ParentsHelpingCoaches wrote:
I have a daughter who is a high school XC and track runner. I and other parents help the coach. We help at practices by taking splits, run with slower groups of runners at practices to encourage them and make sure they are safe. All families bring food to share at potlucks after meets. Parent take splits at practices and meets. Some take photos for the team, help plan trips, etc. I have discussed my thoughts privately with the coach regarding which meets may be of interest to add to the schedule for the next season. He has requested input from me on this on other topics. I often provide arguments for each side of a decision and always leave the decision up to him even when it is a decision regarding my daughter and not the whole team. I do a lot of research for the coach for meets and competition at upcoming meets. I send out extra information to parents before meets such as course maps and parking suggestions. I do a lot of the things he does not have time to do. I and the other parents leave the coaching of the kids to him. Parents can be assets. A coach at another team I know also has parents that he said are very helpful. One of his extremely helpful parents is a co-worker of mine.
What's the big deal about XC and T&F coverage in local newspapers. Fewer people read them now then ever and the newspapers have little content. XC and T&F coverage receive a fraction of the coverage that other sports such as football and basketball receive. They seldom send anyone to any meets in my state other than the state meet and maybe three of the bigger XC meets. The co-worker showed me a newspaper article about his daughter winning a race. The newspaper did not list any times for any of the runners. Send your parent to Runnerspace/Dyestat and Milesplit so he can see what kinds of times it takes for a runner to get noticed. Many parents may have no idea of what kind of times it takes to be considered fast outside of the little meets they have attended.
Athletic.net can be used so show his daughter's ranking in the state of Michigan. Tell him girls that are committed to running and want to run in college are running 30 to 45 miles per week year round even through the worst part of Michigan's recent winters. They only take off one or two weeks after each season and most of them compete indoors during the winter at MITS meets. Kirsten Olling ran even in snow storms. I think she was quoted as saying it was just one mile during a snow storm but she was still committed to running every day. Every day may be a going a little too far when pain or minor injury call for a day of rest. One Michigan's top high school distance runners continued running on her own 2 or 3 days a week last winter while playing on one of the better Michigan basketball teams between XC and track seasons.
I am not a helicopter Dad. My daughter is running because it was her choice. She has reached out to college coaches on her own for recruiting. I have only talked to coaches when we have gone on unofficial visits and only once on the telephone when a coach asked to talk with me to discuss a financial question affecting student aid.
I know I am not perfect. I just think that I and other parents I have seen have been very helpful to coaches.
My last high school XC coach had been a wrestling coach. I don't know if he had any running background. What bother me was not his lack of experience. At least he was trying. What caused problems for me and other team members was he keep making promises to the team he never kept. The one that sticks out was a promise of new uniforms. I finally assumed the school had no money in the budget for uniforms. The coach should not have promised something he could not deliver and continue saying it would occur later in the season. After a number of these unfulfilled promises that were affecting the team morale I finally confronted him about all his promises. His unfulfilled promises were causing many of the runners to look down upon the coach and dismiss anything he said as a lie. My advice to coaches is be honest with the runners. Don't promise more than you can deliver. Don't make up an answer if you don't know for sure. Don't try to diagnose injuries if he do not have the training. Look for a free clinic for athletes in the area where you may send them for diagnosis. You may get away with faking what you do not know for a while but sooner or later the athletes will figure out that you have not been honest with them. Let them know that while you have learned much over your years of coaching also let them know you do not know everything but you are striving to learn more all the time so you can be a better coach.
Great post.