Hope springs eternal for everyone involved in youth and high school football during summer training camp. The season begins anew and any bad memories from last season are washed away with the anticipation for a better season to come.

The work that coaches, players and parents put in during training camp can pay dividends once the season begins. It is the reason coaches will push players so hard during this time of year. After all, everyone wants to win. Coaches, parents and players all want their team to succeed, which is the reason each part of this triumvirate puts in so much effort throughout the season.

However, an unyielding desire to win can sometimes become poisonous, if emotions become overwhelming and spiral out of control.

Before approaching a coach with any criticism, parents need to understand and empathize with the pressures youth and high school football coaches are constantly operating under. It is only through understanding that parents can forge a positive and beneficial relationship with a child’s football coach.

Remember, the relationship between parents and coaches can have as big of an impact on the season as the relationship between the coach and his players. Only through building a responsible and mutually-beneficial relationship can cooler heads prevail when emotions inevitably run high.

Coaches are leery of parent interaction

Coaches can be wary of parents who are often well-intentioned, but ill-informed. The most often cited reasons for parents becoming too emotionally involved in their child’s athletic endeavors typically include:

• Hyper-focused on their child and not on the good of the team.
• Lack of playing time for their child.
• Their child is not being treated like the athletic “superstar” that he is.

Conversely, there are parents who are under-involved who make the coach’s season difficult because they do not reinforce or adhere to the respects of the coach.

Parents need to temper expectations placed on the coach

Parents often place heavy expectations on their child’s coach and with good reason. The coach will be intimately involved in their child’s life and athletic experiences. Accordingly, it is important that parents temper their expectations and understand the following:

• Most coaches are volunteers. Or, if they’re paid, they are under-paid compared to the large amount of personal time they invest in the team. Remember, their time comes in the form of not only practice and games, but also time away from the team during game preparations. Try to keep this in mind when your emotions run high.
• Take time to cool off. When your emotions do inevitably run high, make sure to observe a cooling off period and let your emotions subside. Once you have reflected on your emotional reaction to view the situation through a more realistic and unemotional perspective, then consider whether to speak with the coach.
• Coaching from the stands helps no one. Never instruct the coach, your child or other players from the sideline or bleachers. Keep in mind that your child is navigating a chaotic and physical sport while attempting to observe the coach’s instructions. The parent who yells from the sideline often contradicts the coach’s instructions, which only confuses the child and serves to undermine the coach-player and coach-parent relationship. Most importantly, it will only exert unnecessary pressure on your child who is attempting to have fun.

Introducing yourself to the coach during the preseason is a positive way of building trust. Make sure to let the coach know that you want your child to have a positive and beneficial experience this season and you are willing to do what it takes to make this happen.

SEE ALSO: 5 ways sports parents can work with young coaches

SEE ALSO: Parents must treat their youth coaches with respect

If the coach offers any suggestions, make sure to listen and abide by these suggestions as closely as possible. For those so inclined, you can offer to assist the coach in any way that you may be qualified.

Meeting with the coach during the preseason should make any difficult conversations that arise during the season easier to navigate. Further, after this initial conversation, don’t wait for something to go wrong before you speak with the coach again. Coaches are often only approached by parents who have a complaint.

Remember, coaches are emotional creatures as well, they have a stressful job that takes a huge commitment and does not pay very well, if at all. If a coach does something you like, let them know it and fill up their emotional tank.