Episode 104: Amanda and Sean Holbrooks (Pickup Portal)

🔹 Amanda and Sean Holbrooks are youth sports parents just like everyone else… Until their own son's baseball situation exposed a problem they couldn't ignore. Instead of complaining about it, they built a solution: Pickup Portal.

🔹 Their son only wanted to play baseball, while many of his teammates spent the offseason playing other sports. He wanted innings. He wanted reps. He just needed somewhere to play.

🔹 The Holbrooks family turned to Facebook to find teams needing an extra player. The demand was obvious… The organization? Not so much. Endless posts, comments, and messages inspired the idea for a centralized platform.

🔹 Enter Pickup Portal: a matchmaking service for youth sports. Need a player for a tournament? Looking to join a team for a weekend? Traveling and hoping to fill in somewhere? The portal connects everyone in one place.

🔹 With over 1,000 teams and 4,000 players already using the platform, it's clear this solved a problem a lot more families were experiencing than anyone realized.

🔹 The word "portal" carries a lot of baggage these days thanks to college athletics. As player movement trickles down into youth sports, one question keeps coming up… Is this creating a new problem or simply organizing one that already existed?

🔹 One criticism is that it encourages "team hopping." Sean pushes back on that idea, arguing families have always found guest-playing opportunities. The goal isn't to create ringers...it's to keep teams from having to forfeit tournaments because they're missing a few players.

🔹 One of Sean's biggest takeaways: "Parents still have to parent." No app can replace common sense. Like any tool, Pickup Portal depends on how adults choose to use it.

🔹 We also wrestle with the bigger picture. Youth sports have become increasingly transactional, where chasing wins and building the perfect tournament roster can sometimes outweigh long-term player development.

🔹 But there's another side to the story. Pickup Portal can also create opportunities for kids from smaller towns, expose players to new coaches, and help athletes find experiences they otherwise never would've had.

🔹 We debate some of the unintended consequences too. Could easier access to more teams mean more tournaments, more overuse injuries, or ways to work around pitch counts? Or could it actually help coaches rest players by making it easier to find temporary replacements?

🔹 Sean closes with a fascinating observation about youth sports parenting: the difference between how we raise our first athlete compared to our second, third, or fourth. Experience has a funny way of changing our priorities and maybe that's one lesson every sports parent eventually learns.

Episode 103: Jordan Parker (Returning guest to discuss all things World Cup)

🎙️In this week’s episode, I bring back Jordan Parker to the pod to discuss all things World Cup. The best summers are World Cup summers and this one was especially delightful and full of story lines.

🔹 World Cup Summers are the best summers and this one did NOT disappoint.

🔹 We were both a little skeptical that the U.S. could pull off the hosting gig so well, but this World Cup in a lot of ways really showcased the best of all of us. Cultures meeting and creating these unique bonds and friendships. Sharing traditions. The Scots drinking Boston out of beer. So much fun.

🔹 But I do have to ask… Why do people who start watching soccer after a week decide that they have the answer on how to “fix the game?” What other sport do people come chiming in with all of these massive rule changes/overhauls?

🔹 The U.S. performance in the World Cup…. Where to start? The HOT start might have increased expectations to an unrealistic height. The fall was only that much more dramatic as a result.

🔹 Christian Pulisic massively under-performed and took some major (and perhaps warranted) heat. His comments before the World Cup about it just being “another tournament” and “not a big deal” didn’t do much to help. In some ways, he represents all that is wrong with the current youth sports world in America.

🔹 Is the solution in the U.S. for soccer really as simple as… If only LeBron James just played soccer? Of course not. It’s a very American thing to just assume you should be able to be the best at something. Throw enough money at it. Find the fastest, strongest, biggest athletes. Simple solutions for complex problems.

🔹 Nuance of the sport (VAR). Soccer was not meant to be called at such a precise and perfect, slow-motion way.

🔹 Best uniforms, players, story lines, etc.

🔹 Stay tuned for the end of the episode. 8 minutes of extra time added turned into 20 minutes… Just like the World Cup. VAR was only necessary on a few of the hot takes that were a little too spicy. A preview of those that made the cut: Winking, working out in scrubs, blind date set ups, balloon tomfoolery, Is “Pa” from the Little House on the Prairie reboot a little TOO hot?

Episode 102: Round Table (The Coach- Aaron Rodgers, Ohio University women's soccer, The Player- Scout Murray, The Dad- David Murray)

🎙In this week’s episode, we have a unique round table discussion about college soccer. 3 different, but connected, perspectives… The coach. The player. The Dad. 

