Before was a billionaire businessman, he was an unruly teenager in need of direction and discipline.
At that time, the Greeley native went to the New Mexico Military Institute, where he started boxing. Becoming a Golden Gloves champion instilled the values that Daniels needed to succeed in life decades prior to emerging as a cable television pioneer and a major stakeholder in professional sports.
That backstory is central to one of the core tenets behind the late businessman’s — supporting youth development through sports.
The nonprofit’s Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day began its third year on Tuesday. The statewide effort aims to help close the opportunity gap between those who can afford America’s expensive pay-to-play model and those who can’t. In its first two years, the campaign raised $9 million for local youth sports organizations across the state, including funds for registration fees, expanded programming, equipment/uniforms and facilities.
is one of several notable local efforts underway as youth sports stakeholders attempt to lower financial barriers to participation for athletes in need. Daniels Fund CEO Hanna Skandera Grady explained that the campaign is one of the foundation's "big bets" within its overall philanthropic vision, which focuses on
"Bill Daniels was an entrepreneur, so we asked ourselves, 'What would he do if he saw some of the things we're seeing today (in youth sports)?'" Skandera Grady said. "... I am a big believer in the power of sports for good and for good for our kids. And as we started looking at the data around youth sports, the gap between the families that are high-resourced and those who do not have a lot of resources is getting wider and wider.
"We're losing a really important pillar in our communities because of that, and a shaper of the next generation of young people. I think Bill would have said, 'This is a crisis that we should address,' because sports totally changed Bill's life. ... The Youth Sports Giving Day came out of this desire for us to be a part of reversing the trend and opening opportunities for all kids to play."
Donations can be made online through Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day The first $1 million raised is matched dollar-for-dollar by the campaign. Beyond the Daniels Fund, other sponsors include the Rockies, Aspen Institute’s , and the . All other donations beyond the first $1 million are matched at a percentage rate.
Last year, the initial $1 million in matched funds was achieved in three minutes. When this year’s campaign launched on Tuesday at 6 p.m., the mark was met in 11 seconds.
The goal of the Daniels Fund, also a founding donor to the nonprofit that provides scholarships to competitive youth athletes, is to have 1 million more Colorado kids playing sports in 2030 than in 2024. Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day raised $3.7 million in 2024 and $5.2 million last year, a mark Skandera Grady hopes to quickly surpass considering the campaign raised about $2.5 million in its first hour on Tuesday.
In 2025, the money raised from Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day affected 240 nonprofit organizations serving over 500,000 youth athletes, with donations coming from over 3,000 individuals. Skandera Grady says that impact has resonated deeply within lower-income areas, considering the major disparities that remain for underserved youth athletes across the state.
While the found that white youth participate in sports at a 72% rate, youth of color participated at a 55% clip.
And as underscored by the tens of thousands of dollars that families often need to pay for a single year of one travel sport, economic status matters, too. The study found that youth sports participation increased with family income, "ranging from 36.7% of youth in families at less than 100% of the poverty threshold to 74.1% of youth in families at 400% or more of the poverty threshold."
"If you are an elite athlete (who does travel sports) we are thrilled for you and we want to support you, and that's part of why we helped start Chance Sports," Skandera Grady said. "But on the other hand, what about the kid who just wants to play in their neighborhood or be that kid who plays catch, or shoot some hoops, or play with their friends on a team and have a good time.
"It seems like we're losing that, so the big bet is all about how we do our part -- and I know Bill Daniels would want us to do that -- in investing in youth sports across the state (at all levels of play). It's this idea that communities across our state can do something about (the direction of) youth sports and for this next generation."
KSE's efforts in youth sports access
Over at , the company that owns the Avalanche, Nuggets, Mammoth and Rapids, is also making an effort to address the inequities in the youth sports landscape.
John Andrew, the former longtime district athletic director for Denver Public Schools, is entering his third year as KSE's executive director of youth sports. His focus in that role is to grow kids as fans of the organization's teams, but it's also to "make youth sports affordable for families and kids and communities."
One of Andrew's highlights during his DPS tenure was partnering with the Broncos to found the Futures program in football, which saved the sport at the district's high school level by providing an affordable pathway to play at the youth level. With KSE, Andrew is hoping to have a similar impact on a variety of sports statewide.
Through his efforts, KSE's youth sports program has grown from about 8,000 kids a few years ago to about 22,000 this year. That includes about 5,500 participants in , with whom KSE has partnered to drastically reduce programming costs by providing uniforms and equipment and subsidizing other expenses.
KSE's youth sports program, which is highlighted by the and camps put on by the Nuggets, as well as the , camps, and put on by the Avalanche, has also partnered with the Gold Crown Foundation, local YMCAs, and other recreational organizations in cities like Aurora.
Andrew, who experienced club volleyball with his daughter, wants to see more quality youth sports access return to rec centers and local city-run leagues.
"When the $40 billion (value of the youth sports industry) popped up, I was like, 'Dear Lord, it's that much?'" Andrew said. "Someone's got to bring all of this together so that we can stop this, because the youth sports affordability crisis is unbelievably bad.
"I want kids to be playing and playing at an affordable price. We're just spreading kids out based on money and access. And I'm never going to believe in that. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing now after retiring from DPS."
Andrew believes that the Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day can be a major factor in addressing the youth sports opportunity gap here in Colorado.
"The (campaign) is rooted in the same belief system I have, and it's amazing to see how much resources the Daniels Fund puts into that," Andrew said. "Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day is another extension of what we need to do to solve this problem. Let's all galvanize around one event and make sure that we put money into it, because that money gets out to the right resources where communities need it."
