Last in a series.

A letter I might send young athletes and their families if I was a youth coach.

Dear Families and Athletes:

I’m looking forward to the upcoming season and the opportunity it will provide to get to know each of you better. I’m writing to share a few core beliefs that shape my approach to practicing, competing, and youth sports more generally. I’m interested in your ideas and invite you to share them with me as well.

I believe athletic excellence is a means to several important ends, not an end in itself. In ten or twenty years, few if any people will remember our won-loss record this season or who had the most points. In my coaching I take a broader view and continually ask myself: how can the ways we practice, interact, and compete help you become healthier, happier, more self-confident 22 and 32 year-olds?

Even though I do not intend on focusing narrowly on our won-loss record, we will practice with purpose and compete hard. I believe a commitment to athletic excellence serves several purposes. For instance, it will help you develop a positive work ethic, which will pay dividends in school, at work, and in your personal lives.

Also, as we practice with purpose and compete hard, your skills we improve; as a result, you’ll enjoy the activity even more and develop greater self-confidence that will spill over into other areas of your life. Among other benefits, self confidence can serve as a powerful check on negative peer pressure.

Also, as adolescents and young adults, you’ll routinely work in small groups in school, in the workplace, and in your personal lives. This season will provide important lessons on how to positively contribute to group goals, how to persevere and problem solve when the going gets tough, and how to share responsibility for both positive and negative outcomes.

Additionally, everyone who commits to athletic excellence eventually learns that there’s some team that is better than them. This reality teaches humility and compassion for those competitors who fall short of their goals, sensibilities that will help you become more caring adolescents and young adults.

Lastly, I want you to have so much fun this season you pester your parents to sign you up again next season. I want to help you become good friends and develop positive attitudes towards our sport and exercise more generally. More broadly, I want to plant the seeds of a life-long commitment to fitness.

So I’m taking the long-view, focusing on the forest that is the next ten to twenty years rather than the trees that are winning any particular game, a league championship, or a state title. I’m hopeful that you’ll learn to compete and you’ll experience athletic success this season, but even more importantly, you’ll take a few more steps towards becoming hard working, self-confident, caring young adults who are healthy, happy, and dedicated to making your communities better places.

Sincerely,

Coach Byrnes