to support young people’s well-being. Grounded in the belief that quality coaching at every level fosters positive youth development, mental health, and safety, MCC reached a critical milestone in October 2025 of training one million coaches nationwide. Empower Every Coach builds on this progress, marking the next phase of MCC’s work, moving from individual impact to the systems-level change needed to ensure every coach in America is prepared to support young people’s well-being.

Why Quality Coaching Matters  

Sports play a unique role in fostering belonging, resilience, joy, and mental health for the more than 40 million young people who participate each year. Research shows that at least two-thirds of the nation’s 6.5 million coaches lack the training and support needed to meet athletes’ developmental and mental health needs. Fewer than 20% of coaches report feeling confident in addressing performance anxiety, identifying off-the-field stressors, or connecting athletes to mental health resources.

MCC invites youth sports providers, coach training organizations, intermediaries, and governing bodies that are clearly aligned with one or more of MCC’s Calls to Action to submit a letter of inquiry. The projects considered for funding through Empower Every Coach will address challenges, including building field-wide understanding of quality coaching, translating research into real-world practice, elevating and reshaping narratives around coaching, and advancing policies and systems that expand equitable access to quality coaching—particularly in underserved communities.

“Systems change requires coordinated action,” said Haviland Sharvit, Executive Director of Susan Crown Exchange. “This initiative will support projects that are ready to translate vision into impact—projects that can shift norms, influence policy, and strengthen the infrastructure behind youth coaching across the country.”

How To Apply

MCC invites qualified 501(c)(3) organizations to submit a Letter of Inquiry (LOI). Collaborative proposals are encouraged. LOIs should be 1–2 pages and outline the proposed project, alignment with MCC Calls to Action, expected systems-level impact, and budget.

Key Dates

• January 21, 2026: LOI opens
• February 17, 2026: Submission deadline for LOIs at 5:00pm CST
• March 11, 2026: Semi-finalists will be invited to submit a full grant proposal
• April 9, 2026: Full proposals due at 5:00pm CST 
• April 24, 2026: Finalists will be invited to the interview round
• April 29-May 12, 2026: Interviews with finalists
• May 19, 2026: Decision date
• July 2026: Grants disbursed

Full application details and submission instructions are available here. Please direct questions to info@millioncoaches.org. 

About Million Coaches Challenge

The Million Coaches Challenge is a national initiative launched by the Susan Crown Exchange in 2021 to transform Youth Sports by training one million coaches in evidence-based youth development practices. Backed by 18+ partners, including the Aspen Institute’s Project Play and research led by the American Institutes for Research, the Million Coaches Challenge is transforming Youth Sports by equipping coaches with the information and tools to create positive, inclusive environments that help young people build confidence, belonging, and life skills through sport. Learn more at www.MillionCoaches.org.

About the MCC Calls to Action

The MCC Calls to Action identify systemic barriers to quality coaching in the United States and recommend priorities for the youth sport field. The CTAs are the result of a collaborative, year-long process by the Million Coaches Challenge partners. 

About Susan Crown Exchange
The Susan Crown Exchange (SCE) is a grantmaking foundation with a mission to prepare youth to thrive in a rapidly changing world. SCE primarily supports non-profit organizations that promote social and emotional learning and youth well-being, explore the relationships between technology and society, and build critical skills through youth sports. What unites all SCE’s partners is their commitment to creating opportunities for young people. 

When we launched the Million Coaches Challenge (MCC) in 2021, our vision at the Susan Crown Exchange was both simple and bold: to transform the youth sports experience by training one million coaches in youth development practices.

We knew that behind every great sports moment is a coach supporting their athlete. And we knew that too often, coaches are asked to step into one of the most influential roles in a child’s life without the training, resources, or support they need.

So, we set a big goal, and today we are proud to share that the goal has been met. One million coaches have now been trained in youth development.

Why This Matters

Across the country, more than 38 million kids play organized sports every year. Sports can be a powerful force for confidence, resilience, belonging, and joy, but only when coaches are prepared to support kids as whole people.

Thanks to the Million Coaches Challenge and its 18 national and statewide partners:

• 1 million coaches have received training to help kids win on and off the field.
• 93% of trained coaches say they are more confident.
• 94% believe every coach would benefit from training.
• Athletes coached by MCC-trained coaches report more joy (67%), stronger friendships (63%), and a greater likelihood of staying in the game (71%).

