Key Takeaways
- Steel Sports’ 2025 Impact Report covers a fifth consecutive year of athlete, coach, and parent surveys, with the underlying data set independently validated by Dr. Joseph Walker at the University of North Texas.
- 100% of Steel athletes graduate from high school and 97% enroll in college, compared to national averages of 87% and 61%, respectively.
- 95% of athletes score good or excellent on Core Values (Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, Commitment), holding consistent for a fourth straight year.
- 93% of athletes value Free Play, up from 90% in 2024 and 76% in 2023, with communication and responsibility cited as the top skills developed.
- Over 88% of Steel athletes score proficient or better on adapted Positive Mental Health indicators, compared to 67.8% of US college students in the cited benchmark study.
Steel Sports has released its 2025 Impact Report, marking the fifth consecutive year of athlete, parent, and coach measurement built around its Lasorda Way coaching system. The data set was independently reviewed and validated by Dr. Joseph Walker of the Kinesiology, Health Promotion, and Recreation Department at the University of North Texas, attaching external academic review to a body of measurement that has become central to the organization’s product identity.
How Steel Sports Built Its Platform: Origins, Programs, and Reach
Steel Sports was founded in 2011 by Warren Lichtenstein, Executive Chairman of Steel Partners, after he was introduced to Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda in 2009. The organization was started out of an office at Dodger Stadium and has grown into a multi-sport youth platform that reaches approximately 100,000 athletes per year.
The Steel Sports Coaching System, branded as The Lasorda Way, was developed to formalize Lasorda’s coaching philosophy into a repeatable system grounded in the four Core Values of Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, and Commitment. Lasorda was a key contributor to the system until his death in 2021.
Steel Sports operates several program lines. Steel United is the organization’s soccer brand with regional clubs competing in league and tournament play. Team Steel is the baseball arm, with regional clubs and a National Program competing at the elite level. Kids First Camps deliver free community sports programming in markets where Steel Partners operates. Lasorda Legacy Park in Yaphank, NY, formerly Baseball Heaven, is a seven-field baseball and softball complex that hosts the National Youth Baseball Championships and draws over 250,000 visiting families each year.
Martin Brown has served as President and CEO since June 2020, bringing more than two decades of industry experience. The Steel Sports Advisory Board has included former MLB managers Bobby Valentine and Dusty Baker, Dodgers great Eric Karros, USWNT World Cup and Olympic champion Julie Foudy, and basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman.
Steel Sports operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Steel Partners, a diversified global holding company headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Steel Partners extends the Kids First philosophy across its portfolio through team sponsorships, free youth camps, and community-based investments in the United States and globally.
Independent Validation From UNT Anchors the Fifth-Year Data Set
In January 2026, Dr. Walker and Shahaf Bareni examined the survey instrument’s reliability and validity through an applied student investigation project. The review tested internal consistency, test-retest consistency, split-data comparative consistency, and inter-item correlation across the Team Survey and Player Survey. Walker’s conclusion was that the core questions demonstrated consistency and that the instrument captures accurate and correct information.
The methodology draws from six data streams: athlete self-evaluations (1,300 respondents), coach evaluations (2,300 responses), parent team surveys (1,300), facilities and events surveys (1,000), Kids First Camp surveys (300), and anonymous regional feedback forums. Surveys are run after tournaments, camps, and full seasons across Steel United (soccer), Team Steel (baseball), and Steel’s National Program.
External academic review of internal impact data is uncommon among youth sports operators. Most claims in the sector rely on selected testimonials or unverified internal data. Steel’s investment in third-party academic validation separates the program’s claims from broader category marketing.
Athlete Development Metrics Hold Steady Year Over Year
Several core indicators have held consistent across multiple years of measurement. 95% of Steel athletes score good or excellent on the four Core Values, with Teamwork at 96%, Respect at 93%, Integrity at 97%, and Commitment at 94%. 89% score good or excellent on combined Grit and Growth Mindset, while 93% report excellent practice attendance and 97% report excellent game attendance.
