Ten New Year’s Resolutions for Football Parents
Another youth football season is in the books. With the holidays over, spring conditioning up next, and then summer camps around the corner, it’s a good time to reflect back on what worked, what didn’t, and set some football parenting resolutions for a productive 2014 football season. In this ten-part series, I’ll list some ideas from my experience as a youth football coach and divorce attorney:
#1 Align Goals: Not every kid plays football for the same reason. For some it is a passion. For others, it’s a chance to hang out with friends. Ask questions. Find out why your youth-athlete wants to play and then align your goals to support their goals. It doesn’t matter if you were all-state or a support player back in the day because this is their season. Football is just not the sport to force on a kid; being tentative gets players hurt.
On the other hand, if they are passionate about football they must play through the end of the season after committing to the team and creating time and financial expenses on the parents. Communicate this expectation in advance.
