Olympic volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings calls for a shift towards fun and multisport participation in youth sports, aligning with ESPN’s $5 million ‘Take Back Sports’ campaign aimed at making sport accessible and developmentally appropriate for children.
Kerri Walsh Jennings has spent much of her life in elite sport, but now her sharpest observations come from the sidelines. The three-time Olympic beach volleyball gold medallist, who also won NCAA titles at Stanford, is applying those lessons at home as the mother of three teenagers who compete in basketball and volleyball. Speaking to USA TODAY Sports, Walsh Jennings said the hard-edged mindset that once defined her own career has changed with age, and with parenting. She now sees the need to balance toughness with patience, especially when young athletes are still growing and learning. ESPN’s “Take Back Sports” campaign, which includes athlete ambassadors such as Walsh Jennings, is built around that same idea: keeping sport enjoyable, accessible and age-appropriate. According to ESPN, the initiative launched with a $5 million investment to support community leagues, coaching, multisport participation and sports-based mental wellness programmes.
For Walsh Jennings, fun is not a soft add-on; it is part of what makes young athletes resilient. She told USA TODAY Sports that she grew up in a fiercely competitive family in California’s South Bay, where athletics were a shared language and winning was wrapped up with affection, tradition and a strong sense of effort. That background shaped her belief that children often play their best when they feel joy rather than pressure. ESPN’s campaign has made the same case publicly, saying youth sport should help kids stay involved rather than burn out early. In April 2026, the company said its Youth Sports Week effort under “Take Back Sports” had reached nearly one million people nationwide, including hundreds of thousands of children through grants, coaching programmes and access to multisport play.
Walsh Jennings also argues that development is not the same as sacrifice. She recalled a junior lifeguard race in which she gave everything she had and still had to live with questions from relatives about whether she could have done more. For her, the point was not the placing but the lesson that effort can be enough. That attitude now shapes how she and her husband, former professional volleyball player Casey Jennings, are guiding their children. The family recently moved from the Bay Area to Incline Village, Nevada, in part to step away from the relentless culture that can surround youth sport in major metropolitan areas. Walsh Jennings said she wants her children to grow up with room to lead, to make mistakes and, at times, to be bored rather than over-scheduled.
Her views also extend to how families work with coaches and select teams. She told USA TODAY Sports that parents should be clear about boundaries, respectful in their communication and willing to advocate for children without turning coaches into adversaries. ESPN’s youth sports coverage has repeatedly stressed the same issues, noting that its programme is focused not only on participation but also on better coaching and stronger recreational leagues. In August 2025, ESPN named Walsh Jennings among a group of athlete ambassadors that also included Stephen Curry, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, A’ja Wilson, Lamar Jackson and Francisco Lindor, all enlisted to encourage more children to keep playing. The company later released public service announcements highlighting cost, time demands and early specialisation as major barriers.
Walsh Jennings is equally wary of pushing children too quickly into a single sport. She told USA TODAY Sports that she played volleyball and basketball in high school and believes the break from one sport helped her body and mind. She now sees year-round specialisation as a risk, especially for young teenagers whose bodies are still developing. That view aligns closely with ESPN’s “Take Back Sports” messaging, which has promoted multisport play and better mental-health support as part of a broader effort to repair a youth sports system many parents find confusing and costly. For Walsh Jennings, the answer is not to lower ambition but to redefine success: keep children active, keep them healthy and make sure they still want to come back tomorrow.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