Aaron Rodgers (Head Women’s Soccer Coach @ Ohio University)

Scout Murray (Former D-1 soccer player @ Ohio University)

David Murray (Scout’s Dad, author of a book called “Soccer Dad)

I loved being able to hear about similar experiences told through 3 different lenses. This is a can’t-miss episode that will hopefully bring a better level of understanding to coaches, parents and players. 

Soccer Dad Book Link

Post-Script from David Murray

Episode 101: Dr. Jeremy Alland (Sports Medicine Doctor & Team Doctor for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls)

🎙In this week’s episode, sports medicine doctor Dr. Jeremy Alland joins me, who is the team doctor for the Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, etc. In his own words, “I’m a sports doctor who doesn’t want to ever see you in my clinic.” 

🔹 Dr. Alland explains that many conversations with injured young athletes weren’t actually about the injury. They were about upcoming tournaments, coaches being upset, and the pressure to get back on the field.

🔹 The current youth sports system is pushing kids to specialize, commit, and compete earlier than ever…sometimes before they’ve even reached puberty.

🔹 “The kids who are the best at 13 and younger are rarely the best at 18+”  Dr. Alland discusses why early success does not always predict long-term potential.

🔹 The travel sports model is creating a cycle where the best young players get pulled away early, leaving recreation leagues struggling to survive.

🔹 Dr. Alland breaks down the advice he’d give parents if he wasn’t afraid to hurt their feelings: talent will find a spot, year-round play isn’t required, and rest is critical.

🔹 One of the biggest takeaways: parents are often more stressed about performance than their kids are… and kids notice.

🔹 After a game, kids usually don’t want analysis. What they really want? A hug and some food. (Be real… Would any of you want someone scheduling a 4:55 meeting on Friday to review your performance for the week?)

🔹 Dr. Alland challenges the idea that year-round sports exist because the data proves it creates better athletes, saying it’s also driven by organizations needing to survive financially.

🔹 He also points out that this isn’t just an “organization problem.”  It’s supply and demand. If families keep demanding it, the system will continue to provide it.

🔹 From creating more opportunities to redefining success, Dr. Alland delivers a huge conversation about balance, burnout, and building a youth sports system that actually serves kids.

Episode 100 (!!!): Colleen Leitner (My big sister)

🔹 My older sister Colleen joins for a special 100th Episode and proves that no one can humble you quite like your sister... From ACL injury roasts to podcast intro critiques and everything in between.

🔹 We dive into the older/younger sister dynamic and the childhood stories that shaped us… including assigning me my favorite color, to the legendary “Lettuce” nickname, and plenty of sibling chaos.

🔹 Colleen and I reflect on growing up with different identities... one seen as the “smart, less sporty sister” and the other as the “athletic, less smart sister” (although we eventually realized we were both a little bit of both).

🔹 We revisit the infamous AP Calculus story that still requires apologies to Mr. McCloskey and Lindsey Allen… because some decisions follow you forever.

🔹 We talk about how much our environments shape our interests — my friend group was sports-obsessed, while Colleen’s friendships pulled her toward different passions and experiences.

🔹 Colleen shares how sports gave me confidence and identity in a way it didn’t necessarily provide for her, while camp and other experiences played a bigger role in shaping who she was.

🔹 We discuss parenting kids with different interests and the constant challenge of making sure one child’s “thing” never feels more important than another child’s “thing.”

🔹 Colleen shares her theory that former athletes might actually be a major force behind today’s youth sports intensity and why that’s worth examining.

🔹 We talk about how friend groups and social media shape the way we view youth sports, especially when your circles are filled with former athletes and competitive sports parents.

🔹 Colleen explains her approach to youth sports parenting: less about chasing outcomes and more about kids running around, making friends, learning from coaches, and having fun.

🔹 We discuss the balance between supporting a kid who genuinely loves a sport while still keeping perspective with time, money, and family priorities.

🔹 Ultimately, Colleen’s goal is simple: raise kids who are happy, kind, and well-rounded — not kids whose entire identity and value are tied to one thing.

Episode 99: Where the guest is... The host

New Episode 99:  🎙️ |  99 Problems, The Pod Ain’t Solved One x Myself

No guest on today’s pod. Just me and my microphone, 99 episodes later, reflecting on the journey and some of the big takeaway lessons from the previous 98 episodes…

A huge thank you to the 88 different guests who’ve sat down with me along the way and shared in some wonderful conversations. Many of those moments are highlighted in today’s episode. 

Do me a favor and tune in, then share it with someone you know. 

This podcaster had fun today (and for the past 2 years)!!!