Changing culture through coaches, athletes
Beyond the Daniels Fund and KSE, two national nonprofits focused on coaches and athletes are also attempting to reframe how Americans view youth sports.
The and the both have roots in Colorado, and both organizations have made a point of focusing their efforts on marginalized and under-resourced communities, where the youth sports industrial complex's opportunity gap is widest.
The Positive Coaching Alliance's mission is "to change the culture of youth sports so that every child, regardless of social or economic circumstance, has access to a positive youth sports experience." And the Positive Athlete Foundation's mission is to help "student-athletes turn the character built through sports into lifelong leadership and success."
This fall, the Positive Coaching Alliance is hosting sports equity community roundtables as it continues to identify and address barriers that keep kids from playing sports. Those roundtables are Sept. 9 (noon at Central Park Recreation Center), Oct. 14 (noon at Rude Recreation Center) and Nov. 18 (noon at Harvard Gulch Recreation Center).
Positive Coaching Alliance's chief strategy and impact officer, , hopes those roundtables "align leaders of youth sports organizations around best practices and strategies to more effectively engage in under-resourced, under-served communities to drive more families and more kids to their programs."
"Obviously, cost is a major barrier, but when you look at our most burdened communities, you're looking at transportation, you're looking at a lack of facilities, you're looking at a lack of strategic partnerships, and all these capacity issues that prevent our most vulnerable kids from participating," Marcus said. "So one of our goals is that we try to build the capacity of (youth sports) leaders and align their contributions towards those shared results."
Marcus also believes that an underlying issue of the rise of the youth sports industrial complex is the framing and perspective of those within the system. He cited the widespread critique of the U.S. men's soccer team as an example.
"Coming off the most recent World Cup, the talk was like, 'This (American youth soccer) system is broken, it's too expensive, and we need to create more opportunities to create the next Messi, or the next (great player) in America,'" Marcus said. "But I think we're missing the mark with that discourse.
"Only a fractional percentage of kids will ever achieve that level of greatness. So the perspective (the Positive Coaching Alliance) is trying to promote is that sports are a platform for positive youth development, and to teach young people how to not only feel safe, seen, heard, and valued, but also develop critical life skills, like persistence, optimism, self-regulation, empathy. That starts with the environment that a coach creates on the field, and that a team's organization has from a values perspective."
While the Positive Coaching Alliance has been on the youth sports scene for several decades, the Positive Athlete Foundation was founded in Pittsburgh in 2012 and recently arrived in Colorado for the 2025-26 school year. Last school year, the foundation got almost 1,000 nominations from 292 high schools, and Gov. Jared Polis proclaimed June 3 as Positive Athlete Day in Colorado.
Nominated student-athletes are eligible for public recognition, awards and scholarships, and each nominee also receives access to career resources.
"Helping young people to identify and leverage transferable soft skills built through sport and, in turn, providing companies a chance to connect with them as future workforce talent, particularly in the trades or high-demand jobs, are two driving factors," said , the Colorado market lead for Positive Athlete.
"To the point about marginalized communities, Montbello was the No. 1 nominating school in the state, so Positive Athlete hits home in communities of need but also suburban, rural and everywhere that makes Colorado prep sports so special."
'This is a responsibility for all of us'
While the Daniels Fund, KSE, the Positive Coaching Alliance and the Positive Athlete Foundation are making inroads locally, one former travel sports coach and dad is determined to make sure parents everywhere are aware of the potential pitfalls of the youth sports industrial complex.
Iowa resident Paul Stonehouse launched a few years ago, prompted by his 14 years of coaching travel youth soccer in the Chicago suburbs.
"I traveled the country coaching in top-level tournaments, and over time I had more and more issues with the machine: the tryout process, the relentless money drain, and the slick recruiting tactics clubs use -- most of it built on promises of college or pro that feed the egos of both parent and kid," Stonehouse wrote to The Denver Post. "I watched clubs, not just my own, use tactics that would make a used car salesman look honest."
Travel Sports Truth is Stonehouse's response to his discontent with the system.
His website bills itself as "an independent resource that gives parents real numbers, costs, college odds, and red flags, so you can make the right call for your kid." Stonehouse notes that he does not call out specific clubs, and he does not accept sponsorships or run advertisements, so he can maintain independence for the site, which features of travel sports costs.
He explains that after his kids grew up, he continued to go to volleyball and baseball games, listening to parents' feedback. The consistencies in the issues he was hearing about alarmed him.
"The details that stuck with me: being told which hotel you’re required to book (for a tournament). Kids getting serious injuries in the first weeks of a season, and parents in shock to learn they still owed thousands even though their child never played again," Stonehouse said.
"... The parents (I talked to kept telling) the exact same stories. When I moved states and had more time, I dug into parent group posts across every travel sport, and one thing jumped off the page: a total lack of transparency, and parents signing up out of pure FOMO. I kept finding facts I was convinced parents needed before they wrote those big checks, and almost nothing out there to help them navigate it."
Stonehouse's research is why the Daniels Fund believes its Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day is all the more important: Raising millions of dollars in annual donations that go entirely to nonprofit youth sports organizations that are the antithesis of the pay-for-play travel model.
The Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day has been so effective that it is now , but Skandera Grady cautioned that these efforts are merely early momentum in the attempt to turn the tide against a youth sports model that remains overwhelmingly pay-to-play.
"This is not a spike-the-football moment," Skandera Grady said. "... But not only is this (movement) growing in Colorado, but imagine what could happen if other states said, 'We're going to reverse our trends. We're going to make possibilities and access available for our more kids in our state, too.' It's a moment to say, 'Come on: This is a responsibility for all of us, and we can do this."
