Yet the number of kids involved in team sports has been falling. In 2018, 38% of kids ages 6 to 12 played an organized sport on a regular basis, down from 45% in 2008 — mainly due to increasing costs, time commitments and the hypercompetitive nature of many sports.
A report by the Aspen Institute shows that the pandemic may have accelerated this trend. The national survey conducted in September 2021 found that not only has the pandemic disrupted the supply of local sports programs — with 44% of families reporting that their community-based program had closed, merged or returned with limited capacity — but that many kids right now have simply lost interest.
I know what you’re thinking. Of course participation in team sports is down at a time when gathering in groups still poses a risk, especially for unvaccinated kids. And that reality was borne out in the data; half of the parents surveyed said fear of contracting COVID-19 prevented them from re-enrolling their kids in sports. But outside of safety concerns, nearly three in 10 parents said their child athletes didn’t want to return to the main sport they played before the pandemic.
I wanted to find out what might be driving this pattern, so I spoke to some folks who have devoted their lives to studying youth sports, including Travis Dorsch, founding director of Utah State University’s Families in Sport Lab and lead on the Aspen Institute report.
An optimistic explanation is that the pandemic created the time and space for kids to try new and different hobbies, including individual sports such as cycling and running, Dorsch said.
“The pessimistic view is that when kids tell us they aren’t interested, they’re walking away from sports entirely,” Dorsch went on. “There’s probably a little bit of both in there.”
Jennifer Agans, a Penn State professor whose research focuses on the role of out-of-school recreation in youth development, noted that many parents had an unprecedented opportunity to slow down and reassess their priorities while on lockdown. Families involved with travel teams in particular got a taste of life without hour upon grueling hour of driving to games, eating meals on the road and the unrelenting pressure to win. The cultural norm of the affluent, multi-sport athlete may have lost out to the desire for a less hectic schedule.
“It’s a broader problem with youth sports that the pandemic has shone a light on,” Dorsch said. “I don’t know that we’re doing a great job of catering to young people in sports. It’s become a very adult-driven, competition-focused context.”
The Aspen data shows that younger kids were more likely to lose interest in their primary sport. This made sense to Agans, who noted that organized sports are more attractive for a teen who’s spent years playing soccer, for instance, and has built an identity around being an athlete.
“My hunch is that kids who aren’t going back to sport are those who weren’t as invested in the first place,” Agans said.
The Los Angeles Boys & Girls Club’s baseball league enrolled 80 kids in East L.A. this spring and summer, compared to more than 300 pre-pandemic, said director of operations Carlyn Oropez. Low participation was mostly tied to safety concerns, but many kids also are just much more interested in unstructured play right now.
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