Young at Heart (and at Sport)

Sport is a universal language of sorts, but it carries considerably more meaning in some corners of the world. This project explores youth sports in every corner of the globe - and the impact (good and bad) it has on young lives.

From high school football fields in Texas to soccer pitches in rural England and from cricket grounds in India to makeshift ice hockey rinks in Canada, sports can often define the lives of boys and girls around the world.

For some, it's all fun and games. Mom and dad come to cheer at a Little League game in California; for others, the pressure is more intense.

This photographic project would present the two extremes - and the bulk of young lives that live between them - without making a judgment about which road is right.

The goal would be to take a broad look at how cultures train elite young athletes (think Chinese sports academies or professionally-affiliated soccer schools in Europe) all the way down to the t-ball games in which nobody keeps score, but everybody wins at the pizza parlor after the game.

It'll take you inside the minds of the children and teens from cultures primitive to ultra-modern, and show how, ultimately, sport is sport is sport, when you get right down to it - whether that soccer ball is being kicked around a dusty abandoned lot in northern Africa or the manicured greens of U.S. Soccer's academy in Bradenton, Fla.

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