By Brian Gotta, President of CoachDeck:

Your job as coach is to make this season a fun one and this should go without saying. However, too many coaches forget why they are coaching youth sports, and fall into negative patterns of behavior. Try to keep the following points in mind:
• Your number one priority, above all else, should be that each player you coach wants to come back and play again next year. If this happens, regardless of any other measuring stick, you were successful
• Your kid, my kid, none of the kids are probably going to turn out to be pro athletes, and even if one does attain that level of success, you won’t be able to tell in T-ball.
• Keeping track of the score is OK. But the younger the kids you’re coaching are, the better it is to emphasize individual improvement rather than individual achievement.
• How well, (or poorly), your team performs on game day is probably not a reflection of your coaching abilities, so take it with a grain of salt. Don’t get angry with the kids.
• Making it fun makes your season go by much faster, and your life a lot easier.

Being a great coach means so much more than winning and losing. And it is important that we all keep that in mind.