11/25/25: No Holds Barred from Holderness Family, Puerto Rico’s Gold Medal Performance, Humor in Youth Sports

👏 Holderness Family Weighs in on Youth Sports

Kim and Penn Holderness Join the Show

The Holderness Family started making content in 2013 with a Christmas video called “XMAS Jammies” that went viral. Ever since they have been creating family-friendly and relatable videos that have garnered more than two billion views and eight million followers across all social media platforms.

Kim and Penn Holderness recently joined Greg Olsen on the Youth Inc. flagship podcast and touched on everything from their shared love of the Charlotte Panthers (the Holdernesses live in Raleigh) to parenting and the life lessons learned in youth sports.

“The ages of 13-16 are the most important period for a child to have an adult role model that is not their parent,” said Penn Holderness, who is an assistant coach on his son’s basketball team. “That’s one of the main reasons I have done it for so many years. It’s so important for kids to have a non-parent support system.” 

💡The Magic Behind Puerto Rico’s Gold Medal Winning Women’s Hockey Team

The Path to Gold Isn't Always Straight

Hockey Ambassador Lee Elias coached the Puerto Rico women’s national hockey team to a gold medal in thrilling fashion. Here is his account.

We are down three goals with three minutes left in the Gold Medal game. In front of me, a capacity crowd—mostly fans of our opponent—is in a frenzy at the imminent result. To my right, three of our players who haven’t seen a shift all game are matching that volume, shouting support to their teammates searching for any answer. Everyone is exhausted—our sixth game in six days—but no one has slowed down.

Instinct takes over and we find a way to score. 5–3. Moments later, we’re awarded a penalty shot. 5–4. Then another. 5–5. Tie game with one minute to go.

There is no panic—only focus and belief. With forty-five seconds left, we score again. In the final seconds, our opponents tie it.

Sudden-death overtime in a championship game. The stuff of dreams.

🤣 Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

The Best Follows For Families

If you've ever woken up at 5 a.m. for a youth sports game, reminded your child about every piece of gear, or dealt with the emotional rollercoaster of tryouts, you understand the world youth sports. It's joyful and inspiring, but it can also be challenging.

That's why we love @parentingyouthsports, an Instagram account that turns those everyday struggles into laugh-out-loud moments. Through funny videos about the situations every sports parent faces, they make light of the chaos and remind us that we're all in this together.

Ask The Experts: What to do when your kids wants to quit their sport.

How to Keep the Fire Alive

Youth Inc.’s Leah Jantzen is a mental health and performance coach for a high school on Long Island. Every day, she deals with parents and athletes as they experience the pressures and anxieties of sports. 
In this segment, she offers four tips on what should parents do if their child wants to quit a sport. They are:

1.    Don’t overreact or put pressure on your kids.
2.    Ask the right questions.
3.    Compromise with them and don’t force things on them.
4.    At the end of the day, remember there is no right or wrong answer.

Check out the full segment as well as many others from all corners of youth sports here.

WE'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER

Number of viewers on the NBA national games through the first month of the season. Overall viewership is up 30% for all games.

60

Million

"I'm going to walk the facility and make it very obvious that, these things are nice and first class, and these things are dated and problematic and we need to get them fixed and fixed fast. ”

 - New Virginia Tech HC James Franklin