Photo Credit: Courtesy of NAYS
As the founder of the National Alliance for Youth Sports(NAYS), I’ve been asked many times, “How is it that you were the first youth-sports organization in America to require coaches to go through a certification program?”
My answer has always been, “Because I knew it was the right thing to do.” But the bigger question these days is, Why doesn’t every youth-sports program require some type of training for coaches? Why are some people so afraid?
When I was working in Wilmington, Del., as a rec professional, the center had about 15,000 kids year-round in a variety of sports programs. Not long after I was hired, I began to see the ugly side of my job: win-at-all-cost coaches abusing kids in programs, and parents doing the same as they lived vicariously through their youngsters, whom they envisioned as the next superstars.