2026 MOSHAPE Kaleidoscope of Kindness

Jessica Kassel, registered dietitian and nutrition educator with the St. Louis District Dairy Council, will explore the basic nutrition needs of adolescent athletes and how including dairy in the athlete's eating plan can help with recovery and hydration. She will also discuss Dairy Up!, an SLDDC grant program that helps coaches provide dairy foods for athlete recovery after games and practices.

We don't expect athletes to master a physical skill without practice, so why do we expect them to automatically master focus and resilience? This session challenges the traditional, physical-only approach to training. Coaches will discover how to intentionally integrate the mental game into their current regimens, backed by real-world examples and actionable session blueprints used successfully with athletes.

While high school athletic administrators play a key role in developing young student-athletes, research has also noted concerns within organized youth sport settings such as increased emphasis on winning, increased costs, athlete mental health, and increased pressure on athletes to specialize. Such evolving concerns have also contributed to negative outcomes associated with growing demands of the athletic administrator position among which include elevated stress, burnout, and turnover rates of high school athletic and activity directors. Examining administrators’ perceptions of concerns within interscholastic sports provides valuable insights into general youth sport issues at large. This project examined the perceptions of Missouri high school athletic and activity directors regarding interscholastic sports, with a focus on their perceptions of current challenges, participation trends, and emerging concerns. Attendees will learn insights about noted athletic director concerns within Missouri interscholastic sports, and session time will be devoted to discussing solutions to noted issues.

Ever wonder how you can merge summer camp experience, coaching, and sport and exercise psychology into a teaching/coaching philosophy? One of Missouri State University's 2026 Teaching Excellence Award winners, Dr. Keith McShan, will share how his CARE Bears teaching/coaching philosophy enhances student/player learning and enjoyment. “CARE” stands for Coach-Athlete Relationship and Environments (i.e., caring and creating mastery experiences). The "Care Bears" all together draw inspiration from the television show The Care Bears, focusing on creating fun in sports/the classroom. The CARE Bears teaching/coaching philosophy values quality relationships, positive, fun, and mastery environments. Participants who attend this interactive session will leave with research-backed practices and practical tools that have been shown to engage, motivate, and excite students and athletes in and out of the classroom, helping them excel academically and athletically.