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For Parents
Winter tryouts are three weeks away. Here's what the coach is actually looking at.
Basketball, wrestling, and swim tryouts hit in mid-November, and most families prepare for the wrong thing. Coaches aren't looking for the kid who makes the most shots in warm-ups. They're looking at four things most players never think about — and all four can be practiced in three weeks.
Christian Bentley · October 26, 2026
For Coaches & Programs
The athletic director's November: eligibility grades, winter tryouts, and the three things that go wrong every year.
November is the hardest month on a high school AD's calendar: fall playoffs are still running, winter tryouts start, first-quarter grades decide who's eligible, and the same three problems show up every single year. Here's the month from the AD's chair, and the small preparations in October that make it survivable.
Christian Bentley · October 22, 2026
For Athletes
End of the fall season: the ten-minute conversation to have with your coach before the gear goes in the closet.
Most athletes finish a season, shake hands, and never find out what the coach actually thought. That's a wasted year of information. Here's the end-of-season conversation that gets you an honest evaluation, a winter plan, and a coach who remembers you in March — and the three questions that make it work.
Christian Bentley · October 19, 2026
Team Life
The referee shortage is your problem too: what happens to youth sports when nobody will officiate.
Games are being cancelled, rescheduled, and played with one official instead of three because fewer people are willing to referee youth sports — and the number one reason they quit is the behavior of adults on the sideline. Here's what the shortage actually looks like on the ground, why it's happening, and what coaches, parents, and leagues can do this season.
Christian Bentley · October 15, 2026
Health & Development
Growth spurts: why your 13-year-old suddenly can't shoot, and what to do about it.
A kid who was the best player on the team in April can look lost by September — clumsy, slow, missing shots they never missed. Often nothing is wrong except four inches. Here's what the adolescent growth spurt does to coordination, why it's temporary, the injuries it makes more likely, and how parents and coaches should respond.
FSA Editorial · October 12, 2026
For Coaches & Programs
Running a practice when you have fourteen kids, one field, and seventy-five minutes.
The most common failure in youth practice isn't bad drills. It's lines. Twelve kids standing while two do something. Here's the practice structure that keeps every player moving, a planning method that takes ten minutes, and the one question to ask yourself when a drill is dying.
Christian Bentley · October 8, 2026
Team Life
The scorebook parent: why the most important volunteer on the team keeps the stats.
Every team has a parent who runs snacks and a parent who runs the carpool. The team that's going to be glad in three years has a parent who keeps the book — accurately, every game. Here's why the stat-keeper matters more than almost anyone realizes, how to do it well, and how to turn a paper scorebook into a record that lasts.
Christian Bentley · October 5, 2026
For Parents
FAFSA, merit aid, and the athletic scholarship: why October matters more than signing day.
Families fixate on the athletic scholarship and ignore the two bigger pools of college money: need-based aid and academic merit. Both run on calendars that start in the fall of senior year, and both get combined with athletic money in ways coaches rarely explain. Here's how the three stack, and the deadlines that quietly decide what college actually costs.
Christian Bentley · October 1, 2026
For Coaches & Programs
You're a great coach. Are you a business? The private-trainer checklist.
Most private trainers started because they're good with kids and good at the sport. The ones who last also solved five boring problems: getting paid on time, protecting their calendar, covering themselves legally, keeping parents informed, and knowing their real hourly rate. Here's the checklist, in the order it usually breaks.
Christian Bentley · September 28, 2026
Money & Gear
Stay-to-play: the hotel rule nobody explains, and how not to get fleeced by it.
You registered for a tournament and then found out you have to book a hotel from the tournament's list or your team can't play. That's stay-to-play, it's how many tournaments actually make their money, and it's rarely explained honestly. How it works, what's negotiable, and how to protect a team budget.
Christian Bentley · September 24, 2026
For Athletes
The 93%: how to have a great high school career when college ball isn't the point.
Only a small fraction of high school athletes go on to play in college, and the industry built around the other possibility quietly treats everyone else as a failure-in-progress. That's backwards. Here's what a genuinely great four years looks like when the goal is the sport itself — and why those athletes often get more out of it.
Christian Bentley · September 21, 2026
Health & Development
Your daughter's knees: what every parent of a girl in a cutting sport should know about ACL risk.
Girls in soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball tear ACLs at a much higher rate than boys playing the same sports. The risk is real, well-documented, and partly preventable with a kind of training most youth teams never do. Here's what the research says, what a prevention program looks like, and the questions to ask your club.
FSA Editorial · September 17, 2026