My daughter in her senior year of high school; she went on to play D3 volleyball.
If your child wants to play sports in college, you are probably doing everything you can to help them in the recruiting process to reach their dreams.
You may be hiring the best coaches, signing them up for the best teams, and pushing them to get good grades. These are all good things, but if you want to give your child every advantage, then keep this in mind: according to this report on USA Today, college coaches are evaluating parents too.
“Coaches want to evaluate both the student-athlete and their parents,” says JC Field, a former Division I baseball coach. “We want to know their strengths because a lot of the time we can assume their student-athlete has similar strengths.”
But the dilemma is that parents usually don’t know when coaches are evaluating them and they often are unaware of how they can positively impact their child’s recruiting.
Field explains that while recruiting and coaching for Southeast Missouri State, the University of North Dakota, and the University of Missouri, he made it a point to meet parents and watch their behavior at the games.
For some of you, who have a habit of yelling at coaches, officials and players, that’s a scary thought.
In these moments, your behavior becomes a reflection of your family. Are you cheering? Complaining about the coach to another parent? Being too individualistic and only yelling at your child? Acting like an agent representing your athlete? (USA Today)
If you answer yes to any of those, you may want to restrain yourself. Coaches observe, and coaches share information with each other. If you are an overbearing, hovering, complaining parent, the word will get around.
College coaches want involved parents who are the team’s biggest fans, and who know how to support their kids without taking over. If you really want to help your child in the recruiting process, check out this article in USA Today about 5 Ways Parents Can Help With Recruiting.
Unfortunately, parents think they need to be their child’s agent, when in fact, that’s not what college coaches prefer. So if you’ve been dominating your child’s youth sports experience, especially in high school, and your child wants to play in college, you might want to re-think your sports parenting strategy.
For more help on how you can best help your child, I’m a parenting coach and I’d love to assist in your journey. Learn more here.