Across sports, there has been a dramatic shift toward earlier and more frequent specialization, leading to a decrease in multi-sport athletes at the high school level. A student-athlete may be able to participate in three high school sports, however it likely precludes them from devoting enough time to a primary, future college sport. The…

Behavioral skills training (BST) has been used to improve football players' performance in one prior study, but limited data were collected on how the skill generalized from the training environment to the natural environment. The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the effects of BST in enhancing football players' performance while also…

Background: The National Federation of State High School Associations provides recommendations regarding health and safety policies; however, policy development is governed at the state level. Given interstate differences in governance, the primary purpose was to describe processes that State High School Athletic Associations (SHSAAs) utilize to…

The stay-at-home measures enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic led to sudden changes in the lives of individuals worldwide. For high school student-athletes, these changes meant transitioning to online schooling, heavily reducing their social activities, and enduring the cancelation of sport activities. Scholars have expressed concerns related to…

Over the course of the past thirty years, single sport specialization for younger athletes has been rising. The purpose of this action research study was to determine the negative impact of travel/club sport participation on high school athletic participation. Utilizing a state and national participation reports, a survey to coaches, interviews…

Among the body's mechanical systems that contribute to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, hamstrings, quadriceps, and knee flexor muscles are the most prominent components. A strength imbalance to any of these muscles can cause damage to ACL-associated ligaments (Takahashi et al., 2019). To reduce the incidence of such injuries, it is…

Every organization in every geography and discipline is challenged to develop leaders who can be effective in complex situations. The ethical conduct of appointed leaders is of particular concern. While some individuals possess natural leadership qualities, anyone can build leadership capacity if they put in the work and have the opportunity.…

Introduction: "A good coach can change a game; a great coach can change a life" (Wooden, n.d., para. 1). The focus of this dissertation was to explore associations between attachment of high school athletes to their coach and the athlete's ability to cope in the athletic environment. In looking at high school coach-athlete relationships…

The purpose of this study was to investigate what are coaches' perceptions of their student-athletes' academic performance in-season in contrast to off-season. Academic performance was defined as the student-athlete's grade point average, attendance, and behavior referrals. The subjects in the study were coaches from a typical New Jersey High…

The dynamics between athletic coaches and their players have been widely studied with leadership as the focus. The problem was that there is limited literature on the differences in perceptions of high school student athletes regarding their coach's leadership behaviors. The purpose of this group comparison study was to examine the differences in…

This study investigates the predictive validity of lower extremity strength, strength asymmetry, and soccer-specific fitness in talent identification among elite male youth soccer players. Employing a Retrospective Cohort design, we established a cohort consisting of K-League registered youth players, totaling 219 individuals (all males, aged 16…

The general problem addressed by this study was the lack of flexibility in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I student-athletes' schedules for field-specific courses while enrolled in an undergraduate degree program. Student-athletes have schedules that can be very restrictive and could hinder their preparation for…

As sports are the most popular extracurricular activity for children and adolescents, student-athletes are an ever-present population on campus and have unique risk and resilience factors as well as needs related to their well-being on and off the field. Mind-body health practices are a broad group of interventions that target physical and…

E-sports, or online gaming, is a relatively new phenomenon taking place on high school campuses across the country. While many view online gaming through a negative lens, there is a growing body of research that E-sports participation provides similar benefits and detriments to those of traditional sports. The purpose of this paper was to identify…

Concussive brain injury in high school athletes is a growing problem, with 3.8 million concussions in athletes in the United States. Additionally, 50% of these are not receiving proper treatment, meaning they play with a concussion, known as underreporting (Harmon et al., 2018). Concussive injury damages the sensorimotor system and has cognitive…