The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe

A few weeks ago I was at Queens, watching the semifinals in person. And Fran Cerúndolo gave me three things I haven't stopped thinking about. He arrived with no momentum, no narrative, no pressure. Nobody was writing about him as a contender on grass. And maybe that was exactly the point — when you carry no expectations, you carry no weight. How often do we load our kids with our hopes and timelin...

Coach Sheri Gazitt is a certified coach and founder of Teen Wise, dedicated to helping teen girls and their parents navigate the complexities of adolescence with more confidence and less chaos. With a background in counseling and psychology, Sheri specializes in friendship dynamics, inner confidence, stress management, and emotional resilience — and brings the perspective of a mom who gets it firs...

Welcome to the 35th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. This week's word is Enough. Not as a consolation. As a foundation. One of the quietest pressures in youth sports is the feeling that love and approval are tied to per...

No guest this week. Just Netflix, two hours, and Rafa Nadal being completely honest. Rafa was the King of Clay. Grass was Roger Federer's territory. Then he decided to change — not his game, his relationship with the surface. Three years later he was Wimbledon champion. That's not talent. That's a choice. His body was breaking down from the very beginning. What he built wasn't the ability to ignor...

Three years ago, Hernan launched The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe with a simple mission — to create a space where parents could feel seen, supported, and better equipped to raise resilient, happy athletes. What followed was something he didn't fully anticipate: a global community of families navigating the beautiful chaos of youth sports together. In this solo episode, Hernan reflects on the journ...

Welcome to the 34th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. This week's word is Voice. In youth sports, feelings pile up fast. And most kids don't have the words for them yet — they need us to create the space before they can...

The World Cup just started in the United States. And the lesson this week comes from Messi — not at his peak, but at 39. For years he was the best player in the world and the most questioned man in Argentina. The narrative was clear: he can't do it for his country. He kept showing up anyway. Qatar 2022, Copa América 2024 — two titles in two years after decades of near misses. That's not luck. That...

Mayra Clay and Marc Krusin are a husband-and-wife team who have spent over 30 years in design and more than 15 years teaching meditation through Ishaya's Ascension (Bright Path). As parents themselves, they have woven mindfulness into the fabric of family life — not as a technique to perform, but as a way of being. Mayra is also a children's book author, bringing these ideas to life in ways that s...

Welcome to the 33rd Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. This week's word is Doubt. Not your child's doubt. Yours. Am I pushing too hard or not enough? Is this the right sport, the right coach, the right decision? Are they...

A few weeks ago, Alexander Zverev won the French Open — one of the four Grand Slams in tennis. And the lesson he left me with didn't come from anything he said. For most of his career he played in someone else's shadow. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Alcaraz. Every time he looked up, someone else was holding the trophy. He won his first Grand Slam at 29. Not because the competition disappeared. Because...

Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers is a licensed marriage and family therapist, sex therapist, and emeriti professor with over 25 years of experience helping individuals and families heal shame and build genuine connection. She is the author of Shameless Parenting — Everything You Need to Raise Shame-Free, Confident Kids (and Heal Your Shame Too!) , a guide that breaks down exactly what kids need developme...

Welcome to the 32nd Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. This week's word is Connection. Not the kind that happens on the sideline or in the car after a game. The kind that doesn't need a result to exist. It's easy to fall...

Last Sunday, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli won the Monaco Grand Prix — one of the most prestigious and unforgiving races in Formula One history. And nothing about what he showed had anything to do with speed. He stepped into Formula One at 18 with a quiet, almost unreasonable belief that he belonged — not arrogance, just certainty. Are we building that in our kids? Ten laps to go, comfortable lead, r...

Lisa Richer is a certified Neurodiversity Consultant and founder of Journey 2 Bloom. As a former elite athlete and mom of two neurodivergent boys, she brings a rare combination of lived experience and professional expertise to the families she works with. Lisa helps parents and educators stop trying to fit their kids into systems that weren't built for them — and start building environments where...

Welcome to the 31st Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.  Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.  Today’s word is Pressure — a force sports parents must manage carefully, because too much of it can quickly drain motivation and turn youth sports into a source of s...

Adam Roach left me with three things I couldn't shake. Transformation doesn't start when everything is perfect — it starts when you stop pretending. Community won't fix you, but it will quiet the voice telling you that you're broken. The people who changed Adam's trajectory weren't the loudest ones in the room. They were the ones with real scars and perspective. Who are those people in your life?...

Adam Roach is a driven dad raising two kids, Addison and Amelia, with sport at the heart of family life. A former collegiate tennis player, Adam has carried his passion for the game into fatherhood — regularly playing tennis with his kids and building a family culture around competition, growth, and fun. Beyond the court, Adam brings a wealth of real-world experience to the conversation. Over two...

Welcome to the 30th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.  Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.  Today’s word is Joy — an essential element for sports parents to protect, remembering that the main reason children play sports is to have fun, feel alive, and enjoy...

Gosia Betancourt didn't stumble into great parenting — she designed it. Two ideas from this conversation worth keeping. Variety is a method, not a detour. Most parents wait for their kids to find their passion. Gosia chose something different — she gave her boys width before depth. Not because she didn't care about excellence, but because she understood that breadth is how you build a richer, more...

Gosia Betancourt is a dedicated mom raising two boys, Joshua and Jake, who are actively involved in competitive sports. She strongly believes in multisport exploration, encouraging her children to try many different sports before specializing so they can discover their true passions. To better support her sons’ demanding training schedules while maintaining strong academics, Gosia enrolled them in...

Welcome to the 29th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.  Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.  Today’s word is Letting Go — a necessary practice for sports parents to avoid suffocating your child’s passion and natural drive in youth sports.  It’s not about car...

After speaking with Jack Dempsey, one line stayed with me. He doesn’t trust the word “partnership.” He sees it as a polite disguise for a transaction. What he values instead is something much harder to build — a real relationship where both sides are genuinely invested and focused on what they create together. Then he dropped a powerful analogy: building relationships is like dating. If you rush i...

Jack Dempsey brings nearly 10 years of experience at Laurel Springs School, one of the nation’s leading accredited online private schools. With a background in admissions where he personally helped enroll over 2,500 students, Jack now leads strategic partnerships and development. He works closely with athletic academies, training programs, and families of competitive athletes to create education s...

Welcome to the 28th Monday Reset for Sports Parents, a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.  Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.  Today’s word is Failure — an important experience for sports parents to normalize, understanding that allowing your child to fail is essential for developing confide...

After my conversation with Bill Hooper, one idea stayed with me: adjustment. Not adjusting when things fall apart — adjusting when things are going well. Bill talked about how easy it is to settle once life feels stable. But the moment you stop paying attention, the drift begins. In parenting, that drift often looks like relying on old patterns instead of staying present with who your child is bec...