Better Sports Parents

di Scott Rintoul

Stagione 1

Greg Stewart: Do All the Sports, Encourage Failure & The Power of Self-Acceptance

Greg Stewart spent the first 25 years of his life trying to prove to people that he wasn't disabled despite being born without half of his left arm. Once he changed his mindset, he found the sport of shot put and won two Paralympic gold medals. Greg is a three-time world champion in para standing volleyball, a U Sports Defensive player of the Year in able bodied basketball, and he stands seven foot two. But the most interesting thing about him isn't his resume. It's the path he had to walk to get there. A path that ran through able-bodied sport, university, rock bottom, two lost jobs, and an eventual breakthrough: accepting himself exactly as he was. In this conversation, Greg talks about what sport means when you spend years doing it for the wrong reasons, why failure is one of the most important things we can teach young athletes, and what the word inclusion actually means when you strip away the box-ticking. He shares the three values he brings to young athletes — trust, ownership and integrity — and makes a compelling case that the real problem in youth sports right now isn't the coaches or the kids. It's the parents... who he also believes are the solution. Greg is 40 years old, newly married, a brand new father of a three-month-old daughter, and studying for his master's in counseling. He has more to say about sport, identity and mental health than almost anyone we've had on this show. 🎙️ Better Sports Parents: helping parents positively contribute to the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week. Chapters 00:00 Opening 01:36 Introducing Greg Stewart 03:46 How Greg Got Into Sport 05:03 "You Can't Coach Height" — Using What You've Got 05:38 Starting in Grassroots: Soccer, Lacrosse and Everything Else 07:15 What His Parents Got Right: Encouragement Without Force 08:41 Did Sport Feel Like a Place He Belonged? 11:43 25 Years Trying to Prove He Wasn't Disabled 13:09 Leaning Into Able-Bodied Sport: What He Was Really Chasing 15:02 Having Success Without Having Joy 16:51 Chasing External Validation for 25 Years 17:16 Rock Bottom: Almost Failing Out, Fired From Two Jobs 19:36 How He Found Joy in Sport Again 20:26 Failure Is Important 22:26 How He Discovered Shot Put 25:24 Physical Health and Mental Health Are the Same Thing 28:12 Finding Flow State in Sport 30:07 What Greg Tells Young Athletes: Trust, Ownership and Integrity3 3:15 Are Parents Owning the Right Things? 35:19 Your Discomfort Is Leading the Way: A Message for Parents 38:17 Mental Health Support in Sport: What's Changed and What Hasn't 39:23 Why We Need to Let Kids Fail 41:20 Do All the Sports 43:18 Youth Sport Has Become Too Commercialized 44:13 The Coaches Who Shaped Greg 46:04 Ownership and Trust: Who Really Runs the Team? 48:38 What Inclusion Actually Means 52:03 Where Does Healthy Competition Belong in Youth Sport? 55:56 The Objective vs. The Purpose: A Crucial Distinction 57:42 Greg's Biggest Issue in Youth Sport Today: Parent Involvement 01:00:04 How to Bring Parents Along: Lead by Vulnerability 01:02:32 The Listeners We Really Need to Reach 01:03:30 The Mindfulete Resources Greg Stewart The Mindfulete Jumpstart

S1 · E40

16 giu 2026

1:05:36

Jay Triano: Learning from Steve Nash, Practicing in a Parking Lot & Fun is Fundamental

