Develop the Whole Athlete: How to Build Better People, Not Just Better Players

Almost every youth sports organization claims they develop the whole athlete. When moderator Craig McGinn asked the room at NextUp 2026 who thinks about their development philosophy, nearly every hand went up. But what does that phrase really mean? And how do you know you’re actually doing it?

Craig spent six years at LeagueApps after running a youth sports business in 20 states with a couple hundred coaches. He was joined by:

• Anthony Nixon, Executive Director of Cedar Stars, a soccer organization in New York and New Jersey
• Anthony Waller, co-founder and CEO of Athlete to Athlete, which connects youth athletes with college athlete mentors online, and a former UCLA football player
• Bobby Kaleal, Senior Director of Performance at the SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio, and Associate Director of the Ohio Human Performance Institute
• Coach Brian Riley, former Army Hockey head coach, who retired after 40 years of college hockey coaching, including 33 at West Point, where his family coached for 75 straight years
• Jess Brodsky, CEO of PlayerData, which brings wearables, cameras, and other sports technology to about 2,000 clubs

1. Develop the person first

Every panelist started in the same place: the person matters more than the player.

Anthony Nixon says every player will eventually leave his club, whether for college, a job, or something else entirely, so Cedar Stars focuses on developing the person first.

Anthony Waller offered a broader definition of what an athlete is. To him, it’s someone who’s confident, resilient, hardworking, coachable, and a good teammate. Those are the qualities companies hire for and the ones that carry into every part of life. Sports, he said, are simply the best way to teach them.

Bobby has been a strength coach for 25 years, and he said he doesn’t care about the sport so much as the individual. SPIRE assesses every athlete to find their strengths and weaknesses, then builds a program around them. If a kid’s potential takes them only through high school sports, that’s okay. They’ll be more at peace with themselves because they’ve had the chance to find out what they can do.

Brian called it the game of life. Most athletes won’t play professionally, so your job is to prepare them for what comes next. At West Point, that meant developing future leaders who would one day lead the country’s sons and daughters. And since everyone ends up on a team after sports, the lessons they learn on a team now will help them succeed on every team that follows.

What to do:

• Write down the character traits your program aims to build.
• Share that list with coaches, players, and families.
• Celebrate players for those traits, not just for their stats.

2. Make it consistent with non-negotiables and culture

Jess raised a practical question. It’s one thing to develop people one at a time, but how do you do it consistently across hundreds of players, coaches, and directors?

Anthony Nixon’s answer was a short list of non-negotiables that guide his club every day. Some are as simple as greeting your coach and teammates when you arrive at practice. That might seem small, but someday those players will be meeting a boss or a college coach, and they’ll need to make a good first impression.

Brian’s answer was culture. He knows the word gets overused, but every great team he’s coached or studied had a strong one. Culture is what you do every day, and even more, how you do it. At West Point, every new player learned right away that accountability came first. On his best teams, players held each other accountable while the staff simply watched it happen.

It starts with self-accountability, he said. You can’t hold teammates accountable until you hold yourself to the same standard. And once you start making exceptions, standards slip. In his words, today’s compromises are tomorrow’s standards. Look the other way too often, and you’ll never become the team you want to be.

What to do:

• Pick three to five non-negotiables, and make sure every coach enforces them.
• Start each season by teaching players and families what your culture expects.
• Watch for small exceptions that could lower your standards over time.

3. Measure whether it’s working

Craig admitted that as an operator, he always struggled with one question: how do you know your whole-athlete approach is actually working? It’s easy to point to the small share of players, under 7% of high school athletes by his count, who go on to play in college. But what about the 90-plus percent who won’t?

Bobby’s answer starts with assessment. The more you know about each athlete, the better you can track their progress over time. That also shows how well your staff is carrying out the program. And it only works if coaches share the same approach, which means training them and giving them the tools to succeed. The goal is a philosophy everyone feels, not one that depends on a single person’s energy.

Anthony Waller urged leaders to think about data more broadly. Speed and stats are useful, but so are parent and player surveys, coach observations, and information about emotional well-being. They’re not as precise as a stopwatch, but they help paint a full picture. You can even ask parents whether their expectations match what they’re seeing, then track those answers over time.

What to do:

• Assess players at the start of each season, and check progress at least once more.
• Survey players and parents about the experience, not just results.
• Decide what success looks like for players who won’t play in college, and track it.

4. More isn’t always better

Craig noted that much of the conversation at NextUp centered on sales and profits. Those matter, but he asked whether the industry has started confusing more with better. Are we asking kids to play more when the real goal should be better athletes and better people?

Brian believes the answer is yes. After retiring, he spent a season as an assistant coach for a 16U AAA hockey team and was surprised by how much youth sports had changed. Rinks need to sell ice time, so many push kids to play year-round. Brian believes that causes burnout, and he’s a firm believer in playing multiple sports.

Bobby described one way to build in balance. In soccer programs he works with, players train year-round, but they take a month off between seasons to play completely different sports, like handball. It’s similar to dry-land training in swimming. It keeps kids fresh and lets them have fun. Some parents will call asking why their kids aren’t playing soccer, so be ready to explain the science behind the break.

