Semester of Graduation

Summer 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in American Studies

Department

HSS-Interdisciplinary Studies

Committee Chair/First Advisor

Dr. Miriam Brown Spiers

Second Advisor

Dr. Catherine Lewis

Abstract

False Starts & Finish Lines: Youth Sports, Coaching, & the Crisis of the American Dream examines how the American youth sports system reflects, reproduces, and at times resists the evolving contradictions of the American Dream. Drawing on a comparative analysis of institutional documents from public high schools, travel clubs, and recreational leagues, this thesis interrogates how youth sports have shifted from inclusive spaces of play and character-building to stratified marketplaces governed by the Athletic Industrial Complex (AIC). It argues that rising costs, performance pressures, and privatized structures have transformed access to sport—and, by extension, to the Dream itself—into a function of wealth, visibility, and institutional gatekeeping.

Structured across four chapters, the study begins by tracing the American Dream’s historical and cultural evolution, then explores how sports have become one of its most potent yet paradoxical arenas. Through case studies and primary documents, it analyzes how institutional philosophies shape participation, how coaches navigate competing ethical demands, and how parental roles have been reshaped by escalating economic and emotional stakes. The findings reveal a system that increasingly equates success with specialization, outcomes, and branding—often at the expense of development, joy, and equity.

Ultimately, this thesis calls for a reimagining of youth sports not as pipelines of performance, but as democratic spaces of growth, belonging, and transformation. It argues that reforming the culture and structure of youth athletics can offer a renewed vision of the American Dream—one rooted not in competition and exclusion, but in care, character, and community.

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