Jay Triano has spent almost all of his 67 years in sport. He's a former captain of Canada's Men's Basketball Team, the first Canadian head coach in NBA history with the Toronto Raptors, and a current assistant with the Dallas Mavericks. He's also the son of a high school basketball coach and the father of three kids who all played youth sports, which means he's seen every side of the equation. In this conversation, Jay draws direct lines between how he was raised in sport in Niagara Falls and the NBA coach he became. He talks about playing basketball, volleyball, baseball and track until he was nearly 18, why Steve Nash never acted like the best player in the room despite being exactly that, and what a parking lot practice with no hoops taught him about fundamentals that individual skill sessions never could. Jay is direct about what he sees wrong in youth sports today: parent-driven environments that prioritize exposure over development, social media that skips all the steps, and a growing culture of selfish play filtering down from the professional game. And he's equally clear about the fix: fun, teamwork, open communication, and coaches who understand that they're coaching twelve kids, not just yours. 🎙️ Better Sports Parents: helping parents positively contribute to the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week. Chapters 00:00 Opening 01:35 Introducing Jay Triano 03:18 A Life in Sport: 67 Years and Still Going 04:16 How Jay's Dad Shaped His Love of the Game 05:37 Multi-Sport Until 17: Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball & Track 06:44 Unstructured Play: Street Hockey and Stats in the Front Yard 07:20 How Multi-Sport Cross-Training Made Jay a Better Athlete 08:21 Raising His Own Kids: Let Them Love What They Love 10:00 What Youth Sport Looked Like When His Kids Were Young 11:32 What Jay Looked for in a Youth Coach 12:31 Youth Sport Today: Parent-Driven and Overspecialized 13:55 NIL, Agents at Young Ages & Money Changing the Game 14:17 Higher Skills, Lower IQ 15:47 Too Many Games, Not Enough Practice 18:25 Multi-Sport and Learning to Fill a Role 19:08 Steve Nash: The Best Player Who Never Acted Like It 22:14 The European Model: Growing Together 24:15 Canadian Basketball's Rise and the Affordability Problem 26:14 If You're Good Enough, You Will Be Found 28:04 What Jay Wanted His Kids to Get Out of Sport 29:51 Learning From Bad Coaches Too 29:58 The Coaches Who Shaped Jay 33:32 The Biggest Mistake Jay Made as a Young Coach 36:11 Number One Advice for New Coaches: Make It Fun 38:19 How to Recognize and Reward Every Role on a Team 40:16 Phil Jackson's Rule: Acknowledge the Screen, Not Just the Bucket 44:54 What Jay's Dad Said After the Games 47:15 The Volunteer Coach and Referee Crisis 48:07 No Secrets: Jay's Rule on Parent Communication 52:10 He Wasn't Going to Cut a Kid in Grade Seven 53:51 What a Good Youth Environment Actually Looks Like 58:23 Developing Canadian Coaches: A Missed Opportunity 01:00:14 A Simple Thank You Can Keep a Coach Coming Back 01:02:16 The Parking Lot Practice That Built His Fundamentals 01:04:06 Social Media Is Skipping All the Steps 01:06:01 Are We Over-Parenting? Kids Need Difficult Situations 01:07:38 Learning to Be Coached Hard 01:09:06 Jay's Biggest Issue in Youth Sports Today Resources Jay Triano

S1 · E39

9 giu 2026

1:10:55

Brock McGillis: The Locker Room Should Be Disneyland, Vulnerable is Brave & Why Words Matter

Esplicito

⚠️ This episode deals with serious topics including mental health, self-harm, and abuse. If you or someone you know needs support, contact Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868) or the Suicide Crisis Helpline (988). Brock McGillis became the first openly gay player to have played professional hockey, but the path to that moment nearly cost him everything. Depression. Daily drinking. Self-harm. A sport culture that told him, in a thousand small ways every day, that he couldn't be himself. Today Brock runs the Shift Makers tour, visiting over 250 hockey teams across Canada in a single season. What he finds in those rooms is alarming: over a thousand players disclosing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, thousands more sharing mental health struggles, and more than 50 who had never told anyone they'd been sexually assaulted — until they told him. In this conversation, Brock talks about why sport culture continues to silence young people, what true inclusion actually looks like versus what organizations claim it looks like, and why the answer isn't more analysis — it's action. He also shares the story of Brendan Burke, whose friendship and tragic death became the catalyst for everything Brock does today. This is one of the most important conversations Better Sports Parents has had. Better Sports Parents is helping parents positively impact the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week Chapters 00:00 Opening 01:36 Introduction & Content Warning 03:17 The Shift Makers Tour: 250 Teams in 200 Days 04:11 How Locker Room Culture Programs Kids to Conform 08:13 How Do We Go From Thinking the Right Things to Actually Doing Them? 09:15 The Push-Up Story: How Shift Makers Was Born 10:06 Challenging Bravery: "Tell Me Something You Wouldn't Tell a Teammate" 12:10 "The Locker Room Should Be Disneyland" 15:04 Why Kids Won't Talk to Parents and What Brock Does Differently 19:17 The Real Reason Kids Don't Come Forward 22:14 Why Brock Becomes the First Person They Ever Tell 23:11 Parents Need to Humanize Themselves Too 30:38 What to Do When Your Teenager Won't Talk to You 34:19 Why "I Didn't Mean It Like That" Is Not Good Enough 35:08 How the Culture Became Brock's Identity and His Prison 38:11 Who or What Finally Made Him Be Himself 43:27 Brendan Burke: The Friend Who Changed Everything 43:58 What True Inclusion Actually Looks Like in Sport 46:36 Why "We're a Family" Is Often Hollow 51:26 Stop Talking. Start Doing. 54:21 The Vicious Cycle: Coaches Doing What Was Done to Them 58:51 Talk to Them as People, Not as Hockey Robots 1:00:47 Resources for Self-Harm and Mental Health Support 1:04:14 The Biggest Issue in Youth Sport Today: Affordability 1:07:21 Why Sport Can Still Be Great Resources Brock McGillis' advocacy and speaking platform Kids Help Phone ⁠Jumpstart

