By Dana Smith
(March 16, 2022)

The purpose of youth sports is to provide a venue for competition and growth while taking advantage of the vast opportunities to teach valuable life lessons and skills to young athletes.  While pursuing these virtuous ends, coaches also can be a supportive and valuable asset to the educational process of student-athletes.  As a leader of a school or community-based sports, I am responsible for providing focus, mentoring, and opportunity for the coaches under my leadership to grow and become better leaders and coaches.  As the Middle School’s Athletic Director in our district, I have found that success in this endeavor requires core values for the programs I lead and modeling of those core values for the coaches under my leadership.  The core values for our programs are personal growth, integrity, grit, loyalty, commitment, and empathy.

Personal Growth and Integrity

As a leader of coaches in our programs, I feel it is imperative to be a model of integrity.  This leadership role includes modeling for the coaches in my charge by adhering to and promoting respect for the rules of the game and the officials who are there to promote fair play and interpret those rules.  The effort put forward to be successful in being the best that we can be as coaches are meaningless if we choose to bend or break the rules.  To achieve this goal, coaches within our program must attend training by the Positive Coaching Alliance as a group to make sure we are all on the same page and focused on positive coaching.  Our coaches must also sign and adhere to our code of conduct that focuses on high expectations, caring relationships, the teaching of life lessons, and a connectedness to school.

Grit

In the long-term pursuit of worthy goals despite setbacks and obstacles, is crucial to the coaches on our staff in being an example and promoters of grit.  As administrators, we can work with our coaches to set goals for the season and their careers, including how they may lead their team and themselves through any adversity that may come in pursuit of those goals.  This grit developed in search of their objectives leads to personal growth and the satisfaction of knowing all we have overcome in our hard work to pursue worthy goals.  Because we have worked with our coaches in the goal-setting process and considering obstacles that may occur, we can work one on one with them as they progress and help them when times become difficult.

Loyalty

Leading a successful youth sports program requires the trust and loyalty of those you lead.  As a leader, I make every effort to show that I am loyal to those I work with within our programs as we work together towards their success.  When we build an environment of loyalty, coaches are more likely to return to coaching positions, thus creating consistency and tradition in their programs for our school.  As an athletic director, I can help build loyalty to our school and sport programs by communicating with district administrators about the successes, hard work, and dedication to the student-athletes at our school by the coaches in their programs.  This information encourages administrators to acknowledge these contributions to the coaches and give recognition to the school community.  When coaches are appreciated, loyalty builds between the coach and the community they serve.

Commitment

As a leader, I must commit to understanding the role of each coach on my coaching staff and then helping each coach fulfill that role to the best of their ability.  This commitment includes being prepared, participating in activities that promote coach development, doing what is best for the athletic department, and committing to making your community better.  An athletic director must be the role model to those under their leadership and commit to the program’s goals and efforts.  This modeling creates a relationship where coaches know that the administrator is dedicated to the mission throughout their journey together.  For example, being prepared for meetings with an agenda and not needlessly using up coaches’ time or participating in training sessions with the coaches under your leadership.  Leaders of athletic programs should make a point of scheduling time to see every team in their program compete during the season.  These actions show a commitment by leadership to the program and the coaches who are on the ground doing the hard work that makes a program successful for our athletes.

Empathy

Leadership requires empathy for those under your direction.  Leaders must demonstrate that they understand what coaches are experiencing throughout the process of a season.  This understanding includes the experience of coaching their sport, the commitment to their program, and balancing outside obligations to family and life outside of sports.  By knowing and acknowledging the effort and sacrifice my coaches are making, I can better serve them in their growth as a coach and personally.  To acquire the information needed for empathy towards your coach’s experience, we must have an open-door policy and reach out.  I use Google Forms to send out wellness checks to my coaches, asking questions about whether they look forward to coaching, their physical and mental well-being, how they are coping with the demands of coaching if they feel supported, what positive experiences they are having, and what is needed for them to be successful.  The feedback obtained by this process allows me to be ready to meet the needs of my coaches and act early to give extra support when a coach may need it.

As an athletic administrator, my mission is to use sports as a training ground for developing and making a regular practice of the values and skills necessary for success in athletics and student-athletes becoming prosperous and flourishing adults. Building leadership upon the core values of personal growth, integrity, grit, loyalty, commitment, and empathy provides the best opportunity for the long-term success of the coaches in our programs, and therefore, our student-athletes.  When this work embodies these values to focus on our coaches’ social, emotional, mental, and physical needs, we can work together to build their full potential as coaches.