Take the Lead: Make Youth Sports What They Were Meant to Be is filled with inspirational stories that will encourage athletes, coaches, and parents to take a fresh look at youth sports. Sports have the potential to teach powerful lessons. Youth athletic programs need to focus on the lessons we want our children to learn. Long after their jump shots have faded and their sprints have slowed down, athletes should be promising, contributing members of our society. How do we make that happen? We focus on teaching not only athletic skills, but also life lessons. Hogan fully supports highly competitive athletic programs. She simply focuses on creating healthy competition. Each chapter of Take the Lead emphasizes a different life lesson that young athletes need to learn: be competitive, motivate yourself, learn from adversity, be a good sport, play as a team, respect the officials, and focus on opportunities. Using inspirational stories from all levels of athletic competition, Hogan shows how coaches and parents can create life-changing experiences for athletes.