Andrea Vest Ettekal is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development. She earned a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry from Kent State University (Kent, OH) and both her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ). Currently, she is Project Director of a project titled “Evaluating the Positive Coaching Alliance Model: Developing Competitors of Character” funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Andrea has special expertise in youth out-of-school time (OST) programs with a focus on adolescents' sport participation.

Here, Andrea explains the value of athletes playing multiple sports. Quite simply, the more varied the experience of a youth or high school athlete, the wider range of challenges faced, and therefore the greater likelihood of acquiring a wider variety of life lessons.