Feb. 5, 2026
Building Better Athletes: Gary Thrapp's Vision for Youth Sports and Community Empowerment
Send us a text In this enlightening episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we sit down with Gary Thrapp, a dedicated youth sports specialist with an impressive 40-year career in managing youth sports. Gary has coached over 50,000 games and has been instrumental in the development of the premier youth sports facility, Beyond the Baseline. His mission transcends athletics; he focuses on cultivating better athletes and, more importantly, better individuals. Join us as we explore Gary's jour...
In this enlightening episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we sit down with Gary Thrapp, a dedicated youth sports specialist with an impressive 40-year career in managing youth sports. Gary has coached over 50,000 games and has been instrumental in the development of the premier youth sports facility, Beyond the Baseline. His mission transcends athletics; he focuses on cultivating better athletes and, more importantly, better individuals. Join us as we explore Gary's journey and his commitment to community engagement through free sports programs designed to remove financial barriers for young athletes. Discover the lessons he's learned as a parent and coach, the importance of leadership development in youth sports, and how he is reshaping the youth sports landscape by prioritizing skill development over competition. Gary also shares insights from his book, *The Wild World of Youth Sports*, which provides 150 strategies for parents to navigate the complexities of youth sports effectively. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that emphasizes the power of community, support, and the positive impact of sports on youth development. Learn more about Gary and his initiatives at garythrap.com and goingbeyondthebaseline.com.
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> Curtis Jackson>Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve.
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> Curtis Jackson>Welcome, to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by Gary Thrapp. He is a youth sports specialist. Gary has spent 40 years managing youth sports. He has coached over 50,000 games and he has spent the last 19 years developing and working the premier youth sports facility called beyond the Baseline.
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> Curtis Jackson>Gary has worked hard to develop not just better athletes, but better people. And he is focused on leadership and community. He's successfully raised four kids in the competitive process as well. So we're going to be talking to him about his free, sports community, programs. He's done some, several community events all about community. So we're going to be talking to him about everything that he's up to and going to be up to.
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> Curtis Jackson>So Gary, thank you for joining me, having me on.
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> Curtis Jackson>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?
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> Gary Thrapp>Well, you filled in some pretty good gaps there. I got you know, I really enjoyed youth sports as a youngster myself. That kind of kept me out of trouble. It kept me busy. It gave me a release from maybe some anxiety I had at school and at home. So that was key for me. And then I, it kind of amped up. I got into some coaching, early on and I really enjoyed, went from that to having four kids and being willing to go coast to coast with them to try to open up opportunities for them. And then it really amped up. Like you mentioned, I bought a youth sports facility back in 2006 and been working non stop for the last 19 years, going on 20 years now, just trying to help our community in a variety of different ways. So just love doing it and I love being a part of the, you know, growth process with kids.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, I know you spent four decades doing it, so, you know, what initially pulled you into the youth sports world and what keeps you so committed after 40 years?
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> Gary Thrapp>Yeah, what? my high school coach, when I was a junior and senior, he required us as players to coach a, youth league that he did. And so that opened my eyes up to the thought that maybe I was pretty good at it because I really enjoyed it.
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> Gary Thrapp>It's, I seem to get good responses from the kids and that really set the tone for the rest of my life as far as wanting to be involved at some point in youth sports, as a coach, of course, then as a parent and and, but it wasn't until probably I purchased, the youth sports facility, did things really amp up 24 hours a day practically, because, when you have a facility and you got to pay the bills and, you know, you love being involved in different aspects of it, that just, that amped things up for sure.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, after managing 50,000 games, what have you noticed that separate the, positive youth sports experiences from the negative ones?
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> Gary Thrapp>Yeah, the nice thing is, people are primarily positive, but as you know, just like watching the news, you tend to be exposed to the negative, and it might be the loudest thing that's happening.
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> Gary Thrapp>So, it's nice to know that there's so many good people out there doing great work. and then I, you know, because I was out on the front lines running events and tournaments and, and being involved in the process, right out there in the gym doing it.
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> Gary Thrapp>you know, I work with so many different people that have different approaches. I think there's a huge gamut of approaches that people use to raise, their child, to coach, to respond to, maybe, some negativity that happens. So I tried to, you know, just. I've learned a lot of different, ways to help move youth sports forward in a positive way.
