Unlike sports like swimming, figure skating, tennis, or gymnastics, softball is a volunteer-driven sport. This means that most people involve in youth softball are volunteers and aren’t there for financial gains. In most cases, it’s actually costing them money.
People get into coaching youth softball for various reasons. Some are former baseball or softball players and that’s their way of staying involved in a sport they really enjoy. For others, it’s about giving to the community or to have a chance a positive influence on the youth. There are plenty of reasons why someone would get involved. They just have to be the right reasons.
Personally, I started coaching youth softball when I was 13 years old. No, it’s not a misprint; I did get started at that early age. I got started out of curiosity and boredom at the same time. As a 13-year-old, I didn’t have much to do after hurting my ankle in little league. So I got started coaching youth softball when my little 6-year-old sister started to play. Like it’s often the case in youth softball, her team didn’t have any coach.
While I was obviously too young to be a head coach, I thought I knew enough about the game after a years of little league baseball to help out. That was the start of a love story with the sport of softball. I stayed in coaching because I loved the game but l love the helping young kids even more. I find extreme self-satisfaction out of being able to influence positively young athletes and help them grow both as people and as athletes.
Coaching youth softball can be extremely rewarding and fun. To me, it’s win-win situation. You give time and effort to the community and to the kids and in return, you get the much-needed feelings of being appreciated and contributing to society. These are the reasons why I’ve been coaching all these years.
However, coaching youth softball can also be quite difficult. There are lots of things to deal with from an administrative perspective whether it’s fundraising, managing a budget, dealing with the league or anything else.
However, for many, that’s nothing compare to dealing with parents or the politics present in the various sports organizations. Actually, most coaches that quit coaching do so not because they don’t love what they are doing but rather because they are totally fed up from sports politics or dealing with difficult parents. As much as softball extremely rewarding and fun at times, it can also sometimes become a nightmare.
Some people, even if they will never admit it, do get into coaching youth softball to advance the athletic career of their children. It’s a way to put them into key position and give them a lot of playing them. They are basically giving their kids a preferential treatment over the other kids. That is certainly the wrong reason to get involved in coaching youth softball. Unfortunately, it’s far too common and it’s a recipe for disaster every time.
If you like the game, love helping kids, want to give to the community or love the thrill of coaching softball games, by all means, get involved. Be prepared to deal with a lot of headaches but at the same, you might find the experience highly rewarding like I do. Just make sure you get into it for the right reasons like I did.
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