By Brian Gotta, President of CoachDeck

I was watching an interview with New York Times best-selling author William J. Bennett, the author of a new book entitled, The Book of Man, which is an essay on what it used to mean to be a man and the changes in our culture in that respect. The author’s main contention is that boys need men in their to serve as role-models in order to develop into responsible adults. What jumped out at me was when he mentioned that he was raised by a single mother, but that she knew the importance of men and made sure he and his brother were surrounded by strong coaches and teachers who were men.

It reinforced the importance of what we do as youth sports coaches. Even children who have fathers at home can benefit from another strong and positive influence, and your role goes beyond the sport itself. So the next time you think that being in charge of a team of players only means teaching them fundamentals of the game and helping them play their best – think again. There may be much more at stake than you know.