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.
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.”
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.
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.
Drug-Testing Volunteer Coaches
The Tennessee State Soccer Association--the state’s largest youth soccer organization, with more than 40,000 players ages 4 to 19 and roughly 600 select coaches--has implemented a drug-testing program
It’s All In The Approach
Usually in this space, I write about specific issues that challenge youth-sports administrators. And, in many cases, some negative incident has occurred from which we are looking for a proper perspective and a
Cleveland Partners with the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators
CLEVELAND – Positive Coaching Alliance-Cleveland and the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (OIAAA) are pleased to announce a new partnership effective September 9. This strategic
Focusing On The Entire Season
When you hear the phrase “youth sports,” what is the first image that comes to mind? Maybe it’s a bunch of kids in uniforms running up and down a soccer field. Or maybe it is parents and
Communication Control
I recently received a call from a reporter who was investigating a court case in New Jersey involving a coach and a former player. At the heart of the matter were communications
Facing Fears
As the founder of the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS), I’ve been asked many times, “How is it that you were the first youth-sports organization in America to require coaches to go through a certification program?”