An in-depth look at the timeless quandary of how average high school basketball players navigate their dreams of greatness with the adults who coach and support them.

We all admire the stories of famous athletes with humble origins who rose to the top through hard work and dedication. Michael Jordan and Steph Curry, after all, both started as second-string players. But their climbs to athletic dominance call to us because they seem to prove a message we all want to believe: Anything is possible with hard work and determination. But for most people, it simply isn’t. Most of us will end up being more or less average rather than extraordinary. 

In Playing Time, sociologist and sports scholar Scott N. Brooks introduces readers to young athletes who are middle-status players on their basketball teams—not the best, but not the worst—who often find themselves at odds with their coaches and teammates as they compete for playing time to show off their skills. Drawing on his extensive experience as a coach of middle and high school-age boys, Brooks invites us into the inner lives and daily experiences of kids, parents, and coaches, as players try to make sense of who they are and differentiate themselves on the court. These boys have been told by coaches, their parents, and society that hard work, effort, and attitude determine effectiveness, and Brooks reveals how that message affects them when it’s clear that their best efforts are not always enough. Middle-status boys often feel alone, alienated, socially stigmatized, and powerless to improve their fate. 

By focusing on the boys stuck in the middle, Brooks uncovers essential aspects of the formative years of adolescence when kids dream of and plan for a future. As many of us will recognize our own dreams of greatness in these kids, we can all learn to support them as they build their sense of self, both on and off the court.

Youth sport programs are experiencing numerous challenges in delivering impactful on-the-field/court experiences while navigating the pressures from negative parents, the influence of social media, the significant increase in mental and emotional health concerns and the continual need to win at all costs. The current state of youth sports requires an honest review to decipher tangible methods to enhance the youth sports experience, ensure its positive growth, and create benefits to young participants.

While other textbooks focus on coaching, coaching specific sports, or the psychology of athletes, Reimagining Youth Sport: Guide for Administrators, Coaches, and Parents takes a different approach—tackling the core issues plaguing and sadly ruining the ideals of the sporting experience for young athletes across competitive levels of play for all ages, abilities, and sport types.

Reimagining Youth Sport provides students studying in sport management, coaching, and/or athletic administration with content, tools, and application-based knowledge to become change agents within the youth sport realm. Additionally, this timely text supplies athletic/sport administrators, coaches, and parents with an honest assessment of the state of youth sports coupled with tools/strategies and easy to implement on and off-the-field/court activities to create transformational programs to reimagine youth sport in order to fully deliver on the ideals of the youth sport experience.