The State of Play Summit aims to improve the well-being of Baltimore's youth

BALTIMORE – Under Armor and the Aspen Institute are teaming up for the State of Play Summit.

It is an annual sports conference that highlights the importance of youth sports since, according to their study, only about half of children in the United States currently play sports.

Summit organizers are working to improve the state of youth athletics.

Project Play is all about youth sports and they are working to get more kids involved and they are using Baltimore as a blueprint.

Dwitt Doss is the athletic director. at Edmondson Westside High School, so he knows sports can have a big impact on a child's life.

“Getting them involved in more than one sport or more than one activity increases the likelihood that they will advance, not only in school but in life afterward,” Doss said.

That's why Doss is attending the Aspen Institute's Project Play Summit, presented by Under Armour.

“The Aspen Institute is an organization that we hired back in 2017 to do a landscape analysis for us on the state of youth sports here in Baltimore,” said Blake Maciel, director of Project Rampart at Under Armour. “This report highlighted all the successes our young people enjoyed, but also highlighted many of the injustices they faced.”

The research from Under Armor and Aspen tracks the progress Baltimore is making to expand and get more kids involved in the sport.

“Through this research, we were able to develop the innovative solutions now known as 'Project Rampart,' and this is our opportunity to study student-athletes at the high school level in public schools and charter schools across the city in order to help them from “Being able to support everything from facilities to uniforms to leadership development,” said Flynn Burch, director of global community impact at Under Armour.

Investment and growth has already occurred in youth recreational leagues and middle and high school sports.

“We actually worked with the school district to implement a middle school strategy that they put in place – the 8th District introduced sports last year in the 2023-2024 school year for all 80-plus schools here, K-8 here in Baltimore City.” said Maciel.

“They invested money and resources. It goes into our gyms, into the facilities and into the equipment and uniforms of our student-athletes,” Doss explained. “Just being a part of this whole thing and growing our athletics in Baltimore City — it’s been a blessing.”

As for what's next, Under Armor and the Aspen Institute plan to share what they're doing here in Baltimore with other places across the country.