SALEM — Salem State University’s sport and movement science department will host this week the first of a two-part discussion of youth and women’s sports.
The series is expected to explore the growing popularity of youth and women’s sports, its socio-emotional development implications for kids and families, gaps in sports-related research and more.
It kicks off Tuesday with Jack Sweeney, a 1995 Salem State graduate who has worked in the field of youth sports for 29 years and coached hockey at the Division III and Division I levels during that time. Sweeney is now volunteering with SCORE Boston hockey, part of the NHL’s Hockey is for Everyone initiative.
“Youth sports is a growing industry, as are women’s sports, and they’re growing at different levels for different purposes,” said KC Bloom, a professor of sport and movement science who is among the faculty organizing the series. “As not only a professor and a researcher, but also a youth sports coach and board member, I’ve seen the good and the bad in youth sports.
“There are a lot of issues with quality coaching, how parents respond to youth sports, and a number of conversations around what’s right for kids and where the emphasis is. A lot of it is based on money,” he said. “Youth sports has become a huge industry with both financial and socio-emotional development implications for kids and families.”
The second part of the series, taking place in April, will feature author Jane McManus, who recently wrote a book on the explosion of women’s sports titled “The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women’s Sports.”
The conversation will not only highlight the disparity between the salaries of men and women playing the same professional sport, but will touch on sports-related research and how the impacts of competition on women’s bodies aren’t studied nearly as much as that of men’s, Bloom said.
“Women’s sports is an expanding industry,” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement and growth in that realm. We’ve got the WNBA, which is currently undergoing an expansion. We’ve got a women’s professional baseball league starting up. Women’s soccer is huge and seeing an expansion in the number of teams.
“We’ve also seen a large increase in terms of support at the university level. For example, everyone knows who Caitlin Clark is and people who were her fans when she was at Iowa are now following the WNBA. There’s been more and more investment… and there needs to be more investment, because the equity isn’t there.”
The first talk in the series will be held Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 1:40 p.m. in Room 214 of Salem State’s O’Keefe Complex, 225 Canal St. For more information, contact Bloom at kbloom@salemstate.edu.
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202