Coaching juniors–In the old days, at a parents meeting I overheard a school football coach say-“Stay away from the field. I am the coach and I refuse to talk any of you until the season is over.”
My thought was that Coach had better be winning. If not they will have some trouble. Here are some of the things that all team coaches, high school, college, and beyond should know.
1. Many times the parents can be your best advocate or your worst nightmare.
2. You cannot control parents by telling them to stay away. You also had better be as good as the coaches the athletes have had in the past. If you are technically inexperienced, you will be in big trouble. Both parents and coaches will know it immediately. (flip side-many athletes never know what a good coach is because they never had one)
3. Learn your craft. Instead of shutting out coaches who know more, try to learn from them. Accept that you do not know it all but set out to learn; not dictate!
4. Partner with parents–gasp–what? Yes, parents want the same thing you want-the best for their kids and of course ultimately, winning! That is why we keep score, by the way!
5. Realize you are coaching minors. They are not adults. They make mistakes; lots of them. Be careful treating them as adults.
6. Be curfew strict–and other such rules–do not try to be “cool coach”! Cool coaches fail and in the long run are not respected.
7. Be ready to put the hammer down. If you have to discipline someone; do it! Do not procrastinate! One example stops 50 more from happening. The pain of one disciplinary action to one superstar will be respected; maybe not liked!
8. Communicate regularly. You should call on the phone or approach all players at tournaments you are responsible for. Some players are easy to like and others might be harder. If you got to know that hard headed kid, you might actually like them!
9. Do not judge your players. I hate this phrase “bad kid”. Know what I hate more? “Good kid”–both tags say something and both tags are wrong–they are kids!
10. Understand appropriateness. Swear words, adult type conversations, and boyfriend girlfriend type of stuff is not only inappropriate, it can be grounds for dismissal.
11. This goes for Administration also! Remember what happened to the administrators at various colleges when they covered up criminal behavior of trainers and coaches?
Hope this helps folks working with kids!