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> Gary Thrapp>And then probably the biggest thing, and you kind of touched on it in youth sports. It's very noticeable, is if, you have a lot of money, there's a lot of opportunity for you. And if you don't, so often there's not a lot of things that you can do or not a lot of opportunity. So we've tried to use, our facility to, make a nice outlet for the kids that don't have maybe a lot of support, a lot of financial help to have, a place to play and at a very low cost. Free is kind of low. So, and that's what I love to do now. That's my passion, is help those kids.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, you've raised four kids through the competitive process. So what are some of the lessons that you learned as a parent that you.
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> Curtis Jackson>That you now apply as a coach?
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> Gary Thrapp>I learned to listen more than preach and to lecture. It, took me a while. It was my third child, my daughter, that really, kind of woke me up a little bit to that. so just the approach you take with kids, I've adjusted over the years, so they taught me to be a better listener and be, more positive. Took, me a while to figure that one out. So, you know, these days Now I'm about 98% positive when I'm coaching kids and what have you.
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> Gary Thrapp>My own kids taught that. Probably the other biggest thing, because my wife and I were willing and able to go coast to coast with them to try to open up opportunities is that looking back, you don't have to spend a lot of money, you don't have to travel a lot to get good results with your kids. And that's a tough one to really understand.
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> Gary Thrapp>So those two elements really is what I look back on with my kids that were very noticeable.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, you know, you've been operating beyond the baseline for 19 years. So talk about your original vision for the facility and how has the vision, has the vision involved for, you know, over the 19 years?
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> Gary Thrapp>Yeah, it's really, really kind of strange because I literally was just going around town for my own kids, looking for a bigger garage to have them be able to maybe have a batting cage, a hoop, you know, indoors over the winter. And, and so I was keeping my eyes and ears open for that. And at the same time my wife and I were volunteering, our time at the kids school. They did a youth basketball tournament as a fundraiser for their school. So we volunteered and did a variety of different aspects to even running the tournament for them for a few years. So that gave us some experience in that regard. So while I'm driving around, I heard that this 40, 35, 40,000 square foot gymnasium was available and went and took a look at it and went home and told my wife I bought it. Could you imagine that discussion?
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> Curtis Jackson>Yeah, I'm sure she probably was. You probably were in the doghouse that night or something.
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> Gary Thrapp>She wasn't quite surprised based on some of the other things I got into. So but it's, it was amazing. You know, initially it's just a matter of you know, looking in the community and seeing what the needs were. We basically had an empty building. There wasn't a lot going on. So we needed. We're very motivated and used our work ethic to you know, pay the bills and get things going and listen to what was needed out there and started putting events together, leagues together.
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> Gary Thrapp>And it's really been a awesome time, A lot of hard work as you can imagine, just like any small business that you start up. But I, wouldn't enjoy doing anything more than what we're doing here at the gym. It's, it's so much fun.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, you offer free programs for 250 kids. you know, talk about why it was important to remove the financial barriers. And what impact have you seen? You know, because you've done what you've done.
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> Gary Thrapp>Yeah, it's really sad when you hear in your community, and I started hearing maybe six, seven years ago, as these elite teams were being developed, I heard some, that there were some teams that were very low cost that disbanded because the kids who had money went to the elite program that cost a lot of money and those that didn't, didn't have an option. And you know, seeing that happen over and over, it's like, now we got to do better than that. So that's where several years ago we started doing free opportunities. Whether it was teams that had kids that needed help, I gave them free court time initially. And you know, they coached themselves and just trying to support them. And then got to really know, several leaders in our community that were doing God's work, working with the kids, for nothing. I mean, they didn't want paid and didn't care whether they got paid. And so we kind of got together and said, hey, let's, let's put a program together that will help kids that don't have money and get them involved and the results we've had.
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> Gary Thrapp>One example is we have a, we had a fifth grader that was in a family that really, the older siblings struggled in and out of jail and still are in and out of jail. And the fifth grader wasn't really that interested in basketball. And fast forward, I don't know, 10, 15 years later, he's a college, freshman playing basketball for one of our local universities. So pretty cool. you know, so just surrounding kids with positive people that, doing good work and providing lifelines to them. So we just love watching our kids grow and gain experience and just have the support system surrounding them. So that's the main purpose, of course.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, there's a lot of debate today around competition, you know, versus participation for young athletes. So how do you define or keep up healthy, competition, you know, for the young athletes that you work with?
