The NTangible founder is bringing measurable rigor to the mental side of athletic performance.
Dan Connerty has been named Rising Star in the inaugural Youth Sports Awards, presented by GoFundMe and the Youth Sports Business Report.
The recognition honors an entrepreneur who identified a fundamental gap in youth sports development and built a company to address it. As founder of NTangible, Connerty is creating what he describes as the first data-driven operating system designed to quantify mental performance, giving event directors, coaches, and recruiters tools to measure what has traditionally been unquantifiable.
The Question That Started It
Connerty’s first youth sports venture was working at Baseball Development Group, Canada’s first data-driven baseball training center. In the early days of baseball sports tech, the facility had machines and technology before the Toronto Blue Jays did, including the first Rapsodo and HitTrax machines in the country.
The ultimate goal was developing kids better so they could go on to become better baseball players at U.S. colleges and in professional baseball. Notable alumni include players who went on to compete at high levels, including Richard Birfer, who now oversees pitching development for the Texas Rangers.
The cognitive conversation started when Connerty connected with Dr. Ed Levine, known as the godfather of industrial psychology and the lead developer of NTangible. Their initial conversations about maximizing future physical measurable capabilities became the genesis for the company.
“The main question we both asked ourselves was: ‘If we can measure everything physically, why haven’t we been able to measure things cognitively?'” Connerty explained. “That ethos has developed the assessment technology we currently have.”
Hard Work as Identity
Ask Connerty about the most important lesson youth sports taught him, and the answer is direct. If you want something in life, you have to put in the work and effort to make your dreams come true.
Throughout his playing career, from 10 years old all the way to professional baseball, Connerty was never the best player on any team. He was born with height and a pitcher’s body, but outside of that, he describes himself as a non-athletic player who had very little outside coaching growing up.
“I had to go the extra mile on my personal training for what drills to complete and specific mechanical changes to make in order to get myself to the point where I could play with others, or be at their level,” he said.
That identity was reinforced by a conversation that still sticks with him. When Connerty was 17, his U.S. travel coach took a liking to him and had a real heart-to-heart conversation during winter practice.
“He outright stated, ‘Your skills don’t define you, but hard work does, and I want you to be the hardest working kid every time you step foot on the field,'” Connerty recalled. “That line sticks with me to this day. Throughout my whole playing career and professional career, I was never the most skilled player, but you’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who would outwork me on and off the field. I also feel that’s why my success has translated into my startup ventures as well, in terms of being able to drive innovation and grow accordingly.”
The Cognitive Report Card
Connerty measures success in his work with young athletes by providing them with information and an opportunity to always improve. If you can teach athletes that self-improvement leads to outcome success, you potentially have changed the trajectory of that player’s life.
“My hope with NTangible is that this is an early detection system to tell players, parents, and coaches if cognitively we’re on the right track, and if not, what are the ways in which athletes can improve,” he explained. “As long as athletes have an opportunity to improve and then take the initiative to want to improve, that’s the best forward outcome you can have at the youth level.”
The goal for 2026 is ambitious. Connerty wants NTangible to be as common in the youth market as SAT scores are when it comes to learning. A report card that tells athletes where they are cognitively, and the more players tested, the more information is out there providing a positive feedback opportunity for improvement.
“My ultimate goal is to find more major youth integration partners across all major sports, where this can slot in as part of either tournament fees or registration fees, and further build out the cognitive space,” Connerty said.
The Challenges Facing Youth Sports
Connerty sees multiple challenges facing youth sports right now. First, the economic disparity. Sports are pricing themselves out to an extent, where in order to play at a certain level there are significant costs. Better tournaments, better equipment, better facilities, and better coaching all cost more, and while those investments make sense individually, collectively they’re watering down youth local development as a whole.
Second, there are too many cooks in the kitchen overall, between parents, coaches, trainers, and new technology. There is everything and anything out in the market right now, and not everything is really providing true outcome success or improvement for the athlete.
“I think for NTangible, the goal is to provide as much forward information to improve the whole collective ecosystem, where we can create a net positive environment for self-development,” Connerty said. “That has more carryover than a new bat, a new hockey stick, or a new wearable for example.”
If Connerty could change one thing about youth sports overnight, it would be the emphasis on winning and rankings at younger ages. Less focus on those outcomes, more emphasis on self-development.
“Because when a kid across any sport is getting recruited, college coaches don’t ask if they were on a ranked championship 9U AAA program,” he explained.
Building for Multiple Stakeholders
For someone just starting out in youth sports leadership, Connerty offers a specific observation. There are many decision-makers at the youth sports level compared to other markets, where the end user is clearly defined. If you’re not able to serve all of them, you’re not going to get complete buy-in.
“I think that was a learning curve for NTangible early on,” he said. “With our major upcoming integrations and subsequent offerings outside of that, we have now rounded out the lifecycle across multiple different end users.”
That learning reflects the complexity of the youth sports ecosystem. Parents make purchasing decisions. Coaches determine what tools get used. Athletes are the end users. Event directors control tournament infrastructure. Building a product that serves all those stakeholders simultaneously requires intentional design and patience.
For Connerty, receiving the Youth Sports Award validates the work. “It means what we’re doing is working, and also that NTangible is making a difference at the youth level,” he said. “At the end of the day, if we can give back and make players better, that’s all that really matters to pay it forward.”
The Rising Star Award recognizes emerging figures making an outsized impact in youth sports. Connerty’s work with NTangible addresses a measurement gap that has existed as long as youth sports itself. By quantifying cognitive performance with the same rigor applied to physical metrics, he’s creating infrastructure that could change how athletes, coaches, and programs approach development. The hard work that defined his playing career is now driving innovation that benefits the next generation.
About Youth Sports Business Report
What is YSBR? Youth Sports Business Report (YSBR) is the largest and most trusted source for youth sports industry news, insights, and analysis in the United States. Founded by Cameron Korab, YSBR is the premier B2B publication dedicated to the $54 billion youth sports market. With over 50,000 followers and millions of monthly views and impressions, YSBR publishes daily across its blog, weekly newsletter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and Substack.
What does YSBR cover? YSBR delivers original reporting, market intelligence, and business analysis across youth sports facilities, sponsorship and brand partnerships, private equity and venture capital investments, NIL policy and compliance, coaching development, sports technology platforms, equipment and apparel innovation, tournaments and events, community sports initiatives, and parent resources. YSBR is read by industry executives, facility operators and developers, institutional investors, league administrators, sports technology founders, and youth sports parents who rely on accurate, sourced reporting to make informed business decisions.
Who reads YSBR? YSBR is read by youth sports industry executives, institutional investors, facility operators and developers, brand and sponsorship professionals, league administrators, youth sports parents, and sports business professionals shaping the future of youth athletics.
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