S1 · E38

2 giu 2026

1:11:25

Chris Pronger:

Esplicito

Chris Pronger's NHL resume reads like a fairy tale: second overall pick, Stanley Cup champion, two Olympic gold medals, Hart Trophy, Norris Trophy, Hockey Hall of Fame. But ask him what the hardest thing he's ever done is, and the answer isn't hockey. It's parenting. In this conversation with Scott Rintoul, Chris draws a direct line between the low-pressure, multi-sport, creativity-driven childhood he had in Dryden, Ontario and the Hall of Fame career that followed. He talks candidly about the two rules he gave his own kids — work hard and have fun — and what happened when one of his sons stopped doing the second one. Chris doesn't mince words on the state of youth sport. He believes we've monetized and commoditized childhood sport to the point where the kids have been forgotten entirely. He's watched joy get extracted from talented players at every level, seen parents chase triple-A status for the wrong reasons, and watched super teams steamroll opponents while teaching kids nothing about adversity. His message is simple: fun comes first. The passion, the work ethic, the resilience... it all comes later. If it isn't fun, the rest of won't matter. 🎙️ Better Sports Parents: helping parents positively impact the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week. Chapters 0:00 Opening 01:35 Introduction: Chris Pronger 03:40 The Hardest Job of His Career: Parenting 04:48 Being a Parent vs. Being a Friend 06:00 How Chris Was Parented in Sport 08:08 Low Pressure, High Support: What His Parents Got Right 09:29 Unstructured Play and Why It Made Him Better 11:01 Multi-Sport: Why Chris Played Everything 12:41 Taking Breaks From Hockey, Even as a Pro 13:49 Are Kids on the Ice Too Long? 16:28 When It Should Be About Fun, Not Wins 19:22 Travel Sports: How Much Is Too Much, Too Soon? 23:31 His Two Rules as a Sports Parent 24:07 The Conversation He Had With His Son Who Wasn't Having Fun 26:12 Pressure to Have Kids in Hockey? 29:04 Studying the Game as a Kid 32:40 Passion vs. Fit: Follow What You Love 39:08 Parents: Who Are You Doing This For? 41:13 Triple-A or Bust: The Stigma That Kills the Joy 42:27 Even NHL Scouts Get It Wrong 48:58 Standards: Where Do They Come From? 49:37 Victimhood, Accountability and When His Game Turned Around 51:39 Blame Culture in Youth Sport and How to Fix It 53:33 The Monetization and Commoditization Problem 56:28 FOMO and the Genie That Won't Go Back in the Bottle 58:34 Super Teams: Why Chris Hates Them in Any Sport 59:01 Adversity as a Gift 01:05:07 What Youth Sport Teaches Future CEOs 01:09:44 Chris's Biggest Issue in Youth Sport Today Resources ⁠Chris Pronger's Book: Earned⁠ ⁠Chris Pronger: Hockey Hall of Fame⁠

S1 · E37

26 mag 2026

1:11:39

Adam Van Koeverden: The Alignment Issue, Fund Physical Literacy & Canada Wants to Win