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> Gary Thrapp>Well, you know, just the approach of the coaches is, being primarily positive and understanding that when you're playing against teams that may not have that same approach, your kids are going to be exposed to negativity, more negativity and more egos and more frustrating and difficult situations. any sport is filled with mistakes. So, you know, we're trying to teach our kids how to handle mistakes and handle frustrations. So, that's the main thing is just be there as a support system for kids as they're experiencing success and failures and help them realize these are just awesome ways to be prepared for the future. And so, you know, it takes a while for kids because everybody that comes here is a professional athlete when they start in third grade, as you know. So it's kind of helping them understand the big picture of things and what's most important and yet not take away that. That drive to want to be the best for sure. So, just try to help direct them in a good, positive so they're ready to get a job. They're ready to possibly go to a university or a college or, basically be in a position where they can do whatever they want because they have the confidence to be able to do that.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, from your perspective, what role should parents play in youth sports and where do you see they most often get their role wrong?
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> Gary Thrapp>M. I think just understanding what good coaching is and understanding there's not a lot of good quality information out there that helps them know, what direction to take with their kids. when you combine that thought with. So often, you know, parents are stretched for time themselves working, you know, maybe have multiple kids that are in a variety of different things. So it limits the ability to know exactly what to do. Sometimes you just throw a kid, one of your kids on a team just because you heard about that team. So, sometimes we make quick decisions without doing a little bit of, research on who we're putting our kids with.
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> Gary Thrapp>So it's really trying to do that extra work behind the scenes or prior to getting your child involved, to, make sure you're putting them in good situations. Coaching is huge. And the one thing I've noticed is that unfortunately, so often the loudest coaches in the room may be doing a disservice to kids. It's usually the quiet ones doing the heavy lifting, doing the development that are doing the best job. So, it's. There's so many different, you know, approaches and strategies that, parents want to. And this is what I did when I first had kids was I took the time to read a lot of books, to watch a lot of videos, to, go to different, coaching clinics just so I knew what I was doing. And, that's something that you want to really define as a parent is the coach I'm putting my child with. Do they have that same approach? And that was a motivation to write the, Wild World of Youth Sports. Just use my experience and try to help parents, have strategies so they can use their time and money wisely like another full time job. Curtis.
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> Curtis Jackson>Absolutely. And I also know that you focus heavily on leadership development. So in what ways can sports be used to develop leaders? and not just athletes?
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> Gary Thrapp>Yeah, and that's where the coaching side of it's really important. It's giving each child an opportunity to be a leader on a team and realize that each child that is on your team, regardless of how skilled they are in that particular sport, has strengths that can lead the team if given the opportunity. So what I always did was put our kids that I was coaching each in leadership positions.
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> Gary Thrapp>So and to help them make decisions for the team, not only in practices but also in games. So that is very important to give everyone the opportunity to be, you know, to develop those leadership capabilities. so. And those are experiences that will last a lifetime. They'll feed off of those the rest of their life.
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> Curtis Jackson>What advice would you give to organizations or communities looking to create youth sports programs that you know, really make a difference?
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> Gary Thrapp>Be very patient, be non judgmental, be very sincere and honest. I mean we could just throw a lot of stuff at it. Things that I try to be, be stable, be well structured, get to know and build relationships with the people, the families. just because, as an example, just because you have a child that may, maybe did, doesn't. You know, we have kids that come in that have never had a parent watch them play. They either live close by or they get a ride from one of our coaches and what have you. So it's almost like they're on their own a little bit for different reasons and just, you know, helping that, Helping all children have that opportunity is so important. So we just try to be, just fill in the gaps where parents and families, you know, need that support. So we can help everybody head in a good positive direction.
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> Gary Thrapp>So you wear a lot of hats when you do this type of work. So when you want, if you want to, you know, move mountains in your community like this, you just got to be really stable yourself, really strong. Realize you're going to be confronted with a lot of different issues. Try not to prejudge.
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> Gary Thrapp>Just be a good, happy, solid, positive voice and help people, head in a good positive direction.
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> Gary Thrapp>And that's, that's really hard to do in so many different ways.
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> Curtis Jackson>But.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, if you could change one thing about the youth sports landscape, what would it be and what was the first step you would take to start making that change?
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> Gary Thrapp>Well, I, it's one of those things you got to change at the local level. One thing that is, you know, I get it. There's huge youth sports facilities being built all the time around the country. communities are motivated to build them just to try to attract people to their community.
