Kids say the darnest things.

They’ll speak from the heart and tell it to you straight.

So as the Coaching Maine Youth to Success initiative gathers its findings this summer, it is the voice of kids that echo loudest of all.

“The kids have been pretty strong in their view about the need for adults to behave appropriately,” said J. Duke Albanese, co-director of the University of Maine Coaching and Sport Education Initiative. “They have been pretty consistent in saying that we need to get to some (parents), not all of them, and that they make it pretty hard on them as athletes.”

The initiative’s select panel has been talking to students, coaches, administrators, officials and many others that share a part in today’s high school sports scene. Their mission has been to reveal what works and what doesn’t. The opinions of the athletes are what have struck the largest chord.

Albanese says the athletes strongly indicate a need for parents to act in accordance to player’s needs and that coaches must understand their sport and how to relate and reach their players.

“We all sort of see it that way but to hear it so consistently from the kids is important,” said Albanese. “The lessons from the kids are not all that shocking, but its such a consistent message.”

It’s also a message that often gets lost amidst today’s hectic lifestyles and win-at-all cost mentality. When the initiative releases its report in the fall, it hopes to show that people were listening to those concerns.

“I’m really impressed with the perspective that the student athletes had,” said Dr. Robert Cobb, the dean of the college of education and human development at UMaine and co-director of the initiative. “They understand the excesses and ultimately understand that their participation in a formal way is to be done at the end of high school. They want to have fun. They want to compete hard and develop lasting friendships with teammates and opponents. If we can all build on that perspective, we could probably make it happen more readily.”

The investigative work is done. Now the initiative is progressing toward forming core practices and principals that will make up their recommendations. When the report is released in the fall, its impact is expected to be far reaching in Maine high school sports. The hope is that it will establish a standard for high school programs to follow.

“There’s so much you want to say, but you have to be very concise,” said Cobb. “I see that as our challenge, to make the document pithy enough and substantial enough but so that it’s not daunting to coaches and policy makers.”

A writing team has been formed to help draft the report. The team includes: Albanese, Dick Card, a senior consultant at the Spurwink Institute and former Director of Teacher Education at USM and Deputy Commissioner of Education; John Wolfgram, Bowdoin assistant football coach and South Portland High School English teacher; Kay Hyatt, communication coordinator at the College of Education and Human Development and Elinor Multer, a well-known writer and editor and member of the state board of education.

The group will share their work with panel members in July and August before final reviews of the proposal in September.

“There were lots of meat and potatoes here,” said Albanese. “The key for us in the report is we have to underscore all the good things that happen in sports. We need to make sure we’re celebrating the good things that are happening in sports. That we don’t just concentrate on what needs to be fixed.”

The writing team is breaking things down into a variety of categories. They started with issues presented in surveys at the Maine Sports Summit in March – sportsmanship, health and fitness, quality of coaching, parents – and built from those. They’ve added a block of core practices for each.

“In some aspects it was a matter of consensus building and in other arenas it was what does the research say about certain things and the roles others play in these issues,” said Cobb. “It’s a combination of opinions leading to consensus and backing it up through research.”

To give the report impact, the initiative is hoping to line up partnerships that will help institute the practices. The Maine Principals Association and school administrators will play a vital role.

The Institute for Global Ethics, of Camden, will lend its credibility and expertise.

“The charge we’re giving them is how do we develop some sort of compact?” said Albanese. “It would be at the student athletes level, the coaches level and the school board level. They’ve done that sort of development all around the country.”

The Institute for Global Ethics will help create a code of conduct for various parties to follow and help implement the recommendations.

“There will be a benchmark that we’ll have in place,” said Cobb. “The pieces will come into place after that in the fall.”