I’ve been a coach for 25 years and one of the biggest changes I’ve seen in high school athletics during my tenure is the growing over-involvement of parents.

Like most coaches, I’ve been blessed with some great parents who have been apart of our program. They understand their role as parent and they played it really well. They were such an asset for their child and our program as a whole. Most of the best athletes in our program have been fortunate enough to have this type of parent, probably part of the reason why those athletes were so successful and had fulfilling high school careers.

I’ve also dealt with some parents who, for whatever reason, didn’t trust others - our coaches or their athlete - enough to let them do their job. So they stepped in and tried to get their hands in everything. I haven’t experienced any athletes who have had a fulfilling high school career with this type of parent.

I think one of the challenges high school coaches face is creating boundaries for parents within their program. I think this is a growing challenge because of the youth sports culture that our athletes are coming out of today. Parents are investing a lot of time and money into their child and at the youth level are VERY involved! The lives of many sports parents today revolve around their child’s athletics. Their social circles are formed around their child’s athletics due to so much time at weekend tournaments at home and on the road.

When their child gets to high school, the parent “game” changes on them. I believe it should change for them, but they don’t know how to handle that. We could do a better job helping the parents who are part of our programs adjust to the new role that they should play.

So how do you help the parents in your program adjust to this new role? I’d like to help you think through this. I was asked to write an article for sports parents by a good friend, Jay Slagle. Jay, aka PrepRunningNerd, runs a team of volunteers promoting high school cross country and track & field in Nebraska. He posted the article on his website and you can find it linked below. Please give it a read and share it with the parents in your program.

NEED HELP WITH THE PARENTS IN YOUR PROGRAM?

If you want some help investing in the parents of your program, our team at FREE2COMPETE would enjoy the opportunity to lead your parents through one of our sessions to help them better understand their role within your program so that they can play it well! Let’s talk about what that could look like! Just reply to this email and let’s set up time to talk.

PrepRunningNerd

If you are a high school cross country or track & field fan and you aren’t aware of the work of PrepRunningNerd and his team of Nerds…well you need to check them out!