This is probably something a lot of parents will ask themselves at least once in their child’s sports career. I can personally say it comes up every year in my mind. You go to fill out the forms for your child’s registration and there’s that one box at the bottom of the paper that’s says “check this box if you are interested in volunteering to coach.” Why do so many of us just ignore it? Surprisingly most of us will judge the coaches at some point during the season, and everything they are doing wrong. So why don’t we just take charge and do it our way, or the right way.
Here are my top three reasons why parents don’t volunteer to coach….
1. They just don’t have the time. Being responsible for a team takes a lot of your “free time”. You are committed to the time frame of your season, you need to be there early when the athletes get dropped off and stay late when their ride to pick them up is running behind. It takes time to plan out a practice, reschedule a game, make sure you have enough kids to play and keep a large number of kids under watch. And yet, some parents will find the time, rearrange their work schedule and do whatever it takes to coach the team.
2. I don’t know much about that sport. This can be daunting to many parents, especially if they were never involved in sports as a child. There are so many online ideas/courses that can help anyone coach a team. The resources are out there, we just need to do our homework and search for them. It can be tough filling your ninety minute practice with enough drills or activities, but after the first couple of days it is much easier to figure out what the kids are capable of and what needs to be worked on. I’ll even admit that it took our first game to see where work was needed, so the next practice was spent in our weakness. It’s such a learning process for the athletes and the coach.
3. Why on earth would I put myself out there and have to deal with those parents? This is one of my biggest fears, dealing with that one parent. The one that approaches you and tells you all the things you did wrong. That one parent that complains the whole game from the bleachers and yells it out for all to hear. The one who wants their kid to play a new position even though their child came late to the game and missed practice. It’s a shame that some adults can act in such a way that makes you question, is it really worth it to be here and coach? Thankfully the positive parents outnumber the bad ones, and will even put them in their place from time to time. It’s good to know at the end of the day you have a great group of supporters that will stand up for you. And at the end of the day you realize it really is worth it, because Susie came up to you after the game and said, “That game was a lot of fun!”
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