Why is it so hard for Team Adult to value fair playing time over winning? Youth sports teams are NOT High School Varsity, College, or Pro teams and adults need to stop engaging with those games as if they were. Let Them Play. All of them! I talk […]
The high school team I coach facilitates a free after school soccer club at the area elementary schools. Third, fourth, and fifth graders stay to play. There is nothing riding on these games, but emotional outbursts can still happen. During yesterday’s games there was sadness, happiness, frustration, anger, […]
I am in an old body now. It has arrived in spite of my competitive and active spirit. Doesn’t the fact that I’m still pretty young count for something? I’m not even 45 yet! I can’t seem to will my joints to feel like they used to or […]
Someone recently reminded me about this piece originally posted in 2016 on a site that has since been removed. I felt compelled to post it again because I want to enable coaches to seek and provide for one another the resources needed to keep good coaches in the […]
We need to make a decision people. Yes, all of us grown-up-making-decisions-paying-registration-for-youth-sports people…we need to decide about something I believe may be the most critical decision for the future of youth sports. What do we want for our investment? Do we want youth sports to work as an engine for […]
Phew. My least favorite time of year is over. The evaluations are done, the teams are named, and although it was not a painless process in our house this year, it was a time for significant growth for all of us. Last week, as though perfectly timed with […]
I wasn’t sure I wanted to share this piece, but the more I sit with it, the more I know it is a reflection of what so many people experience at the beginning of a sports season. I wrote this Thursday morning: It’s 3:53 am. I am wide […]
“I’m not going to football today…actually, I’m not going to football anymore. I quit!” My husband and I sat stunned as we listened to our twelve-year-old rant, rave, and rebel against the instruction to get himself ready for practice. It took us a few minutes to formulate the response we wanted. I’m sure […]
Spring soccer started a couple weeks ago. In our house it looks like chaos…pretty much from start to finish. Both the girls are playing and, in what seems like a purposeful punishment for our family, their practices are scheduled on the same days…at the same time…and of course at two […]
Except for what I’ve seen on the news, and read on his caring bridge site, I don’t know this smiling hockey player. I don’t know his parents or his younger brother. I don’t know the record of the team for which he plays, or how many goals he […]
The Team Adult Playbook 