Opinion: Let’s get every California kid moving again. Approve AB 749

As a lifelong coach, including years coaching volleyball at Stanford and right here in the Central Valley, I’ve seen how a committed sports program with strong coaching can change a child’s path. 

Sports teach resilience, belonging, and a growth mindset. Today, too many of California’s kids aren’t getting these opportunities. The 2024 California Play Equity Report found that nearly two-thirds of youth statewide fail to meet the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendation of 60 minutes of daily physical activity, an alarming sign that we are falling short on the basics of health and development. 

Worse, participation is declining. Nearly one in three California youth stopped playing sports in just the past two years. Families mention cost, access and time as obstacles, exactly the barriers that impact Valley communities the most. The disparities are clear: Latina and Black girls, youth with disabilities, and many low-income families face the most significant barriers to regular participation in sports.  

This lack of physical activity isn’t just about personal choice. It’s a public health, mental health, and academic issue. 

From my years of training coaches, parents, administrators and athletes at Positive Coaching Alliance, I’ve seen how quality coaching and safe, welcoming programs build character and confidence—skills that carry over into the classroom and life. Unfortunately, California’s youth sports landscape is fragmented. Pay-to-play models dominate, school-based physical education and after-school opportunities have disappeared or are delivered inconsistently, and, except for C.I.F. high school sports, no single place exists where families can turn to when safety or coaching standards aren’t met. 

AB 749, the Youth Sports for All Act, provides a smart first step. It directs the California Health and Human Services Agency to form a Blue-Ribbon Commission to study creating a centralized entity for youth sports. The commission would evaluate needs, recommend duties and standards, and identify sustainable funding so every child, regardless of ZIP code, income, race or ability, can access safe and developmentally appropriate sports. The bill is now before the State Senate and will soon be discussed in the Appropriations Committee. Senators should support it and move it forward.  

Why start with a commission? Because getting this right matters. California already has a patchwork of rules concerning concussion, cardiac safety and equipment in some contexts. However, parents still lack clear oversight when issues arise, and quality varies significantly from league to league. A commission can combine effective practices, create a roadmap for coaching education and athlete safety across sports, and ensure funds reach the communities—urban, rural, and farmworker—that have been left on the sidelines. That’s the equity lens our children deserve.  

California will be the world’s sports stage in the coming years with the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the upcoming 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Hosting global events while failing to ensure basic access to sports and play for California’s children would be a moral failure. AB 749 allows us to lead locally, not just on television. 

We also know this model can succeed. Last week, Illinois became the first state in the nation to establish a Youth Sports Commission focused on quality, access and equity, proving that state leadership can catalyze real change for families. California shouldn’t lag; we should set the standard.  

From the perspective of a coach and a dad, I have seen that sports are among the most straightforward and most powerful tools we have to help young people succeed physically, mentally, and socially. The Valley’s parents, educators and coaches already do heroic work with limited resources. It’s time for our state to support them more fully.

The California State Senate should pass AB 749 without delay. We all—coaches, parents and community leaders—must stand for a future where every child in Fresno and across California has a team to join, a coach to believe in them, and a safe place to play.