General

There are tens of thousands of well-meaning coaches in youth and high school athletics/activites across this nation. Being placed in a position of influence and power over young people, however, requires - to borrow from the Hippocratic oath - that coaches first do no harm, and hopefully do some good. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that many will be remembered by their players for all the wrong reasons.

With no disrespect  to my young educated readers, I’m going  to start this article with the dictionary definition of respect.    (transitive verb)  : to consider worthy of high regard.  After reading the definition of respect, a lot of questions came to mind. Like, how many young athletes out there respect their coach and how many don’t? How many coaches respect their athletes, or don’t?  How many parents respect their kids coach, or don’t? How many coaches respect the team parents?  Above all, why does it matter and where and how does respect happen. Wow, way too many questions.

On Saturday, March 27, the world observed the fourth annual Earth Hour, a global event started by the World Wildlife Fund. During Earth Hour, cities, towns and individual families from around the world were encouraged to turn off all non-essential lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.  People in more than 92 countries participated in a global call to action for, and to demonstrate the urgency of, climate change.

When you learn about raising children, you hear about consistency. When you learn about working with animals and training animals, you hear about consistency. This key of consistency also applies to coaching softball as well.