Adam Van Koeverden has paddled over 120,000 kilometres in his lifetime. He's a four-time Olympian, a multiple world champion, and one of the most decorated kayakers Canada has ever produced. He's also Canada's Secretary of State for Sport, and that may be where his biggest race is being run. In this conversation, Adam traces the full arc of a sporting life that began with a mom who needed somewhere for her kid to go after school. The Oakville canoe club was affordable, it was welcoming, it ran on volunteers, and it changed everything. Adam wants every Canadian kid to have access to that same kind of experience, and he's now in a position to do something about it. He talks candidly about the $755 million federal investment in sport recently announced, and what it's actually designed to do. As Adam puts it, every world champion Canada has ever produced started out splashing around in swimming lessons or kicking a ball at a community center, and the foundation for elite sport is an active society. He also weighs in on the issues sports parents know too well: early specialization, the pressure to travel at young ages, the cost of living squeezing family budgets, and the gap between what the research says about youth development and what's actually happening on the ground. He shares his honest view on what a good youth coach looks like, what his own parents did right, and why the Norwegian model keeps coming up as the gold standard. And he makes the case that physical activity and play are human rights. Chapters 0:00 Opening 1:35 Introducing Adam Van Koeverden 5:11 The $755M Announcement: Largest Sport Investment in Canadian History 8:00 How Will the $755M Show Up in Your Community? 8:28 National Sport Organizations & the Alignment Problem 12:37 Hockey Canada and the Trust Deficit in Governance 14:30 Do We Need to Overhaul National Sport Organizations? 15:38 Underfunded at Every Level 16:39 Nation Building Through Sport: Why Adam Put His Name on a Ballot 18:24 What Parents Are Telling Him 21:46 The Case for Coed Sport Until Age 12 23:19 Can Government Incentivize Multi-Sport? 26:18 School-Based Sport vs. Club Sport: The Balance We've Lost 27:31 Not-for-Profit vs. For-Profit Sport 29:20 Sport Saves Kids 30:42 Adam's Youth Sports Journey 32:45 Why Kayaking? 34:12 Physical Literacy for All Canadians 37:12 Screens and the Generation That Stopped Moving 39:44 Competition vs. Participation 41:49 What Adam's Parents Did Right 43:05 The Norwegian Model: Kids Are Not Olympians 45:43 The Foundation for Success in Sport 46:39 What a Positive Sporting Environment Actually Looks Like 49:08 Valuing Coaching 54:48 Cost of Living, Sideline Pressure and Sport on the Chopping Block 56:05 What Does Success Look Like for Canada in 5, 10, 15 Years? 59:48 Adam's Biggest Issue: Declining Participation 1:00:46 Reasons for Optimism Resources ⁠Canada's $755M Investment⁠ ⁠Future of Sport in Canada Commission Report⁠ ⁠Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities

S1 · E36

19 mag 2026

1:02:17

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif: Two Worlds of Sport, Lessons from Andy Reid & Build Bigger Funnels

