Rick Collins is a high school coach who doesn't want a feeder program. Head Coach of girls' varsity track and field at Simsbury (Conn.) High School, Collins is also a fourth-grade teacher, and has begun a crusade to change the culture of youth sports not only in his town, but throughout his state and perhaps the nation. His main complaint is that youth sports, no matter how well intentioned, have come to focus on the early-blooming talented elite to the detriment of just about all kids.

Collins contends that youngsters who don't make travel or other elite teams in the preteen years--before they're physically and psychologically able to excel--usually give up on sports. They miss out on the benefits of athletic competition and end up not bothering to try out when they get to high school, just when their athletic potential may come into its own. At the same time, many youngsters who do make elite squads are burned out by the time they reach the age where high-level competition is more appropriate. It's a system that ends up serving no one well, except perhaps those who run elite teams and camps.

"If I'm a 7-year-old kid," Collins says, "and an adult tells me, 'Right now, you're not good enough,' it takes a special child with a tremendous amount of self-esteem and maturity to overcome that."

Collins has begun speaking throughout Connecticut to anyone who will listen, but his main target is municipal youth boards. He wants them to de-emphasize or eliminate travel squads for children younger than age 11 in favor of leveled sports programs that emphasize learning each sport along with teamwork, fair play, and fun.

To set an example, he runs a youth track program that requires kids to be nine years old and meets for only an hour a week. The kids learn the basics of each event and compete in relay teams. The approach has helped him garner more turnout for his high school program, he believes, by simply introducing the sport to young children without asking them to compete in a way that's not appropriate for their age.

Another goal for Collins is to get scholastic athletic administrators to start preaching the same message. "Athletic directors have a tremendous amount of leverage, because they control access to facilities," he says. "They're in a great position to help change the culture of youth sports."