Parental Support Is Key

Today's blog post was written by Anthony Rabasa.  Anthony is a senior Film, Television, Theater major at the University of Notre Dame, and is a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching course taught by Play Like a Champion founder Professor Clark Power and Program Director Kristin Sheehan.  Anthony is also a defensive lineman on the University's football team. 

It is very easy in today’s sports world to get caught up with winning and reaching goals. I believe that it is important for parents and coaches to know that when a young athlete is competing, the most important thing to them is that they just have fun. Thinking back to my own experience, I remember when I first began playing football. I would look forward to Saturday mornings because I knew it was game day and at the time, playing football was--and continues to be--one of the more fun experiences I have ever had.

When parents get too involved in a young athlete's development on the playing field, I believe it takes a personal toll on the athlete. Parents must let the coaches and athletes work together to improve in certain areas where the athlete needs improvement. My parents never really got involved with my coaches when I was a growing youth athlete, but they were always there to support me in my role. Naturally you want your child to be a superstar and have them always excelling on the playing fields. However, this is not always the case.  Even if the young athlete is not the play-maker or the superstar, he or she is still a valuable contributor to the team simply because they’re on the team. Telling a young athlete that he or she is doing well on the playing field will encourage them to do better.  I have found that this is especially true if the parent continues to tell their children that they are getting better every single day.  Speaking from experience, this really does go a long way.

Photo Credit: Columbus High School Football Team, Miami, FL

 If you were to take a close look into high school football playoffs, which are just wrapping up across the country, you can see a lot of examples of a parental relationships with athletes. My high school, which this year's state runner-up. Many things came to my mind when I began to think about my high school program. I happened to stumble upon an article on my high school home page, and it talked about how parents, and the crowd in general, at the semi-final game were outstanding. My alma mater was down 13 points at halftime, but the crowd remained calm and did not let a second go by without motivating my old team. I believe this is a great example of parents and a community coming together to motivate a team that has come so far and has made the community around them believe that they can win any game. That right there is a key component to winning, and that’s exactly what my team did.