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif contains multitudes. He's a Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, a practicing physician in Quebec, a business owner, and the founder of a foundation dedicated to giving underserved children access to both sport and the arts. He is also one of the most thoughtful voices on youth sport you will find anywhere. In this conversation, Laurent traces the full arc of a remarkable life: from a childhood spent sailing with his family across the Caribbean, to playing badminton and violin alongside football as a teenager, to meeting with the Dean of Medicine before meeting a single NFL team, to sitting out a season to serve on the front lines of COVID relief. At every step, his story challenges the assumptions that dominate youth sports culture today. Laurent argues that sport and physical activity have quietly become two different things: one is an industry of performance, the other is a lifelong health behaviour. He believes the youth sports environment has tilted too far toward the former, narrowing the pipeline of kids who stay active. He talks about what Andy Reid understood about coaching that most coaches never do, describes the Kansas City locker room as a place where Travis Kelce's interest in fashion was treated with the same respect as a surgical reduction of a fracture, and how that culture of permission made the team better. He also opens up about his LDT Foundation, now active in over 60 schools & 400 summer camps across Quebec, which fuses sport and art to serve children who would otherwise have neither. And he makes a case that the goal of youth sport should not be to produce more elite athletes, but to produce more active humans. Chapters 00:00 Opening 01:36 Introducing Laurent Duvernay-Tardif 05:32 Why He Never Gave Up Medicine for the NFL 08:26 What Makes Andy Reid a Special Coach 09:57 Youth Coaches Who Let Him Stay Multi-Sport 11:30 How Martial Arts, Badminton Made Him a Better Lineman 12:50 His Parents' Approach 13:56 Two Years Away From Organized Sport 16:09 Being Left on an Island 17:06 Coming Back at 15: Hungry for Sport Again 17:58 Playing to Have Fun 19:32 What His Parents Asked After Games 20:47 The Contract Call: His Mom's Reaction 22:22 What Unconditional Love Looks Like in Sport 23:38 Why He's Not Ready to Coach Yet 24:02 What a Good Youth Coach Should Be 25:48 What to Look for in a Team Before You Enroll Your Kids 27:33 The Performance Industry vs. The Community 29:21 Building a Bigger Funnel 31:22 Importance of Elite Sport 33:17 Why More Participants Means More Champions 34:40 The LDT Foundation 37:10 Why Summer Matters Most for Kids Who Need It 38:09 How Playing Violin Made Him a Better Athlete 40:06 The KC Locker Room: Pokemon Cards, Fashion & Surgery 43:44 Why Football Became His Sport 46:08 Mahomes, Kelce and the Case for Multi-Sport 47:11 Were You Free to Play as a Kid? 48:01 Connecting People Through Sport 50:06 Why Kids Should Try Every Position 51:11 Affordability and Access: The Gap We're Creating 53:06 Don't Push Too Hard Too Soon 53:51 Where Should Money in Youth Sport Go? 55:39 Why Intergenerational Play Matters 57:15 The Most Influential Thing a Parent Can Do 57:56 Screen Time & Social Media 59:01 The Biggest Issue in Youth Sport 1:01:02 Jumpstart's Rethink Initiative Resources LDT Foundation Jumpstart Jumpstart's Rethink Initiative

S1 · E35

12 mag 2026

1:03:14

Ryan Huska: Coaching Challenges, Adversity is Vanishing & Why Youth Sports Feels Like a Job

Ryan Huska has seen youth sports from just about every angle. As head coach of the Calgary Flames, he operates at the pinnacle of professional hockey. But as a father of three, he's also lived the full experience of the sports parent. Certain aspects of what he sees concerns him. In this conversation, Ryan reflects on two decades of parenting in youth sport and pulls no punches. He believes early specialization is producing a lo of technically gifted players who've lost their feel for the team game. He traces that back to a youth sports culture that rewards individual development over collective play, and that has created so many leagues and avenues that kids never learn how to handle adversity, adapt to a new role, or simply fall down a level and work their way back up. Ryan talks about the car ride home, the importance of asking open-ended questions instead of offering critique, the value of multi-sport development, and what he learned about hard work and teamwork during his Memorial Cup years with the Kamloops Blazers. He also addresses the proliferation of leagues and options that let families opt out of any environment that challenges them, a trend Ryan thinks is sending the wrong message to kids, fragmenting communities, and creating more problems than it solves. 🎙️ Subscribe to Better Sports Parents, a podcast dedicated to helping parents more positively contribute to the youth sports environment. Chapters 0:00 Opening 01:35 Introducing Ryan Huska 03:27 Is Being a Sports Parent More Stressful Than Coaching the NHL? 04:02 How Youth Sports Has Changed 04:49 The Rise of Individualism 06:10 The Problem with Early Specialization 07:12 The Fear of Falling Behind 09:22 Late Bloomers and Different Paths to the Top 10:26 The Fire That Comes from Taking a Break Between Sports 11:33 When Sport Starts to Feel Like a Job 13:54 Getting Kids to Their Ceiling Too Fast 15:35 Entitlement & Learning to Accept a Different Role 17:09 Growing Up in a Small Town 20:25 His Parents' Role in Ryan's Sports Journey 24:05 How Ryan Learned to Talk to His Own Kids After Games 26:25 The Carpool Secret: Why Other Kids in the Car Changes Everything 28:23 Why Ryan Chose Hockey Over Baseball at 15 30:25 Getting Humbled at Kamloops 34:04 How a Part-Time Job Became a Coaching Career 36:47 Coaching His Daughters in Soccer 39:57 "Too Much Too Soon" 41:48 Does Specialization Actually Create Better Players? 44:22 Why Kids Need to Watch Full Games 47:36 Unstructured Play and the Loss of Creativity 48:13 Why Coaches Should Add Small Area Games Back 49:28 What Advice Ryan Gives Volunteer Coaches 51:10 How to Communicate With and Manage Parents as a Coach 53:11 The Problem with Too Many Leagues 55:51 Why Parents Are Losing the Plot: Intentions vs. Outcomes 57:08 The Rising Cost of Youth Sports and the Affordability Crisis 59:07 The ROI Problem 1:01:35 Ryan's Number One Concern in Youth Sports Today 1:03:19 What Ryan Hopes His Kids Took From Sport Resources Jumpstart KidSport Calgary Athletics for Kids

