Why Mom Should Be The Sports Coach

Why Mom Should Be The Sports Coach

By Anne Marie Anderson

Why Mom Should Be The Sports Coach. Youth sports depend upon volunteer coaching, usually by the parents of participating children. Before you pass by the “Head Coach” slot and write in your name next to “Team Mom,” consider these sobering stats as to why Mom should be the coach.

My Daughter Quit Sports, And This Is What I Want Youth Sports Parents To Know

In 1972, women coached 90% of women’s intercollegiate sports teams. Today, that number has plummeted to just 40%, according to NCAA research. And currently, less than 20% of females coach youth sports.

“WHAT?!?” you say, “DROPPED? I thought we were making great progress!” Women HAVE made significant jumps in the professional coaching ranks, and that is indisputably a milestone worth celebrating, as it is a huge step forward. But how did the number drop so precipitously in the college head coaching ranks?

It is a complicated issue, but clearly, while college athletics has grown, the pool of qualified female candidates has not kept pace. That kind of void signals a lack of role models. We may have taught our daughters to stop putting “Princess” on the line next to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” (Which is, by the way, a position you can only marry into for which the competition is supremely fierce) but it appears not enough girls are putting “Coach” on their dream list.

Why Is It Critical For Girls To Play Sports

It starts at the elementary level. There are endless benefits when Mom signs up to coach. Take in the scene from an eight-year-old girl’s perspective. There is a Mom using STEM skills that many girls by fourth grade have convinced themselves are “for boys.” Watch Mom using math to crunch numbers and create meaningful statistics, employing technology and smart boards to break down video and create scouting reports, and organizing the economics of efficient team travel. Our daughters need to see Mom under pressure from a fourth-down situation, facing conflict (even initiating it!), disputing a call with a referee, and negotiating a playoff schedule that will benefit her team.

How do our daughters know what is possible for them if they don’t witness women lead in their most impressionable years? They. Need. To. See. Mom. Lead.  Lead in the classroom, lead on the field, lead in scientific research, lead the country … it starts with teaching our daughters to lead in every opportunity they see. Coaching our children in their formative years will help break a gender barrier 20 years from now when they begin their professional lives.

Note that I’m not talking only about mothers coaching their daughters’ teams; mothers need to be the sports coach for their boys as well. In what some neurologists call the “wet clay” brain years (5-10 years old), boys form many of their lifelong perceptions of gender roles.

Men have done an incredible job over the last 50 years, morphing their roles into providers AND caregivers. Men now participate in childrearing, including meal preparation and academic direction, far more than they did in the 1960s. Women did not have to step aside as caregivers in order for men to make that change. I am certainly not suggesting that any talented and inspiring male coaches we have in college athletics step aside to “make room” for women. Far from it.

I learn more about the sports I cover with every game I call in large part because the coaches (male and female) are generous enough to spend time talking with me about their approach to the sport.  Those jobs go to the most qualified candidates, and until we show our girls EARLY in life that “Head Coach” is a title worth working for we will continue to limit our daughter’s ambition and opportunities.

So if your schedule allows you to do more than make the team banner and bring orange slices for snack, grab a whiteboard, and let young girls everywhere see you handle strategy, conflict, and contact. It is the best way to inspire the next generation of women to coach at the highest levels.