Originally Posted by Anonymous
When a coaches relative plays over kids who are clearly better players (kids committed to Top 20 programs), how should a parent respond? Serious question.



The important aspect of all of this (sports in HS) is to teach kids about life's lessons. That's what sports are all about. Providing kids opportunities to make decisions, experience success, and sometimes failure, and develop resiliency and coping skills, ;earn to be a good teammate and friend and stay a healthy all at the same time. My suggestion to you would be to empower your son. First, tell him to work harder on the filed during practice. Do things to stand out both on the field and off. Be the first at practice and the last to leave, be the first in the sprints, take your role on the team seriously and show the coach you willing to work harder for more exposure. Second, i would teach your child to advocate for himself. He should schedule a private meeting with the coach and ask for some constructive criticism as to how to improve and how he could work his way onto the field more. Then strive to meet those goals. My biggest piece of advice is to stay out of it as a parent. You are only debilitating your son's ability to solve problems and be a self advocate. Give him the strategies and let him figure it out. If he chooses not to then it falls on him. but, he needs to realize that he has the control and the ability to influence this situation not the parents. Coaches respect when kids speak to them maturely and privately. It's not about his personal playing time it's about making the team better. Your son has to figure out how he can do that.