S1 · E34

5 mag 2026

1:06:09

Dr Oliver Finlay: Invest in Coaching, Raising Robots & The Biggest Fallacy in Youth Sports

Dr. Oliver Finlay has seen youth sport from every angle: athlete, physiotherapist, performance director, and global sports investor. In this conversation, he makes a clear-eyed case for what's broken in North American youth sport and what needs to change. Growing up in the UK, Oliver played a multitude of sports, guided by parents who simply encouraged commitment and let sport do the teaching. The result was a confident adult whose business network is built on the same values he learned in locker rooms. What he sees across North America is something very different: a $40 billion industry that has turned child development into a revenue model. Over-coached kids who can't think for themselves. Early specialization pushed by clubs whose incentive is to fill programs, not develop players. Coaches with no formal training. And parents being told their child will be left behind if they don't commit to one sport, one team, one pathway — right now. Oliver breaks down why unstructured play produces 47% more physical activity than organized sessions, why the best athletes he's worked with played multiple sports well into their late teens, and why early specialization leads directly to overuse injuries, burnout, and kids quitting sport early. He also gets into what real team culture looks like, how to evaluate a club beyond the fancy kit, and the two investments he'd make to fix the system today. Chapters 00:00 Opening 01:35 Introducing Dr. Oliver Finlay 03:26 Why youth sport shaped everything for Oliver 06:36 How sport transformed a painfully shy kid 08:52 Growing up multi-sport in the UK 11:14 What Oliver's parents got right 13:09 Europe vs. North America: a tale of two systems 16:34 When youth sport becomes a $30–40B business 18:51 The overcoaching problem and the robot factory 22:05 Sport for life vs. sport for performance 23:33 Access, equity, and why most kids quit within three years 28:34 The missing recreational pathway 30:52 Why collaboration is the key to fixing the system 32:23 Coach licensing: Europe vs. North America 35:27 The best coaches come from teaching, not playing 37:51 Burnout, overuse injuries, and undertrained coaches 41:32 The professionalization of youth sport 42:52 Early specialization: the biggest fallacy in youth sport 45:29 Why late specializers dominate international drafts 47:49 How to actually evaluate a club 49:37 What high performance really means, and when it starts 51:23 The car ride conversation: what to ask after the game 52:23 What real team culture looks like 57:13 Winning and development aren't mutually exclusive 58:33 Why winning-at-all-costs loses your best late developers 01:00:15 What organizations do that actually create lifelong athletes 01:03:12 Where to invest to fix Canadian youth sport 01:07:25 The biggest issue in youth sport today Resources Dr. Oliver Finlay - LinkedIn Beautiful Game Group

S1 · E33

28 apr 2026

1:10:04

Jason D'Rocha: Age-Appropriate Expectations, Pay Coaches Well & Improving Access Together