Academic outcomes outpace national benchmarks. 100% of Steel athletes graduate from high school compared to the national average of 87%, and 97% of Steel high school graduates enroll in college versus 61% nationally. 22% of Steel athletes go on to play sports at the college level, well above the NCAA and NFHS baseline of roughly 7% varsity participation and under 2% Division I participation.
On the philanthropy side, Steel distributed $110,000 in financial aid across 123 athletes, averaging $910 per athlete, with $25,000 of that funded by the Steel Sports Foundation. Athletes and coaches logged 10,000 community service hours, donated 4,000 items, and raised $35,000 for charity over the year.
Free Play Scores Climb for a Third Consecutive Year
Free Play, an unstructured period at the start of each training session in which athletes self-govern, continues to be one of the most consistently improving metrics in the report. 93% of Steel athletes value their Free Play experience, up from 90% in 2024 and 76% in 2023. The 2025 sample recorded zero negative scores.
When asked which skills they develop through Free Play, athletes ranked communication (84%), responsibility (56%), leadership (45%), negotiation (29%), and delegation (21%). For three straight years, athletes have identified athletic development, competing, and having fun as the top three reasons they play.
The Free Play emphasis aligns with growing concern across pediatric and child development research about declining unstructured play time. A 2023 review in the Journal of Pediatrics, cited in the report, links the decline in independent activity to rising adolescent anxiety and frames free play as a protective factor for emotional regulation and resilience.
Core Competencies Map to Positive Mental Health Indicators
Steel does not collect clinical mental health data. Instead, the organization tracks seven Core Competencies that map to recognized characteristics of positive mental health: Confidence, Self-Control, Positivity, Leadership, Humility, Concentration, and Openness to Constructive Criticism.
2025 athlete scores on these competencies: Humility 90%, Positivity 88%, Self-Control 85%, Concentration 82%, Leadership 81%, Openness to Constructive Criticism 73%, and Confidence 71%. Confidence remains the lowest-scoring competency, which the report attributes to the inherently developmental nature of self-belief rather than a coaching gap.
When the Core Competency data is mapped to comparable Positive Mental Health indicators, over 88% of Steel athletes score proficient or better. A benchmark cited in the report, drawn from a study of 3,300 US college students, found 67.8% scoring good on the Positive Mental Health scale. The report frames this as a directional comparison rather than a one-to-one match.
The trust dimension also showed strength. 88% of athletes report a high overall trust score with their coach. Subcomponents include 97% openness to constructive criticism, 96% happiness with less worry, and 90% enjoyment of challenge. Trust-building training within The Lasorda Way is delivered in partnership with the Search Institute through its Getting Relationships Right framework, which equips coaches with five pillars: Express Care, Challenge Growth, Provide Support, Share Power, and Expand Possibilities.
A Closed-Loop Coaching System as the Operating Differentiator
The report frames Steel’s structural differentiator as a closed-loop coaching system: train, implement, observe, refine, measure. Coaches receive online modules, live and virtual training, annual continuing education requirements, mentoring with in-person observation, and ongoing support from regional Coach Developers.
Steel Sports operates as a subsidiary of Steel Partners, a diversified holding company headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The Kids First philosophy is extended across Steel Partners’ portfolio through team sponsorships, free youth sports camps, and community-based investments in the United States and globally.
For operators across the youth sports landscape, the 2025 report offers a working benchmark on what sustained, externally validated impact measurement looks like at scale. As outcome data tied to graduation rates, mental health indicators, and athlete-reported development becomes increasingly relevant in sponsor, investor, and family decision-making, Steel’s framework, now in its sixth survey cycle, demonstrates how a coaching system can be measured, refined, and validated against external academic standards over a multi-year horizon.
Source: 2025 Steel Sports Impact Report: The Lasorda Way, Steel Sports, March 2026, https://steelsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2025-Steel-Sports-Impact-Report-FINAL.pdf
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