Mark McDaniel–PI. This project will address one element of the multifaceted crisis in high school and college athletics today: the lack of youth development training among middle and high school athletic coaches. Prior research reveals that middle and high school coaches have an indelible impact of on the student athletes they work with in organized sports. But few of these coaches have any formal training in youth development. Moreover, some have not completed college and therefore do not have a full appreciation of the value-add of being a “scholar” athlete as opposed to a “student” athlete. And some coaches—irrespective of their college graduation status–are not full time employees of the public school system with responsibilities on the curricular side of education. Rather, they coach on a contractual basis and therefore are engaged only minimally, if at all, in the academic life of the students they coach. Given this state of affairs, the researchers will draw on the interdisciplinary research, skills, and talents of members of our B2Success Scholars Advisory Panel and the evidence-based best practices from the successful pathways through child and youth development literature to give coaches a model for facilitating player development on and off the field, track or court. Drawing on the expertise of our B2S Scholars Advisory Panel on K-12 Education Reform we developed a professional development program that focuses on athlete physical health, psychological development, and academic readiness, and piloted the training with 24 Durham Public Schools middle- and high-school coaches to become holistic youth development workers who are capable of providing student athletes with the protection, affection, correction, and connections that research indicates they need to excel on and off the field.