Five years ago this spring, Project Play was launched. We invited more than 80 leaders from sport, health, media, philanthropy and other sectors to the Aspen Institute’s campus in Aspen, Colo., to take measure of how well children were being served through sports and to consider ways to improve the state of play. The impetus was a growing sense that youth sports had become a runaway train, untethered to the needs of many youth and communities. Obesity rates were climbing, as were the percentage of kids who were physically inactive. Earlier than ever, children were being burned out, pushed out or locked out from sports. No national plan had been developed on how to collectively address these problems.