These numbers are powerful. But behind them are countless stories: a coach who takes time to listen, a team that grows closer, a young person who chooses to stay in sports because they feel seen and supported.

This is what investing in coaches makes possible.

Gratitude for Our Partners

This milestone belongs to more than the Susan Crown Exchange. It belongs to the coaches who embraced new practices, the athletes and families who share their stories, and the 18 partner organizations who enthusiastically worked to train and equip coaches across every level of sport, including:

• The California Governor’s Advisory Council on Physical Fitness and Mental Well-being
• The Center for Healing & Justice through Sport
• CoachUp! Washington
• Girls on the Run International
• How to Coach Kids
• Laureus Sport for Good USA
• LiFEsports at The Ohio State University and the Ohio High School Athletic Association
• Little League International
• MCC State Learning Cohort of Maryland, Indiana, and Kansas, facilitated by LiFEsports at The Ohio State University in partnership with the OHSAA
• National Recreation and Park Association 
• Positive Coaching Alliance
• U.S. Soccer Foundation
• United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee
• USA Fencing, USA Triathlon, and USA Weightlifting

From community leagues to national associations, from state-led initiatives to local nonprofits, this was a collective effort. Together, we have proven that when the field unites around a bold vision, transformative change is possible.

What Comes Next

The milestone of one million coaches is not the end of the story, it is the beginning of the next chapter. Alongside this achievement, we are proud to launch two new resources to carry the work forward:

• A Practice Guide for Youth Coaches: 12 Coaching Strategies to Support Positive Youth Development — Practical, evidence-based strategies that every coach can use right away to strengthen the experience for kids.
• The Calls to Action: A Vision for Youth Sports Coaching in the United States — A shared vision for systemic change, spanning insights, narrative, organizational practice, and policy.

Together, these resources provide the tools and roadmap to make quality coaching the standard, not the exception.

And in early 2026, the final Implementation Study Report, authored by American Institutes for Research, will capture lessons learned, ensuring that the momentum of this movement translates into a blueprint for lasting impact.

Looking Ahead

At the Susan Crown Exchange, we believe that when we invest in coaches, we invest in kids, in communities, and in the future of sport.

The Million Coaches Challenge proves that large-scale, collective action is possible, and powerful. But there is more work ahead. We are grateful to the coaches, partners, and changemakers who made this milestone possible. And we are excited for what comes next, together.

Learn more about the Million Coaches Challenge, explore the Practice Guide, and read the Calls to Action: millioncoaches.org.

Coaching is one of the most powerful influences on a young athlete’s experience. A well-trained coach can build confidence, foster resilience, and create an environment where youth thrive—not just in sports, but in life. Yet, across the U.S., coaches remain under-supported, under-trained, and fragmented. The Million Coaches Challenge (MCC) set out to change that.

Preliminary Findings from the MCC Implementation Study
New research from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) highlights the influence of coaches trained by MCC Partners and identifies critical next steps to strengthen the youth coaching system. 

Here’s what we’ve learned:

• Coach training works. 93% of coaches agreed training had an influence on building their confidence, and 94% believe all coaches would benefit from having foundational training in youth development-related practices.
• Athletes benefit too. Coaches reported improvements in athlete enjoyment, relationships, and retention, with 71% of coaches believing that their participation in training made athletes more likely to return.
• Momentum is building. The MCC Partners have trained 730,985 coaches—on track to reach 1 million by the end of 2025.

The MCC Partners are also aligning on what it means to be a “good” coach and setting a shared standard for youth development-focused coaching. Their collective efforts are shaping the future of coaching across the country.

Take Five: Recommendations for the Youth Sport Field

Despite this progress, challenges remain. The lack of a formal coaching system, limited resources, and outdated coaching mindsets make widespread change difficult. The MCC Partners have put forward a set of recommendations that span research, practice, and policy:

• Define, operationalize, and adopt a minimum standard or framework for what it means to be a “good” coach in the United States.
• Review trainings available in the field to ensure they reflect what it means to be a “good” and “trained” coach.
• Expand access to high-quality, comprehensive training.
• Build capacity for policy implementation, professionalize coaching, and change the narrative about coaching youth sport. 
• Develop a shared research-practice agenda and prioritize systematic, shared measurement efforts to understand the coaching landscape and document coach development and effectiveness.

We’re winning beyond the game—learn more about our efforts at: MillionCoaches.org/implementation-study/.