A nationally recognized expert on youth sports will speak at West Virginia University Wednesday, March 19.

Dan Gould, director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University, will give a talk at 7 p.m. at the Erickson Alumni Center as part of WVU s School of Physical Educations 75th anniversary celebration.

The 45-minute presentation,Positive Youth Development Through Sport: Fact or Fallacy,will be followed by a question-and-answer session. The presentation is free and open to the public; seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Dan has a great ability to use applied research and to help coaches and students understand how the information can be useful to them in their work,said Kristen Dieffenbach, an assistant professor in athletic coaching education at WVU .Having him visit the University to speak is a great honor and a great opportunity for our students to be exposed to one of the top people in the field of sport psychology and youth sport development.

Gould, who is recognized among the most influential sports educators in the United States by the Institute for International Sport, is a professor in Michigan States Department of Kinesiology. His efforts focus on providing leadership, scholarship and outreach to transform the face of youth sports.

Gould has worked with the U.S. ski team, numerous Olympic athletes and NASCAR pit crews. He served on the United States Olympic Coaching Development, Sport Science and Technology, and USTA Sport Science and Coaching committees. He also served as president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

His current research focuses on the role parents play in junior tennis, how coaches teach life skills to young athletes and assessments of the most pressing issues involved in high school sports.

Gould has been honored as the USA Wrestling Person of the Year for his sport science work. He was the first Australian sport psychology scholar and was named one of the top 10 U.S. sport psychology specialists in the 1980s.

For more information about his presentation or the School of Physical Educations 75th anniversary celebration, call 304-293-3295 ext. 5251.