Todd Merkow sits down with Skye Eddy — former Division I goalkeeper at UMass and George Mason (Final Four), briefly professional in Italy, All-American, US Soccer coach educator, founder of SoccerParenting.com and The Sideline Project, and mother of two — for a conversation that Todd calls the one he wishes he'd had when his daughters were still playing. Skye is a Title IX baby who grew up as the game was exploding, went on to coach at the national team programming level, and then discovered, when her daughter Callie started playing in a paid club environment, that being a former professional player and an active high-level coach did not make her a good sports parent. That gap — between knowing the game and knowing how to show up for your child — is what SoccerParenting.com was built to close.

Todd Merkow sits down with Joel Votaw — Arizona Soccer Association State Referee Administrator, veteran soccer referee with experience at every level of the game, sports parent of three, and a man who has spent the last 14 years watching youth sports from the one vantage point most parents never consider: the middle of the field. Joel grew up in Southern California as a multi-sport kid — swimming, water polo, soccer, skateboarding, the full SoCal menu — before life got busy, he got married young, and sports faded out. He came back to refereeing when his oldest son was 12, partly to make some extra money, mostly to find a way to spend more time around the game his family had fallen into. He never left.

Todd Merkow sits down with Christian Lavers — founder and president of the ECNL (Elite Clubs National League), former Director of Coaching and Methodology at FC Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin finance and soccer alumnus, holder of both an MBA and a law degree, and father of four young children ages four through eight. The ECNL has grown from 40 clubs and roughly 2,000 players at its founding in 2009 to more than 120,000 players across both genders today, making it one of the most significant structural forces in American youth soccer. Christian is also the host of the ECNL podcast Breaking the Line, which Todd recommends without hesitation to any sports parent — soccer or otherwise.

Todd Merkow sits down with Jonathan Carone — founder and host of Healthy Sports Parents, former youth and competitive athlete, youth sports coach, and sports parent. Jonathan describes himself as the epitome of a marginal athlete: good enough to make all-stars in rec league, never quite good enough to stick on a school team, and completely fine with that. He played rec basketball through eighth grade, a season of travel baseball, and spent his high school years not as a player but as a student coach — learning the game from the dugout, from the JV coaches, from the varsity staff, and eventually from a year as a college intern with the same high school program. He is now the PA announcer for his hometown high school baseball team, a role he first held as a senior in high school and returned to after moving back to town five years ago. His day job is marketing and web design. Healthy Sports Parents is the thing that combines all of it.

Todd Merkow sits down with Barry Buetel — longtime sports broadcaster and executive, founding broadcast host for Fox Sports Arizona's Emmy-winning Diamondbacks poolside show, former on-air host for professional teams across the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, son of a legendary Minnesota sports broadcaster, and most importantly, husband to Shannon and father of three daughters: Brittany, Lauren, and Kate. All three played soccer. Barry is one of Todd's oldest friends — they met in 1996 when they were both single guys helping launch Fox Sports Arizona, attended each other's weddings, and spent years on the same sidelines watching their daughters play together. This episode is the one where two guys who should have known better sit down and admit they didn't.