Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Why should the varsity coach have any input? He has enough on his plate with the Varsity. PAL is the job of parents.


If your local school's Varsity coach and/or AD are not involved even a small amount with your community program, then your program is not what it could be. No one is saying they need to commit hours upon hours of involvement by the school, but some interaction is necessary - it's mutually beneficial!


What kind of money do you think they are paying these teachers to coach? Most varsity sports are year round commitment for the coach, now he has to go coach PAL?? Maybe he should come by the house of each kid and toss the ball around with him. How about parents take SOME responsibility for the athletic development of their kids. Is the varsity Baseball coach present at Little League baseball? How about the Varsity basketball coach? He should be coaching CYO, after all it's mutually beneficial for him!! And the varsity football coach should without a doubt be coaching the local pee wee team, because well, it's beneficial! Nonsense, the parents run the sports pre middle school and then the school coach takes over. These men/ladies have full time jobs teaching, they then spend countless hours coaching, and oh yeah, they have families too. I'm not sure what you do for a living, but if I asked you to show up during your free time to do it, away from your family and personal life, you would look at me like I was crazy.


You really should try reading ALL of the words and also not insert words that were NOT there! I said involvement, not coaching (!), and I said the involvement need not be extensive. I know for a fact that our school district made that involvement with our youth organization a requirement for a new incoming coach. And, in the end, a coach who is committed to a program at a certain school is the ultimate beneficiary of being involved with the local youth program: he has an input into how the boys play the game; he is known to the boys prior to their playing for him and vice versa; the boys are involved/engaged with the school program before they are players, even if only as fans; he is shaping the type of players he will have playing for him eventually; and lastly he knows what the future makeup of his team will be better than most if he was not involved. Similarly, our varsity football coach is involved in our youth organization; same goes for girls lacrosse team. That's how you build a strong program within a community - the youth programs are the feeder to the schools! It is also a way to snag/keep a kid or two that might otherwise opt to go to a private for HS. #totallynotseeingthebigpicture