Articles
Safety Coach
My memories of being a volunteer coach of my kids’ teams rarely involve anything to do with the sport I was coaching. Sure, I remember some of the conversations with players after a particularly fun game, certain kids making great plays, and those times when one of my lesser-skilled players rose to the occasion and did something in a game that he had struggled with throughout the season.
Sidelining Spectators
On a recent drive to work, I decided to write a column about the importance of coaches and administrators knowing about heat illness and how to help prevent it in youth sports. Living in South Florida, I always found the subject intriguing.
Hold coaches to the same standards for safety and uniformity
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.”
Attacking Adversity
One of the great exercises that the National Alliance for Youth Sports offers in its Academy for Youth Sports Administrators is to make a list of all the reasons that sports are great for kids. We’ve done this with groups hundreds of times through the years, and the lists are nearly identical.
Part Of The Team
One of my most vivid memories of being a volunteer coach came on the last day of coaching my daughter’s 5- and 6-year-old soccer team years ago. I had never played soccer, but the team needed coaches, and I was really interested in applying some of the things I had learned in working almost 10 years for an organization dedicated to improving the volunteer youth-sports coaching experience.
Savor Setbacks
One of my most memorable youth-sports coaching experiences was the first season I coached my son in T-ball. Having played baseball my entire life, I couldn’t wait to coach the sport I loved so much.
Time To Update
The biggest challenge for an organization that offers online education or training almost certainly is making sure the information and curriculum are up-to-date. Even for a subject that may seem simple, like youth sports, the amount of change can be overwhelming.
Break Body-Image Barriers
Lately, I have been lucky enough to view some of the interviews the National Alliance for Youth Sports is collecting from top experts for a free, new training that will be offered to coaches, parents, and youth leaders, which deals with understanding good mental-health habits. One of the areas of discussion is how boys deal with body image in sports, and the staggering figures on how many are encountering difficulties, just as many girls have for so long.
Matters Of The Mind
These days, there seems to be much talk about mental-health challenges in the world of sports. Watching Simone Biles in the Summer Games struggle with her confidence, and then watching almost the same thing happen to Mikaela Shiffrin in the Winter Games—two of our countries’ most-celebrated athletes at the Olympics—was a real eye opener.
Duty Of Care
As spring sports begin, it’s important to examine the policies and processes in recruiting and signing up volunteers. The National Alliance for Youth Sports’ professional-administrator training course advocates “building a shield” to protect organizations from allegations, and participants from harm.
Make Inclusion A First Thought
After listening to a presentation on inclusion by Krista Rappoccio from Move United at the most recent Youth Sports Congress, I remembered one of my favorite volunteer youth-coaching experiences. It was the last season my daughter played in recreational soccer.
Alternative Programming
This year marked the 20th anniversary of NAYS’ annual Youth Sports Congress. It was great to be able to travel again with staff members to San Antonio, Texas, and see so many dedicated recreational professionals face to face.
Valuing Volunteers
With the exception of 2020, which wiped out youth sports, one of my favorite moments each year is reviewing the final applications from the NAYS volunteer coach- and parent-of-the-year nominations. Applications come in from around the world from member organizations on almost every U.S. military installation that organizes youth sports.
A Worthy Investment
I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and came across a great post that reminds us why the job of a youth-sports administrator is so incredibly important. The post was shared by one of my life-long friends who had three children who played sports throughout their childhoods, and one played in college.
Explanations On An Elevator
One of the great lessons I learned from my dad, who founded the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) in 1981, is that, if someone asks what you do on a elevator, you should be able to explain it before getting off on the next floor.
Creating Positive Experiences
“Yes, I was upset over a bad call, but I would never fistfight anyone in front of kids! I will stand up for my team 10/10 times, and you tell me one coach who wouldn’t.” This quote is from a recent article on another alarming youth-sports incident—this one involving as many as a dozen parents and coaches fighting on a baseball field full of 5- and 6-year-old T-ball players in Kentucky.
Scary Scenarios
When you think about youth sports, the first vision might be of kids with big smiles running up and down a field chasing a soccer ball. Or, maybe you see parents in the stands at a basketball game cheering loudly when a boy or girl makes a free throw for the first time.
Heat-Related Illness Protection
Only a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to direct a video shoot with Martin McNair at the Xfinity Center on the University of Maryland campus in College Park. Martin, or “Marty” as he is widely known, is the father of Jordan McNair, a highly recruited Division One football player, who ultimately chose the University of Maryland to pursue his athletic and academic dreams.
Stepping Up With Safer Programs
I recently read of a case in Northern California where the well-known founder of a youth soccer league was arrested for allegedly molesting a couple of boys.While reading about yet another twisted
Sizing Up Scoring
If you poll recreation professionals on the Top 10 issues they face in youth-sports programming, everything from parent behavior to coachesХ background checks make that list.And near the top of that l