That being said, there’s some basic expectations that
every sports-mom should have of her child’s coach:
Player Safety:
every coach should be certified in concussion management and there must be a
“return to play” system for when a player suffers an apparent head injury. Ask questions and get specific. Full-contact practices (football) should be
limited in amount and duration. Players should be matched up against similar
players of size and ability during practice drills.
Verbal/Physical Abuse:
There is zero tolerance for youth sports coaches with outsized, inflated
egos. Any sign of verbal or physical
abuse must be stopped and reported up immediately. The days of grabbing kids’ face masks to get
a point across are over.
Positive Experience:
The good coaches know to praise publicly and to fix problems privately. Does
the coach take five minutes at the end of each practice to teach lessons? Sports-parents should expect that some amount
of time on the practice field is spent teaching life skills. It doesn’t really matter in the long run if
the team goes winless or undefeated.
What life skills are being learned?
Kids should be learning teamwork, leadership, dealing with competition
and pressure, discipline, struggling through stages of skill development. Youth sports is simply the vehicle for
teaching the above.
Communication with Parents: It is the responsibility of the head coach to communicate the “how” and “when” to address any issues. Respect the coaches’ office hours. Also understand that most head coaches expect parents to discuss issues like playing time, positions, and other personnel decisions directly with the head coach. It is bad, bad form for sports-parents to blast away at volunteer assistant coaches regarding playing time.
