Hold coaches to the same standards for safety and uniformity
By John Engh
There is a feature on the National Alliance for Youth Sports website (www.nays.org) available for parents to report a coach who is behaving badly. The feature is called, you guessed it, “Report a Coach.”
Styves Exantus / Pexels
Unfortunately, the feature is getting far more use than we ever imagined.
And some of the reports are beyond alarming.
The latest complaint was about a coach (one of ours) who became frustrated because he believed his girls’ basketball team was being treated roughly and being constantly fouled. The complaint noted that the coach instructed his daughter, who played on the team, to “punch the other team’s players in the face” if they continued to foul. While his daughter either didn’t listen to those instructions or have the opportunity to do so, one of the other girls did and punched an opposing player.
The complaint form has a provision to add witnesses, and apparently a few came forward. The coach’s penalty from the game officials? A technical foul!
Part Of The Solution
Since youth-sports administrators can’t be everywhere at once, it’s impossible to have staff members present at each game. The complaint form enables parents to alert program leaders that a serious problem needs to be addressed. The form allows a parent to anonymously send a complaint to the administrator who oversees the permits for facility use, so the situation can be reviewed and a decision made.
We included this feature as part of the Coach Accountability plan for those trained using our program to enforce the NAYS Coach Code of Ethics. If a person clearly should not be coaching children, the information is forwarded to the member organization that will then decide if a coach’s status should be revoked.
Even though the complaint form is solely intended to monitor coaches in the NAYS system, parents can still vent about the behavior of other coaches. Typically, NAYS will send a note to the administrator of that league as a courtesy.
A Four-Step Process
The recent complaint described above is a strong reminder of a four-step process in dealing with volunteers, which hopefully ensures children won’t be put at serious risk:
1. Conduct background checks and proper screening.
2. Train coaches properly for their role, and make sure they understand the philosophy of the program.
3. Conduct evaluations so volunteers will understand if they are meeting expectations, and if not, where they need to improve. Coaches who genuinely care will welcome the feedback and the chance to enhance their skills.
4. Hold everyone accountable. Adults who act inappropriately should not be coaching children. And since administrators don’t see everything and can’t be everywhere, parents and spectators need to be a part of the process.
Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a negative incident like the one above to remind administrators to be proactive and to hold people accountable.
John Engh is executive director of the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) in West Palm Beach, Fla. He can be reached via email at jengh@nays.org. To join more than 3,000 communities by starting a NAYS Member Organization, visit www.nays.org, email nays@nays.org or call (800) 729-2057.