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Youth Sport Coaches By Jon Ligrow

I have had the privilege of being able to coach multiple youth sports programs including soccer, softball, basketball,
and golf. The one thing we as coaches need to do is instill in kids a love for the game. Every year there is less and less
participation in sports in high school with several schools not being able to support a freshman team at their school.
Why is that? How can we have 20 kids come out for a team in the elementary and then not have enough to support a
high school team? I firmly believe that it starts at the elementary level. We need to give equal treatment to all that are
participating. Every kid should get equal playing time. How else are they going to get any better? Do we play to win at
all costs and only play the better players? This is what happens all the time. Some kids don’t get to play, get discour-
aged, and then quit. And then we keep wondering why we don’t have enough kids to support a team.

I get that we want to win. Why else would we play? We want to be competitive and try to win, but that should not
be our number one goal. Youth sports needs to focus on the fundamentals of the game, so that we don’t have to teach
that at the high school level. We need to teach the kids to love the game and to have fun while playing. Sports are very
beneficial to students for so many physical, social, and psychological reasons that we need as many to participate as
possible. Sports teaches our kids many things including teamwork, discipline, competitiveness, sportsmanship, dealing
with adversity, active lifestyle, respect, integrity, character, and a sense of community just to name a few. Sports can
teach so many life lessons to our kids better preparing them for life when they get out of school, not to mention keep-
ing them out of trouble if they aren’t involved in any extracurricular activities.

Sportsmanship also needs to be taught by coaches and parents. The best way to teach sportsmanship is to lead by
example. Sportsmanship as defined in the dictionary is “fair and generous behavior or treatment of others, especially
in a sports contest.” This also starts at home. If our youth know right from wrong, know their manners, know respect,
then sportsmanship will never be an issue. Good sports will never cheat or lie, and they will never gloat. Good sports
will always be honest and humble. As I always hear from the MHSAA, “Good sports are winners.”

Youth sports coaches have a very important role in the sports program. We need to teach the fundamentals of the
game so they can get better, teach a love for the game so they continue to play, and teach good sportsmanship so
they represent themselves and the school with pride. All of this needs to take precedence over winning.

We don’t need youth coaches teaching kids to win games; we need youth coaches teaching kids to love the game.

KELLY@SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM 989 545 0735 SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM Nov 2018 SPORTS FINEST MAGAZINE • 7