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Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports
Transform the competitive sports field into a discipleship opportunity as you help your young athlete become not just a better player but a devoted follower of God.
If we don’t own the process of discipling our kids as they play sports, sports culture will do it for us. But as parents, we can get so consumed with our young athletes’ physical development that we miss the opportunities athletics provide to help them grow spiritually. Away Game challenges us to be more than spectators on the sidelines of our kids’ spiritual lives. Discover how to:
Leverage sports as a platform for instilling biblical values in kids and teens.
Keep joy, play, and gratitude at every level of your child’s athletic experience.
Use sports involvement as an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your child—from car-ride conversations to post-game processing.
Spark faith-based discussions about sport-culture challenges such as handling pressure, dealing with failure, and being a next-level teammate.
Counter the toxic elements of today’s youth sports culture by cultivating kingdom virtues like self-control, humility, and peace—in yourself and your kids.
Away Game empowers you to embrace the role of spiritual mentor throughout your child’s athletic journey as you recognize—in the margins of every practice or game—winning opportunities for spiritual growth.
If we don’t own the process of discipling our kids as they play sports, sports culture will do it for us. But as parents, we can get so consumed with our young athletes’ physical development that we miss the opportunities athletics provide to help them grow spiritually. Away Game challenges us to be more than spectators on the sidelines of our kids’ spiritual lives. Discover how to:
Leverage sports as a platform for instilling biblical values in kids and teens.
Keep joy, play, and gratitude at every level of your child’s athletic experience.
Use sports involvement as an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your child—from car-ride conversations to post-game processing.
Spark faith-based discussions about sport-culture challenges such as handling pressure, dealing with failure, and being a next-level teammate.
Counter the toxic elements of today’s youth sports culture by cultivating kingdom virtues like self-control, humility, and peace—in yourself and your kids.
Away Game empowers you to embrace the role of spiritual mentor throughout your child’s athletic journey as you recognize—in the margins of every practice or game—winning opportunities for spiritual growth.
264 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2025
36 people are currently reading
1342 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 27, 2025
If you have kids in youth sports, or grandkids, or you are coaching youth sports, this book is for you.
I wish I had this resource 10 years ago. Such great wisdom and insight. Highly recommend!!
I wish I had this resource 10 years ago. Such great wisdom and insight. Highly recommend!!
July 8, 2025
I’m not an athlete, but I am a disciple of Jesus trying to navigate youth sports as a parent and this book does a masterful job weaving those two things together. In a time when faith in Jesus seems to unconsciously be kept separated from “real life”, this book gently, but persuasively illuminates some of the problems beneath the problems of youth sports and invites us to wrestle to understand both our faith and our everyday life more deeply.
My first favorite part of the book was the chapter, “How did we get here?” It seems simple, but bringing some historical perspective to youth sports in its multifaceted complexity has the effect of raising you above a fog to see the landscape clearly for maybe the first time.
My next favorite aspect of the book was its scalability. Not only did the book offer accessible ways to incorporate the principles discussed no matter where you are starting from, but this is a book about following Jesus first and then secondly in the specific arena of youth sports culture. Even as a non-athlete, the ideas and practices from the book have the ability to scale outward to other cultural contexts besides youth sports. It has the effect of reuniting discipleship to Jesus with almost any context in a very concrete way.
I had two minor complaints about the book (I listened to the audible version which has bonus content after every chapter which I would highly recommend!) First, there was a slightly jarring difference in sound quality/volume between the narration of the actual book and the bonus content after each chapter. This seemed to improve as the book progressed, but it was distracting at first.
My second complaint isn’t so much a complaint as a desire for the conversation to go further. I would have loved a chapter right after the historical context of “How did we get here?” that dove into the Biblical context of how God intended work and rest/play to function in a flourishing humanity from the beginning. There is a little taste of this towards the end of the book, but for myself, I would have liked that broader context set at the beginning of the book. However, that topic could pretty easily be its own book and I know the authors had to draw lines somewhere.
Overall, I highly recommend the book as an on ramp to following Jesus while wrestling with living in the “Youth Sports Industrial Complex”. I also think this book would pair well with a book like Dallas Willard’s “Renovation of the Heart” that explores some important intertwined ideas outside of the scope of “Away Game”.
My first favorite part of the book was the chapter, “How did we get here?” It seems simple, but bringing some historical perspective to youth sports in its multifaceted complexity has the effect of raising you above a fog to see the landscape clearly for maybe the first time.
My next favorite aspect of the book was its scalability. Not only did the book offer accessible ways to incorporate the principles discussed no matter where you are starting from, but this is a book about following Jesus first and then secondly in the specific arena of youth sports culture. Even as a non-athlete, the ideas and practices from the book have the ability to scale outward to other cultural contexts besides youth sports. It has the effect of reuniting discipleship to Jesus with almost any context in a very concrete way.
I had two minor complaints about the book (I listened to the audible version which has bonus content after every chapter which I would highly recommend!) First, there was a slightly jarring difference in sound quality/volume between the narration of the actual book and the bonus content after each chapter. This seemed to improve as the book progressed, but it was distracting at first.
My second complaint isn’t so much a complaint as a desire for the conversation to go further. I would have loved a chapter right after the historical context of “How did we get here?” that dove into the Biblical context of how God intended work and rest/play to function in a flourishing humanity from the beginning. There is a little taste of this towards the end of the book, but for myself, I would have liked that broader context set at the beginning of the book. However, that topic could pretty easily be its own book and I know the authors had to draw lines somewhere.
Overall, I highly recommend the book as an on ramp to following Jesus while wrestling with living in the “Youth Sports Industrial Complex”. I also think this book would pair well with a book like Dallas Willard’s “Renovation of the Heart” that explores some important intertwined ideas outside of the scope of “Away Game”.
