176. I9 Sports' Madison Gates: How to Give Kids a Positive Early Sports Experience

About this episode

Madison Gates discusses how to introduce kids to organized sports positively and the challenges faced in youth sports today.

In this episode of The Pure Athlete Podcast, hosts Britt and Brad sit down with Madison Gates, VP of Marketing at i9 Sports and former University of Michigan soccer standout, D1 player, and coach. They explore one of the biggest challenges parents face today: how to introduce young kids to organized sports in a positive, healthy way. With youth sports shifting toward earlier specialization, intense travel teams, and skyrocketing pressure, many families feel overwhelmed and worried their kids will fall behind or burn out. Madison shares her personal journey—from multi-sport youth athlete to college star—and discusses the real issues plaguing youth sports: parental “keeping up with the Joneses,” early burnout, overuse injuries, and the loss of simple childhood fun. She explains how i9 Sports offers a refreshing, contrarian approach: fun-first, multi-sport leagues for ages 3–14, with just one practice and game per week, age-appropriate coaching, and a strong emphasis on building confidence, character, and a sense of belonging. The conversation dives deep into i9’s Games for Girls campaign, which aims to get 500,000 girls playing annually by 2030. They discuss survey insights on what…

People in this episode

Hosts: Britt, Brad

Guest: Madison Gates

Topics covered

• youth sports
• parenting
• positive coaching
• girls in sports
• sports specialization

Keywords

• youth sports
• parenting
• i9 Sports
• girls in sports
• coaching

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: i9 Sports, University of Michigan

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