re: Youth coaches - ever coach your own kids?

I coached my girls in EVERY sport they played from summer league cabbageball beginning at age 4, through basketball in their elementary years, to their last year of playground soccer at age 13. Mainly because when they signed up for these things, the first thing the organizers (school, playground) would ask is if you would mind coaching. I'm a volunteering kind of guy, so I always did.

And I'm glad I did. I loved every minute of it. It was not just fun for me; I also felt it was something for me as a dad to to do with my daughters, and also help the community and other kids. We had fun with it, too, -- I'm a big logo/uniform/team colors guy, and was glad near the end of my coaching tenure when they let us pick out team names and colors for playground soccer. Of course, I let the kids help with that-- they picked 'Stingrays' one year (purple and teal) and 'Tsunami' the next (highliter yellow, teal and black)

Never tried to be a hard arse, just a dad coach; sometimes it was like herding cats but for the most part they were all good kids. Most are in college now, many still refer to me as Coach when they see me.

Got to meet lots of the other parents, too, and they always seemed appreciative that I took the time to coach. I still keep the "thank you" cards that I got signed by parents and players at the end of the season. And of course all of the coaching shirts and caps I got are well-worn.

When my younger daughter moved on to high school soccer, I found it kind of hard to just sit in the stands and watch; I kept wanting to yell instructions instead of encouragement (Move up! Move up!).