About The Athena Program

The Athena Program offers curated options to support the club's development, scale, support, reputation and success with a holistic approach that engages players, parents and coaches. This is done via seminars, workshops, and/or a seasonal series. The outcome is a win-win-win: improved experience, success and value for players, coaches and the club itself.

We know that sports participation provides many benefits to youth that they can take with them, from childhood through adulthood. But research shows that 70% of youth athletes drop out of sports by age 13 due to burnout and pressure (National Alliance for Youth Sports.) Even more concerning is that by age 14, the dropout rate for girls is twice that of boys! (The Aspen Institute) 

The Athena Program helps create a supportive and fulfilling environment to keep girls in the game, while addressing the three primary challenges that cause girls to quit sports: 

1. Stress/Burnout-  With programming, focused on helping players gain clarity on their purpose, set and communicate their own goals, and learn to identify lessons and successes beyond sport that they will benefit from for a lifetime, while also helping ground them with perspective and stress management tools. 
2. Pressure- With programming, focused on parents and coaches that help educate them on the unintended consequences of pressure and also provide the resources and prompts to foster healthy conversations and expectations with their athletes around purpose, expectations, performance, life lessons and more. 
3. Access- With funding, as socioeconomic status affects a child’s access to youth sports, both at the school level in terms of funding available for various sports, as well as competitively, as lower income families lack the financial and time resources which can impact their long-term athletic development and access to the benefits of sports participation. This is why a portion of proceeds from The Athena Program goes toward providing access and resources to under-resourced individuals and organizations. 

The Athena Program helps players set personal goals and recognize achievements beyond the sport, fostering a sense of purpose, accomplishment and joy. 

And, it also helps clubs improve experience and create unique value and distinction to increase player and coach retention in an increasingly competitive landscape. 

Why does this matter? Because the youth sports industry has more than doubled in the last twenty years ($9 to $19 billion,) and an estimated 40-50% of that is connected to club and travel sports. 

What this means is that there is both significant growth opportunity, but also significantly increased competition for players and coaches. The Athena Program allows you to do good while you do well! (That rising tide lifts all boats philosophy, remember?) It provides a unique benefit that helps you grow your club while also helping keep more girls in the sport!