05/27/2026
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
A reminder for parents during sports season:
Most of these coaches are volunteers.
Volunteers.
Not paid.
Not doing this because they have extra free time.
Not showing up because it’s easy.
They’re leaving work, missing dinners, giving up nights and weekends, dealing with schedules, attitudes, weather, and a hundred opinions from the stands…
all to coach your child.
Because they care.
Because someone has to step up.
Because without volunteers, a lot of these teams wouldn’t exist at all.
And yet somehow, some parents treat them like paid employees they can criticize nonstop.
Every lineup questioned.
Every position debated.
Every decision picked apart from a folding chair on the sidelines.
As if coaching from the bleachers is somehow harder than actually doing it.
Listen, coaches are human.
They make mistakes.
They miss things.
They won’t always make the decision your child or you wanted.
But they are still showing up.
They are still giving their time.
Their patience.
Their energy.
For free.
So before you complain about playing time…
before you roll your eyes at practice schedules…
before you decide your child deserves something different…
ask yourself:
Did you volunteer?
Did you offer to help?
Did you step up when the team needed it?
Because it’s really easy to criticize from the stands.
It’s a lot harder to be the one holding the clipboard.
Your child is watching how you treat these coaches.
Teach gratitude.
Teach respect.
Teach them that not every adult helping them owes them perfection.
Sometimes a simple “thank you, coach” goes a lot further than people realize.
Because volunteers deserve appreciation, not constant criticism.
