When you have a significant challenge on your hands, it is always a good idea to get the biggest guy in the room on your side. That’s one way to look at the partnership taking shape between the National Federation of State High School Associations and the National Football League...

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the sport of football in America is, in many respects, at a crossroads. It’s an incredibly popular sport, yet it’s played by a relatively small segment of the overall population – 99 percent of its participants are male and the overwhelming majority are ...

There’s no denying that the vast majority of team dealers and local sporting goods retailers spend a large percentage of their time stocking, selling and delivering product connected with the “major” sports of football, basketball, baseball, softball and – to some – soccer.

Four of the more interesting and niche specialty sports – girls’ wrestling, rugby, track and field/cross-country and pickleball – are a microcosm of the challenges and opportunities team dealers face in selling specialty sports.

Topsy turvy. That may be best way to describe the state of high school, club and recreational sports in the U.S. this year, especially since mid-March. And, the murky waters of competitive sports as schools return and as many districts attempt to play a semblance of a fall sports schedule...

Unfinished business. That’s the best way to describe the 2019-20 basketball season, which will remain, for the most part, forever in limbo with many unanswered questions and dreams frozen in time.

Optimism mixed with apprehension dominate as dealers await the fall season. Bizarre, unprecedented and unexpected. Those are three words that may best describe the state of affairs in team sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ramifications are citywide, countywide, statewide, nationwide, global.

Go ahead, name the 10 most influential people in women’s fast-pitch softball in the U.S. When Team Insight posed that question to USA Softball CEO Craig Cress, he was left somewhat speechless. “It’s difficult to narrow a list to the most influential people in women’s fast-pitch since so many...

Since it last appeared in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in China, fast-pitch softball has yearned to return to the global stage and its dream is finally being realized with its inclusion – along with baseball – at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Extra, Extra….Read All About It! For the first time in the history of Team Insight’s annual state of baseball feature, the Major League Baseball team based in Washington, D.C. is the reigning world champion of professional baseball.

In boys’ high school sports, four of the five top sports are 11-player football, basketball, baseball and soccer in the current NFHS sports participation study. The only interloper among these major sports? Track and field.

If the major threat to participation in football is safety, then it is imperative for the sport to develop a safer alternative to keep young athletes – who have a basket full of options from which to choose, ranging from other year-round sports to gaming – involved at a young age.

The fascination with tackle football in the U.S. seems to generate record levels of interest – from an attendance and viewership perspective – every year from a fan base that can best be described as avid and, at times, animated.