Youth sport in the United States is shaped by diverse practices and principles (e.g., competition, positive development), and youth sport leaders face numerous demands while defining, pursuing, and measuring organizational performance. Although numerous researchers have focused on leadership styles and organizational effectiveness, little research has been designed to examine sport leaders’ perceptions related to decision-making. Accordingly, the present study was designed to explore youth sport leaders’ perspectives and decision-making processes related to the design and delivery of youth sport and framed within the integrated model of the youth sport system (Dorsch et al., 2022). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 youth sport leaders across the western United States and were analyzed using modified qualitative analysis (Kalpokaite and Radivojevic, 2019). Participants revealed how perceptions of proximal and distal influences shaped the design and delivery of youth sport in their communities. Findings suggest that youth sport remains an unregulated competitive and developmental context for youth. Future work should be designed to investigate the many ways community leaders identify and negotiate barriers and opportunities to leverage youth sport as a developmental context and how those processes vary across clubs, communities, and cultures.