September 27, 2025
Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski have together written a book talking about how parents navigate what they call the Youth Sports Industrial Complex (YSIC). The idea is that children at younger ages are encouraged to specialize in a particular sport, pay for involvement in sports leagues and travel ball, and generally suck the pleasure out of what should be an enjoyable endeavor.
Along the way, they address multiple different topics -- things like teaching children to be gentle, even when referees and opponents aren't what they should be, teaching children gratitude, parents modeling the sort of behavior they would like to see, and parents learning what their children need to have the best experience possible. In particular, they explore ways that parents should respond to children's adversity, how they should talk to their children on the "infamous drive home" from a game, and avoid the challenge of living vicariously through their children.
I will say that the book reads like a cautionary story. The world today values cutthroat competitors who will stomp on their opponents and do anything needed to win. Being Christ honoring in responses to others will lead one to succeed in life, but maybe not so much in sports. Michael Jordan is supposedly the goat in basketball, but he succeeded (at least in part) due to his willingness to be a tyrant and attack his teammates to get the best out of them. Six championships was the result and so I guess in the minds of many, that makes it all worthwhile.
Smith and Uszynski try to temper this by saying they aren't saying that you don't try to win or develop better skills, they are simply saying that it is really important how you play the game. Parents have the power to destroy their children, or to let them know that regardless of the outcome, the children are still loved.
The book is definitely Biblically focused and the goal of the authors to help bring a Christ-centered ethic to kid's sports. I do think it gets a bit long at certain points. I will add that I think many of these tips are applicable to other areas of kid's lives. If your children are involved in music or Bible bowls you could do worse than read this book and apply some of the concepts found here to how you relate to your children.
Along the way, they address multiple different topics -- things like teaching children to be gentle, even when referees and opponents aren't what they should be, teaching children gratitude, parents modeling the sort of behavior they would like to see, and parents learning what their children need to have the best experience possible. In particular, they explore ways that parents should respond to children's adversity, how they should talk to their children on the "infamous drive home" from a game, and avoid the challenge of living vicariously through their children.
I will say that the book reads like a cautionary story. The world today values cutthroat competitors who will stomp on their opponents and do anything needed to win. Being Christ honoring in responses to others will lead one to succeed in life, but maybe not so much in sports. Michael Jordan is supposedly the goat in basketball, but he succeeded (at least in part) due to his willingness to be a tyrant and attack his teammates to get the best out of them. Six championships was the result and so I guess in the minds of many, that makes it all worthwhile.
Smith and Uszynski try to temper this by saying they aren't saying that you don't try to win or develop better skills, they are simply saying that it is really important how you play the game. Parents have the power to destroy their children, or to let them know that regardless of the outcome, the children are still loved.
The book is definitely Biblically focused and the goal of the authors to help bring a Christ-centered ethic to kid's sports. I do think it gets a bit long at certain points. I will add that I think many of these tips are applicable to other areas of kid's lives. If your children are involved in music or Bible bowls you could do worse than read this book and apply some of the concepts found here to how you relate to your children.
July 25, 2025
I wish this book was around 10-15 years ago when my family was in the throws of kids and youth sports. The book is honest, biblical, and very practical. The authors give examples from their own lives - both the wins and losses - and you feel like you're in good company with the authors. Very balanced in their approach - the authors both love sports - from their own experience growing up and in college and in parenting and coaching their kids.
They focus on spiritual formation over sports formation and help raise awareness to some of the challenges parents will face. Highly recommend for any parent.
They focus on spiritual formation over sports formation and help raise awareness to some of the challenges parents will face. Highly recommend for any parent.
September 26, 2025
I’m can’t recommend this book highly enough! I wish it would have been out when our kids were all in sports. It very much gives resource to a growing source of tension in Christian families; how to deal with the youth sports machine. This book gives great biblical perspective but also very helpful practical tips on how to see sport and navigate through it in our world today. It isn’t just for our kids. It’s very much for parents too! Go get it.
September 6, 2025
I thought this book had some really great and practical advice. It was kind of longer than it needed to be, but I pulled what was helpful and will carry some of this into my kids’ sports for sure! I especially appreciated the advice about car rides before and after games, and the practical tips for encouraging kids (and parents) to learn teammates names, shake the refs hands, etc.
December 31, 2025
Fantastic book. I'm a Christian parent of kids in youth sports - I struggle at times with regard to the culture around us and if we're doing the right thing by continuing to engage in our sports environment. This book was a great help in refocusing on the the good that can come through competitive youth sports, but it will come through intentional discipleship and not inertia.
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July 12, 2025This book offers practical wisdom and biblical perspective to help parents support their kids with integrity and faith in the competitive world of youth sports. It equips families to prioritize spiritual growth while making thoughtful choices about training, competition, and character.
September 4, 2025
Once my boys are of the age for organized sports, I’ll be keeping this book close and revisiting it often. As a high school director, I want to get this into the hands of every parent in my ministry. Such a valuable and timely book! Can’t recommend it enough!
November 8, 2025
Great book for parents who have kids that love playing sports but know it’s tough to balance all that sports demand and still keep our focus and hearts on Jesus. Lots of relatable and practical advice for discipling young athletes.
June 26, 2025
There’s lots to consider when it comes to youth sports and this helps walk the reader through it.
November 11, 2025
Eye Opening
As both a parent and coach, I cannot recommend this book enough. I have a whole new outlook on how I approach youth sports.
As both a parent and coach, I cannot recommend this book enough. I have a whole new outlook on how I approach youth sports.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews