Open Letter to the United States Congress

To the Members of the United States Congress:

For more than two decades, I have experienced youth sports from nearly every side of the field - as a parent, coach, nonprofit leader, tournament director, facility operator, sports administrator, researcher, and community advocate. What began after the death of my 18-year-old son, Brian, as an effort to create opportunities for children in his memory has grown into an extensive examination of how youth sports are governed, financed, operated, and increasingly commercialized.

My research began in Oklahoma, but the questions it raises are national. Youth sports now exist at the intersection of children, families, nonprofit organizations, private businesses, independent contractors, municipalities, public schools, colleges, taxpayer-funded facilities, federal tax law, economic development, and interstate commerce. Yet responsibility for overseeing this system remains fragmented. That fragmentation may be the problem.

Through the Brian Crawford Memorial, Baseball Heaven, Hidden Valley - Integrity of the Game, The Shawnee Minutes, and Better Together Oklahoma Youth Sports, I have examined tournament records, public documents, facility agreements, tax filings, government records, organizational policies, financial models, and firsthand operational experiences.

The research raises recurring questions that no single city, state agency, national sports organization, or federal agency appears positioned to examine as a whole: Who is accountable when privately operated youth-sports commerce occurs on taxpayer-funded property? Are nonprofit and tax-exempt structures keeping pace with increasingly commercial operations? Are independent contractors and sports officials being properly classified and reported? Are public investments strengthening community-based programs? Can families understand where their money goes? And are decisions about youth sports still being made primarily around children and communities?

I have submitted portions of this research through public-records processes and to governmental authorities, including the Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Office. Those submissions do not establish wrongdoing, nor do I ask Congress to presume that they do. I ask something more fundamental:

Congress can see across jurisdictional boundaries that individual municipalities, state agencies, nonprofits, private operators, and federal offices cannot. I respectfully ask Congress to consider a bipartisan examination of the modern youth-sports industry - its governance, tax treatment, use of public assets, independent-contractor economy, financial transparency, participant protections, and relationship with community-based recreation.

That examination should include national organizations, municipalities, parks departments, community leagues, tournament operators, officials, parents, researchers, nonprofit leaders, and - most importantly - children and families.

This is not an argument against tournament baseball, travel sports, national organizations, private enterprise, or economic development. Each can contribute something valuable. It is an argument for balance, transparency, accountability, and opportunity.

After more than twenty years in youth sports, I have reached a difficult conclusion: meaningful reform may require someone capable of looking at the entire system rather than another isolated piece of it. Congress may be the only institution capable of doing that. I respectfully ask you to begin the conversation.