Tidbits:

-The surprising types of episodes/guests that people REALLY crave…

-The episode I am MOST upset didn't reach more ears… 

- The best quotes from guests that have lingered…

-Let me clear my throat…My real, real, real feelings on kids “opting out” of high school sports. 

Episode 98: Dennis Bairos (Youth sports dad/Author)

🎙️ | Dennis Bairos knows the youth sports dad life well, raising 3 kids under the age of 10 while navigating the highs and lows of sports parenting.

🔹 Bairos built a career in fitness and admits he has an “all-in” personality that can quickly become obsessive when pursuing interests.

🔹 What started as a fun father-son golf hobby quickly accelerated after his son began beating him on the course at just 6½ years old.

🔹 Bairos openly shares how early success can become intoxicating for parents and how quickly the mindset can shift to, “How do we level this up?”

🔹 His son’s early love for golf snowballed into constant tournaments, medals, rankings, and bigger dreams before he had even reached puberty.

🔹 Bairos reflects on a major turning point at the Under Armour Nationals, when he realized his son looked more nervous and scared than excited to compete.

🔹 We discuss how physically early-developing kids can dominate youth sports temporarily, while late bloomers often struggle emotionally once others catch up or pass them.

🔹 Bairos shares the warning sign he ignored… a camp director cautioning him to “give him some time” instead of constantly searching for the next opportunity.

🔹 As expectations and pressure increased, golf slowly shifted from being a bonding activity into something that started to feel more like a job for his son.

🔹 Bairos admits there were multiple moments where he considered scaling things back, but his own drive at times kept pushing the process forward.

🔹 One of the hardest realizations for Bairos was understanding that his son may have continued playing mostly to avoid disappointing him.

🔹 Bairos discusses coming to peace with his son eventually walking away from golf and how the experience completely changed his perspective on youth sports parenting.

🔹 We also dive into Bairos’ book, “Wired Like This: Why Men Push Too Far and Still Say… I Got This,” which explores the hidden patterns many men — and youth sports dads — fail to recognize in themselves.

Episode 97: Taylor Roden (Soccer coach/Teacher)

🎙️ |  Taylor Roden is an elementary school teacher and girls soccer coach who loves coaching high school soccer, but has found it a challenge in recent years to land in the right spot at the club level.

🔹 As both a teacher and coach, Taylor is deeply focused on development and those “aha moments” for players  when confidence clicks and they realize “I can do this.” Those moments still give her chills.

🔹 Taylor shares a very honest reflection before the episode: despite being a C-license coach and educator, she doesn’t feel like there’s a clear place for her in today’s club soccer landscape outside of high school coaching.

🔹 She reflects that coaching “second-level” club teams was the most fulfilling experience she’s had, but that space feels like it’s disappeared in the current system.

🔹 She describes feeling stuck between worlds… like she has to choose between being a teacher with a full life outside soccer or being fully immersed in the demanding club coaching circuit.

🔹 The modern club structure has raised the commitment bar so high (travel, practices, year-round demands) that it’s pushed out many quality coaches who aren’t full-time soccer professionals.

🔹 The idea of true “second teams” has faded, with clubs instead funneling players into a system where everyone is labeled “top team,” even when the competitive balance doesn’t match.

🔹 We talk about how clubs have shifted away from coach autonomy, moving toward rigid league-driven structures instead of allowing teams to be placed where development actually makes sense.

🔹 The core idea: players should be in environments where they are challenged appropriately, not getting crushed every game, and not dominating without growth opportunities.

🔹 Taylor calls out the constant “Pathway to Pro” messaging in youth soccer culture, questioning how realistic or meaningful it is for the vast majority of players.

🔹 With experience across rec, club, and high school soccer, she highlights how dramatically different each level is from organization and consistency to resources and expectations.

🔹 We close by reflecting on how club soccer today feels designed for full-time coaches, and wondering if either of us would have survived in the current landscape…plus some unfiltered hot takes to finish it off.

Episode 96: Joe Foran (Long-time soccer official and mentor)

🎙 Joe Foran, a long-time soccer official, mentor, and author of Misusing the Young, joins the podcast to unpack the growing referee crisis in youth sports and why the entire system is leaning heavily on teenage officials to keep games alive.

🔹 Foran’s path into officiating started in the most ironic way possible: criticizing a referee himself. The official turned to him and said, “You really should become a referee.” Thirty-plus years later, he’s still in the game and now serves on the National Disciplinary Appeals Panel for the Soccer Federation (essentially soccer’s version of the Supreme Court).

