Fred Engh

Fred Engh is the founder, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) and the International Alliance for Youth Sports (IAYS).

Mr. Engh has devoted his life to helping children develop emotionally and physically through the medium of sports. He has been involved in youth sports for more than 40 years as a coach, athletic director and sports educator, and he is one of the world’s leading experts in the youth sports field.

He believes that sports are the “outdoor classroom of life” where positive experiences can make life-altering differences for children. Through the years he has focused his efforts on creating programs and initiatives to help ensure that all children who choose to participate are able to savor fun-filled and safe experiences in whatever sport that interests them while also creating programs for children in regions of the world where opportunities for healthy activities don’t exist.

He is frequently interviewed by national and international media on all aspects of youth sports and issues pertaining to positive child development and he is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences regarding youth sports. He has spoken at the Pre-Olympic Symposium in Greece and the International Forum on Sport in Qatar, among others.

He is the award winning author of Unsinkable Spirit and Why Johnny Hates Sports, a first-of-its-kind look at the serious problems plaguing organized sports and, more importantly, what needs to be done to correct them. He has been named one of America’s Top 100 sports educators, he is a member of the Youth Sports Hall of Fame and he was elected to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Sports Hall of Fame, among many other prestigious awards.

He grew up in Ocean City, Maryland and is a graduate of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He is the father of seven children and resides in West Palm Beach, Florida with his wife Michaele.