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> Gary Thrapp>There's nothing wrong with that for sure. but what I try to tell parents at a local level, you don't have to play a lot of games to help your child have opportunity. So, you know, when these facilities are providing games to try to pay the bills, you know, that's one thing. So there's a lot of different places you can go. But parents, it's very important to understand that you don't.
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> Gary Thrapp>Your child doesn't have to play a lot of games. So we're really skewing way too far towards the game playing aspect of it and not utilizing our time developing our child. Because it's really hard to help a child truly get better at a sport by just playing games. You got to work on technique, you have to work on skill work, fundamentals. I mean, you just can't teach that type of stuff. Just throwing them out there, playing games in any sport. you got to work on those, those, little things that are huge in helping a child develop.
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> Gary Thrapp>So playing too many games as opposed to development is a huge problem we have nationwide in youth sports. No doubt about it.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, talk to the listeners about your book. Tell us what we can expect when we read it, why you decide to write it and what you want them to take away from it and how to pick it up.
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> Gary Thrapp>Yeah, it's a great way to save money and save time. Really is. So it's 150 strategies for doing that, not only saving money, but time. And it's based on experience, it's based on what I've found works not only for me, but for other parents. I love to watch. I love to observe how people's approaches and then see the results when the kids feel that approach. And having been on the front lines and doing this every day for the last 20 years, and then throughout my life for 40 years, you get an idea what works and what doesn't. And so I tried to package that in a pretty easy book, to read, including some amazing stories that'll just make you laugh, make you cry, make you mad.
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> Gary Thrapp>these are stories that I've experienced that help, I think make the point of the strategies that I'm talking about. So I'm getting some really good feedback from people that Just are amazed by some of the stories that we've witnessed here at our gym and you know, throughout our youth sports careers. And but I, I still cry when I read them, quite honestly. So but yeah, it's, it's packed full of stuff like that literally just to try to help save money and time for parents.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.
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> Gary Thrapp>Goodness gracious. I'm really reaching out nationwide to people that are doing things similar to what I'm doing here at beyond the Baseline here in Davenport, Iowa. I'm just doing a lot of different networking around the country just to find the people that are really on the front lines doing similar work so we can gain strength and you know, gain momentum together. And it's so important for our young people because they're exposed to so many different things with their phones and on social media, the mental health crisis that we have. I think it's so important to develop a network of those positive leaders around the country that kids can learn from that are doing the work, not just talking about doing it better, doing the work. So that's really my mission right now is to continue to do what we're doing here at Baseline, but then develop that network around the country so our kids can learn from a variety of different people and in different ways. So.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, so people can keep up with everything that you have to throw out your contact info.
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> Gary Thrapp>Yeah. So I'm, I actually have a website, Gary Thrap.com I also am on LinkedIn and my non profit website is at going beyond the baseline.com so those couple of areas are good ways to connect.
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> Gary Thrapp>love to hear stories about youth sports from anywhere around the country, just to share ideas and, and share strategies. So definitely.
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> Curtis Jackson>We'Ll close this out with some final thoughts.
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> Curtis Jackson>Maybe if there was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on any final thoughts you have for the listeners.
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> Gary Thrapp>Man, there's nothing more important than helping your child feel that and gain the feel that they can do anything they want in their life. And that takes time, that takes development, that takes that trust, that you develop with your child. So what I try to tell parents through the book as well is this is designed not only to help you help your child be successful, but also to try to help communities in that every event you go to, regardless of the sport, keep your eyes and ears open for potential victims because we have kids come here that haven't, you know, haven't, been to school for a while, so we got to motivate them to get it back to school. That, and it turns out it's just because they didn't get a haircut or haven't been fed properly. So just, I try to, you know, help parents realize not only look out for your own children, but keep your eyes and ears open for other potential kids who need help. So, that's a big part of the book as well.
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> Curtis Jackson>Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, pick up that book. Check out www.garythrop.com. check out everything that Gary's up to, you know, and if you know people involved in youth sports, whether it be parents, athletes, or coaches, you know, share this episode to as many people as possible. Also, go sign up for the Living the Dream newsletter and visit www.craveball337.com to keep up with everything. Living the dream with Curveball. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And thank you for all that you do, Gary. And thank you for joining me.
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> Gary Thrapp>You betcha. Enjoyed doing it.
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> Curtis Jackson>For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, visit www.craveballuh337.com until next time, keep Living the dream.
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