Youth Sports Should No Longer Be “No Mom’s Land”
October 7, 2008
Thanks to guest contributor Brooke deLench of MomsTeam.com for this article that highlights the importance of Mom’s getting in the “game” and providing a positve contribution to the youth sports dialog.
Youth Sports Should No Longer Be “No Moms Land”
By Brooke de Lench
Youth sports are a “No-Mom’s Land.“ To be sure, mothers chauffeur their kids to and from practices and games, support their kids from the stands, and run concession stands at the local youth baseball fields. But, far more often than not, it is fathers who are coaching our children, and men who sit on the boards of local and national youth sports organizations.
Even if youth sports organizations pay lip service to idea that they want more women coaches and directors, less than one fifth of the estimated 4.1 million youth sport coaches are women. The imbalance is even greater at the administrative level: Of 496 seats on boards of 20 leading national youth sports organizations, only 54 are held by women, nearly one-quarter of those (13) on the board of single organization, US Lacrosse. This imbalance has been termed by one expert “one of the most backward traditions in sports today.”
Even if women take time to get coaching licenses and want to coach, they are often denied coaching positions, which continue to go mostly to men. In particular, as I know from personal experience, men see women coaching boys as raising in the words of a leading feminist scholar “profound questions about male supremacy and directly challenges the patriarchal notion that maleness is a key prerequisite for coaching and for leadership.”
But why am I making such a stink about who is coaching our kids and running our youth sports programs?
Well, for one thing, the dearth of female coaches at the youth and college level (where only four in ten women’s teams are now coached by women, down from nine in ten three decades ago) translates into fewer role models and mentors for millions of female athletes and fewer future coaches.
But more importantly, I believe that it is time to challenge the status quo in a new and different way: if women, particularly mothers, were allowed to come down from the bleachers and out from behind the concession counters and into coaches’ boxes and on to boards of directors in far greater numbers, we would see a shift in the culture of American youth sports.
If more mothers were coaches and administrators, I am convinced that just their mere presence would make youth sports less about winning games and sorting out the best from the rest, which not only turn off kids to sports but lead to so much of the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in youth sports we see or hear about every day in the media, and more about having fun.
As natural communicators and nurturers, as the natural guardians of children at play, mothers can inspire coaches, other parents, athletic directors, school boards and local and national youth sports organizations to do more to keep our children safe, to balance competition with cooperation, and to think about sports not just as a place to showcase the gifted and talented but as a place where all children can begin a love affair with sports and physical exercise lasting a lifetime, instead of ending, as too often is the case, in early adolescence.
Mothers represent, in the words of Scott Lancaster, former director of the National Football League’s youth football development program “the greatest untapped resource in youth sports.” The time has come to tap that resource.
About the Author:
Brooke de Lench is a youth sports parenting expert and the author of the new book Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports (Harper Collins) and the founder and Editor-in-Chief of MomsTeam.com: The Parents Trusted Youth Sports Source. She is the mother of triplet sons and lives in the Boston area.
Related posts:
- Moms Can Make Youth Sports Safer
- Sports Parent Highlights
- Track Mom Intuition
- Smarts Thoughts On Youth Sports
- Look Who’s Talking Youth Sports
Great article by Ms. deLench. She spoke at our high school this past year and if anyone knows sports moms and dads it is Brooke. I follow her on MomsTeam and hope you are fortunate to have more of her articles here.
I guess some people still haven’t learned to hire/select by characteristics and capabilities rather than chromosones.
Here’s a list of Coach Responsibilities. I figure if any person can meet most of these, you should grab him/her!
Coach is responsible for setting the tone of the team and:
• Being aware of and following the laws and rules of the jurisdiction, association, tournament, facility and team
• Treating players and parents with respect and courtesy
• Communicating with the team members and parents on a regular basis
• Orienting team members and parents to the team rules and procedures
• cooperating with the team volunteers to enhance the hockey experience for the team
• Knowing the rules of the game and explaining them to players
• Being a good example to players and parents
• Planning and running practices to develop players’ skills
• Communicating personal goals for the hockey year thoroughly and honestly
• Encouraging players to set and plan to reach personal hockey skill goals
• Interrupting problem behaviour
• Clarifying the rules for access to the change room
• Setting a practice schedule and communicating that to players and parents
• Keeping safety as number one priority for team members
• Being fair and consistent
• Dealing with problems as they occur and with the individual(s) involved
• Recruiting a Team Mom to help with the female change room or injury situations
• Setting limits about player or parent phone calls or e-mails
For their own personal protection, as well as that of the hockey player, coaches should never be alone in a closed room with a hockey player.
http://www.HockeyMoms.com
——————————————————————————–
[...] Youth Sports Should No Longer Be “No Mom’s Land” [...]