Jason D'Rocha didn't plan to spend his career in youth sports. A blown knee in grade 12 ended his dreams of playing university basketball, and what followed — a degree in child psychology, a summer camp job that lit something up in him, and an introduction to Sportball — became a calling he's never walked away from. Jason's now the Vice President of Sportball, the author of multiple children's books, and a father of two daughters who are very much in the thick of the youth sports world he thinks about every day. Jason brings something rare to this conversation: he's simultaneously a child development expert, a career coach, a sport administrator, and a parent sitting in the stands trying to get it right. He's also someone who grew up in Toronto's inner city, where organized sport wasn't always accessible, which gives him a perspective on cost and inclusion that isn't theoretical, it's personal. Scott and Jason explore what it really means to build confidence in children through sport, why celebrating outcomes fails the 99% of kids who will never play at the elite level, and how a misalignment of expectations — from parents, coaches, and leagues — is at the root of so much of what's broken in youth sports today. Jason also shares what great coaching actually looks like, why getting parents out of the gym can be one of the most powerful things a program does, and what he tells his own daughters when sport gets hard. If you're a parent trying to figure out how to support your child's athletic journey without stepping on it, this conversation is for you. Chapters 00:00 Opening 01:35 Introducing Jason D'Rocha 03:47 From Injury to a Career in Youth Sport 05:14 Jason's Childhood: Pickup Ball & Access to Sport 08:33 His Parents Approach 14:17 Why Sportball? 26:31 Why Parents Should Leave the Gym 29:00 Competing Authority: Coaches vs. Parents 31:33 What Jason Looks for in a Coach 33:24 Age-Appropriate Development 38:15 What Physical Literacy Really Means 41:29 How Sportball Trains Its Coaches 44:43 Modeling Matters 46:19 What Booing at the Raptors Taught His Daughters 48:18 Taking Off the Coach Hat at Home 51:13 What He Wants His Kids to Get Out of Sport 52:31 The Recreational Gap for Teenagers 55:11 Recruiting & Retaining Great Coaches 59:08 Resources for Volunteer Coaches 59:49 Sportball, Cost & Accessibility 01:02:15 Why Multi-Sport Matters 01:04:01 The Danger of Outcome-Based Self-Worth 01:07:15 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports 01:09:24 Expectations & Social Media Resources ⁠ Sportball⁠ ⁠ Canada Sport for Life⁠ ⁠Jumpstart Canada⁠

S1 · E32

21 apr 2026

1:13:52

Lauren Bay-Regula: The Elite Oxymoron, The NeverEnding Season & Play Has Become a Job

Lauren Bay-Regula is a three-time Canadian Olympian in softball, and one of the most honest, self-aware voices you'll hear on what it actually looks like to parent in today's youth sports world. Her path back to the Olympics at 39 wasn't just about softball. It came after six years of postpartum depression and identity loss following the 2008 Games, years she describes as being buried from a mental standpoint. With three kids under ten and a business to run, Lauren found her way back to the sport she loved. In doing so, she found herself again. That journey now shapes everything about how she parents her three teenage children through sport. She and her husband Dave have a full yearly calendar just to protect family time. She texts coaches directly about what her kids will and won't attend. She canceled an entire week of activities mid-season because she hit a wall and needed five nights of family dinners more than another tournament weekend. And she'll be the first to tell you she doesn't always get it right. Lauren brings a perspective that's equal parts world-class athlete and exhausted, trying-her-best sports parent — and she has a lot to say about an industry that has turned play into work, development into an afterthought, and schedules into something that can split a family across three different states in a single weekend. If the phrase "elite competitive eight-year-old All-Star" sounds like an oxymoron to you, you're going to love this conversation. Chapters 00:00 Opening 01:35 Introducing Lauren Bay-Regula 04:04 Youth sports then vs. now 06:40 Growing up in Trail, BC 09:19 What sport should really teach kids 10:30 Did she ever feel pressure as a kid? 14:00 The road to her first Olympics 20:00 Parenting three kids through youth sports 28:00 The overwhelm meltdown 34:22 Being mom, not coach 35:07 When sport has no off-season 37:50 Coming back at 39 with three kids at home 41:46 The motivation: herself and her children 43:31 Bronze medal in the fruit bowl 45:24 Six years of depression and identity loss 46:55 Why high achievers resist getting help 49:09 Talking to her kids about mental health 54:00 Being the lighthouse 57:25 The mirror test 58:57 Do parents have agency to change things? 01:01:20 The one-upper mentality in youth sports clubs 01:06:09 Her biggest pitfall as a sports parent 01:10:20 What makes a great youth coach 01:12:07 The biggest issues in youth sports today Resources Team Canada Profile Strong Mom TrAk Athletics Lauren's Instagram

S1 · E31

14 apr 2026

1:19:19

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