Let’s Talk About Youth Sports: Go Oshkosh Kids + Women’s Fund of Oshkosh!

Youth sports today can look very different from when we were young. With new technology, the commercialization of sports, and early specialization, parents and kids face many challenges in navigating the modern sports landscape. 

Playing sports comes with lots of benefits for kids, but there are also common issues: pressure to win at all costs, economic barriers to participation, parent over-involvement, and referee shortages. 

How can parents navigate these issues and focus in on those benefits and positives? How do we keep our kids active and having fun? And is anyone playing casual or pick-up games anymore? 

We’ll talk all about it with our guest Ali Starr of Tashi Deley! 

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Meet Our Guest

Ali Starr, Owner Tashi Deley

Ali Starr started her business, Tashi Deley (Ta-She De-lay), to pursue a passion and a dream. Prior to creating Tashi Deley and working at Verve, where she had a huge impact on organizational culture, she was the principal at Lourdes Academy Elementary Schools in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, while coaching their High School girls’ basketball team. Ali has also worked for the NBA, NCAA, and NBC. 

Outside of Tashi Deley, Ali enjoys golfing, basketball, fishing, creating arts/crafts, and, last but not least, dance parties with her children Penelope and Vincent.

Meet Our Hosts

Amanda Chavez, Owner & Creative Director, WiscoFam / Go Valley Kids / Go Oshkosh Kids

Born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin, Amanda Chavez deeply loves her community. As a busy mom of 2 little girls, she and her husband are always on the lookout for fun things to do and share with others. Her work combines all her passions – motherhood, design, and community. Some of her other interests also peak through as well, including baking, photography, and sewing!

Karlene Grabner, Executive Director, Women’s Fund of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation

Karlene Grabner is a graduate of Lourdes Academy and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she studied finance and economics. She has shared her knowledge and passion for improving the Oshkosh community for the past 20 years through her work at the Oshkosh Community Foundation and Women’s Fund of Oshkosh. Karlene loves playing board games with her family, and when the weather is right, you’ll find them enjoying boating, wakeboarding, and kayaking with their dog, Bago.

Special Thanks

Liz Schultz, Producer, WiscoFam / Go Valley Kids / Go Oshkosh Kids

Marlo Ambras, Audio & Video Engineer, Ambas Creative

Transcript

Amanda Chavez  00:00

Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk, the show that connects families in Oshkosh with local experts to talk about your parenting questions—we’re so glad you’re here. I’m Amanda Chavez, here with my co-host, Karlene Grabner. And today, we’re talking all about youth sports with Ali Star. Often, today’s youth sports look very different from when we were young, with new technology, the commercialization of sports, and early specialization. There’s a lot of challenges that parents and kids face in navigating the modern sports landscape. Playing sports comes with lots of benefits for kids, but there are also common issues, pressure to win at all costs, economic barriers of participation, parent over-involvement, and referee shortages. How can parents navigate these issues and focus on the benefits and positives? How do we keep our kids active and having fun? And is anyone playing casual or pickup games anymore? We’ll talk all about it today with our guest, Ali Star.

Karlene Grabner  00:53

Ali, we are so excited to have you. Ali is been a friend of mine in so many different capacities probably for probably close to a decade. And she is an extraordinary human in all respects. And we’re excited to have you today. And if you wouldn’t mind, would you just give a little background about yourself? 

Ali Star  01:08

Yes. So I’m so happy to be here, you guys. And this subject is so near and dear to my heart, on many levels. As a mother, as a coach, as a athlete, you know, a collegiate athlete, I just have a lot of love, empathy, and respect for the subject. So I’m so grateful you chose me, and I get to be here with you. I’m Ali Star. I have served in a couple of different roles throughout our Oshkosh community, and all of them I’ve loved. Specifically, being a principal was really powerful for me. And coaching, I still get to coach, and so I do that for my day job. I get to work for a company called Tashi Delay—it means I see you, and I honor the greatness within you. It’s a Tibetan greeting. It’s how the Tibetan people greet one another. And so really, the goal of Tashi Delay is to just help people be Tashi Delay. How do we help people honor the greatness within themselves so that they can honor the greatness within others? So happy to be here!

Amanda Chavez  02:00

Thanks, we’re excited.

Karlene Grabner  02:01

Let’s Talk is brought to you through Go Oshkosh Kids’ partnership with the Women’s Fund of Oshkosh. The Women’s Fund of Oshkosh works to improve the lives of women, girls, and families of the communities in Winnebago County through philanthropy, grant-making, and education.

Karlene Grabner  02:23

So let’s kick it right off. You are back into the coaching space and coach this year, the Lourdes Academy High School varsity basketball, girls’ basketball team. So I guess out of curiosity, how did that go? How did it feel to be back and all that good stuff?

Ali Star 02:37

Karlene, I always say to people, when they asked me this question, I say, I wish everyone had an eight-year sabbatical, and could come back with like this clear lens, this fresher perspective, this recognition of like: Why am I really coaching? And what is this all for? I think teachers, it could be professional care workers, it could be any, any industry. If you get an eight-day sabbatical—I think it’s lovely. An eight-year sabbatical is what I had, and I never thought I’d come back. So coming back allowed for many things that when I left, I could say, “Wow, why did I do that? Why did I have captains? Why did I show up in this way? Who is that really for? Was it my ego? Was it my own dreams and desires as a player that were unresolved or like that I’m pushing on to my players? And what am I making, like winning mean about me?” There was just so many aspects of the game that I didn’t uncover as a young coach that I got a chance to this time around. It’s been awesome. It’s been awesome.

Karlene Grabner  03:36

And what are a few of those tidbits you can share with us? 

Ali Star 03:40

Well, I’ll tell you this ladies. At the beginning of our meeting, at the very first time I met with these parents, I gave them some some statistics that I thought would help us get to why are we all here? Why are the players here because no one has to be here. This is like I kept reminding my players this is a get to, this is like a choice. You can spend your time and energy anywhere and yet you choose to spend it in the gym with me. I, I want it to be well worth it, you know. And so what I shared with them at the beginning of our parent meeting and player meeting is that around 410,000 women young girls play high school basketball, okay. 26,000, about roughly go on to play college. 4000 go on to play for an NCAA Championship, which we just got out of March, right? So we kind of feel that March Madness. And even if you’re not a big basketball fan, you can kind of rally around some of the fun activities. And only 144 make it a career in the WNBA. Okay, when I give you those percentages, of course, they’re numbers and nobody’s writing them down, and hopefully you’re driving in your car listening and gaining some wisdom and perspective in ways that you wouldn’t prior, but like 7% go on to play college. 1% compete for an NCAA National