What to do:

• Schedule real breaks between seasons.
• Encourage kids to play other sports, or mix in different activities during the off-season.
• Explain to parents why rest and variety help development.

5. Help parents trust the process

Why do parents push back instead of trusting the experts? The panel pointed to a few reasons.

Anthony Nixon said coaches, parents, and players need to be on the same page about whether more is really better. Sometimes focused training helps. But kids also need free play and time to just be kids. Social media makes it harder, since parents quickly change course when they see what another kid is doing online. His fix is regular meetings with parents and players to keep everyone aligned.

Brian pointed to money and comparison. Youth sports, especially hockey, can be very expensive, and some parents assume all that spending guarantees a Division I scholarship. It doesn’t. Parents also focus on other kids’ paths instead of their own child’s, often after seeing a friend’s college commitment on social media.

As a Division I coach, Brian was clear with parents from day one. They could call him anytime about school, personal struggles, or anything else involving their son’s well-being. But he also warned them that calling about ice time would only make things worse. He’s the expert on playing time, just as they’re the experts at their own jobs.

Bobby reminded the room that youth sports is a business for coaches and operators, too. Being clear about your plan and communicating often shows parents you care, and that helps them settle down and listen.

What to do:

• Hold regular meetings with parents and players to align on goals.
• Be honest about the odds of college scholarships.
• Tell parents upfront which topics are open for discussion and which are coaching decisions.
• Remind families that every athlete’s path is different.

6. Back your coaches in hard conversations

Craig pointed out a real challenge for growing organizations. Experienced leaders can handle tough talks with families, but you can’t personally have thousands of conversations. Young coaches have to carry your philosophy, and those talks are often with the very parents paying the bills. Get it wrong, and emotions run high.

The panel shared several ways to support coaches:

• Set rules for when parents can approach coaches. At Cedar Stars, parents can’t walk up to a coach at the field or at practice. They schedule a time to talk, usually by phone. If it needs to go further, it moves up a clear chain: coach, then zone director, then academy director, then executive director.
• Train coaches to handle it. Club directors teach staff how to manage these moments and what the plan is for each player. Anthony Nixon admitted that honest talks are hard for young coaches, but they get easier with experience and guidance.
• Hold regular check-ins. Anthony’s coaches talk with players informally every week and hold formal reviews twice a year, around December and again in March or April. At West Point, Brian met with players at the start of the year, after the holiday break, and at the end of the season. He also followed advice he got as a young head coach: manage while walking around. Don’t hide in your office. Get into the locker room, and talk with players often so they know you care.
• Move off-field work off coaches’ plates. Jess said the best clubs she sees bring in a separate person once coaches spend more than about 15% to 20% of their time on non-coaching tasks. One Philadelphia club put a well-respected mom in a team manager role. She had been one of the club’s biggest complainers, and now she’s at every tournament and handles parent concerns.
• Don’t go it alone. Craig suggested having a second staff member join the toughest conversations. As organizations grow, a coaching director who doesn’t coach can own philosophy, team placement, and coach training.

What to do:

• Create a clear process for how parents raise concerns.
• Train coaches on how to handle difficult conversations.
• Schedule at least two formal player reviews each year.
• Track how much time coaches spend on admin, and hand off work when it gets too high.
• Pair coaches with a director or second staff member for the hardest talks.

7. Use data to support coaches, not overwhelm them

Data can make hard conversations easier. Jess shared a story from a field visit. A parent asked a coach why their child wasn’t playing. The coach pulled up the data and showed that the player was about three miles per hour slower than the Duke players the family hoped to join. That’s a big gap. As Jess put it, many parents simply don’t know what to look for, so coaches end up acting as parent educators.

Still, Jess warned that technology has to fit into a coach’s normal workflow. The last thing a stressed coach needs is one more task. PlayerData works with clubs to get ahead of tough conversations, including parent meetings that explain what Division I and Division II players actually look like. Some younger coaches dive into data and video right away, while veteran coaches may trust their eyes more, and there’s room for both. Her advice is to start with one or two teams. Once it works, other coaches will want in.

Bobby added an important rule: only collect data you plan to act on. At SPIRE, every assessment result leads to a specific program, so a player who’s weak in balance gets balance drills added to their plan. Too often, organizations collect data and never use it. Decide what you want to learn before you buy any tool, and plan how you’ll communicate the results. Craig added that too much data can also add pressure and affect players’ mental health, so balance matters.

In the end, Craig summed up the session with two takeaways. First, know your philosophy, whether it’s fun rec play or a pathway to college and pro sports, and measure against it. Second, support your coaches. Without that, your philosophy is just words.

What to do:

• Start with one or two teams before rolling out new technology.
• Only track data you have a clear plan to act on.
• Use objective data to help explain playing time and college expectations.
• Watch for signs that data is adding pressure instead of helping.

Your whole-athlete checklist

Pick two or three of these to start this season.

• Write down the character traits your program builds
• Set three to five non-negotiables for every team
• Assess players at the start of the season, and track progress
• Survey players and parents about their experience
• Build real breaks into your season
• Hold regular alignment meetings with families
• Create a clear process for parent concerns
• Schedule at least two formal player reviews a year
• Move admin work off coaches’ plates
• Pilot new technology with one or two teams first