🔹 One of the most alarming realities? Foran says roughly 1/3 of the disciplinary cases he hears involve referee abuse in some form.

🔹 We discuss how physically and mentally demanding officiating actually is. In a typical soccer match, referees are making 100-150 decisions while constantly moving and all are expected to be perfect and delivered in microseconds. “If people understood the difficulty, they’d be more sympathetic.”

🔹 The officiating pipeline is collapsing. Across all sports, roughly 75% of officials quit within three years. In soccer specifically, Foran says about 1/2 of newly trained youth referees are gone by the end of their very first season.

🔹 And the issue isn’t really the pay. Officials can make GOOD money. The real problem? The constant negativity, judgment, and abuse — not always screaming, but the exhausting environment young refs are forced to operate in every weekend.

🔹 Nearly half of the 100,000+ referees in the US Soccer Federation are under 18 years old. Youth refs are officiating the majority of youth games because, bluntly, many adults don’t want those assignments. The entire youth sports model is increasingly being sustained by teenagers.

🔹 Foran argues the conversation has to go beyond “administrative shortages.” What happens to the teenagers who quit after being verbally abused? What’s the long-term mental health impact on kids squeezed out of sports officiating before they even become adults?

🔹 One of his biggest practical solutions? Adult field marshals. Foran believes simply having an adult presence supporting young referees on the sideline could dramatically lower tensions and improve retention almost immediately.

🔹 We also dive into the “proximity theory”.... Which is the closer spectators are to the action, the more emotional they become. One league experimented with moving parents back just five yards from the touchline, and clubs were stunned by how much it lowered the temperature.

🔹 Foran shares a brutally funny phrase from a basketball coach: “Delusional Parent Disorder” That is the irrational belief that your child is dramatically better than reality, often fueling sideline outrage directed at officials.

🔹 And one final reminder from Foran: “We see what we look for.” Parents watching officials are often searching for mistakes, while watching their own kids for moments of success. Maybe youth sports changes a little when we start looking for the good in officials too.

🔹 Plus… today’s hot take: NO MORE CRUISES.

Episode 95: Abby Fleischer (Hospitality and Management Student at Kansas State)

🎙 Let’s talk youth sports megaplexes… You know, the massive, all-in-one complexes with endless turf fields, lights, indoor facilities, and yes… $50 parking. If you’ve been in youth sports long enough, you’ve probably lived a weekend (or 3 day weekend, because hey… Spend more MONEY!) inside one.

🔹 Abby Fleischer dug into the economic impact of sports tourism, earning national recognition and presenting at the Eta Sigma Delta Research Symposium.

🔹 We all know youth sports hit parents’ wallets, but they’re also big business for entire communities and regional economies.

🔹 Across the country, massive multi-sport complexes are popping up, hosting tournaments year-round and transforming how and where kids compete.

🔹 One standout example: Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana—a sprawling facility that’s evolved into a full-blown entertainment district, with housing, and even future pro-level facilities planned.

🔹 These complexes often feature 15–20 full-sized fields, huge parking lots, highway exits built just for them and they’re frequently dropped in the middle of nowhere, then built outward.

🔹 The goal is clear: attract tournaments, drive traffic, and generate spending. As Fleischer notes, communities invest in these projects to stimulate economic growth.

🔹 And it works! Hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and entertainment venues boom around these complexes. “They find the space and then build everything around it.”

🔹 But what’s often missing? A focus on what’s best for the athletes themselves.

🔹 These facilities make year-round play easier than ever…but that raises a legit question: is constant access helping development or just causing more burnout? Research tells us year-round participation isn’t necessarily a positive. 

🔹 Towns like Westfield become weekend hotspots, but they’re also active during the week with practices, leagues, and rentals. This isn’t just occasional traffic, it’s constant.

🔹 There’s major residential growth too. Families moving closer, schools expanding, and in some cases, athletes temporarily relocating just to keep up with travel demands.

🔹 It’s not all positive: rising taxes, longer commutes, higher prices. Longtime residents often feel the strain of rapid development.

🔹 Meanwhile, parents are feeling it too. Hotel stays, missed school days, stay-to-play rules, wristband fees, parking costs… it adds up fast.

🔹 Scheduling isn’t accidental either. Long gaps between games often push families into nearby restaurants and entertainment zones. Cha-ching.

🔹 And here’s the twist: despite all the revenue, the margins can be razor thin. Grand Park brought in millions, but still operated at a loss, with tens of millions in debt remaining.

🔹 So the big question: are these megaplexes sustainable and even if so, at what cost? Because when year-round competition becomes the business model… the kids might be the ones paying for it most.