Minimum Play Players, Favoritism, & Parents
I planned to write about defense today, but I received an email last night which begs me to address minimum play players, favoritism and parents in today’s blog post. My coaches and I rank our players each week and use these rankings to determine who will start and what positions they will play. I develop a depth chart each week from these rankings. I do not believe in favoritism. Our players win a starting position based on intelligence, physical abilities, football skill and football knowledge. Just because a player is a top starting player and plays a majority of downs, does not equate to favoritism, it equates to smart coaching. Coaches should field their best talent.
In today’s youth sports, many coaches must weigh fielding the best talent and playing the minimum play players. How do you weigh the needs of the team above the needs of one to three minimum play players (MPP) and their vocal parents? This question frustrates me each week. I want all my players playing every play of the game. I want all players getting a good rest on the sidelines. I want everyone to score a touch down. But the reality is, this is not Drake and Josh afternoon TV. Some players are not ready to play more than the mandatory minimum plays. I want to win American Idol but I can’t hold a note. Should the network force American Idol to allow me to sing at least once in front of National TV audience? I doubt it.
But many MPP parent’s feel the coaches are playing favorites by not playing thier children more. I am sure there maybe a minority of coaches playing favorites, but if your child can contribute to the team then your child will play more. I’ll guarantee it.
One last point that I find surprising. Why doesn’t anyone talk about the starter who must sit out while someone takes his place? How do they feel? Are they upset that we substituted a player in the game that does not do the work required to play the position? Who is speaking up for the starting player and their feelings?
If I had one wish as a coach, I would wish that all the players on my team were starters. Now that would solve my problem. Although, I have 24 players on my team. Hmmm, I needed to be more specific. It’s always something!
I have coached my son for the last 4 years and he is an above average athlete. Last year he scored multiple touchdowns every game. No parents had a problem with it, other kids carried the ball with limited success but we won and had alot of fun. This year he moved up to the next league and it seems like his coach this year is pushing him to the side. The same kids that were not productive last year and did not do nearly as well are getting most of the reps during practice. We just finished the first week of practice in helmets so we had no contact and it seems he already knows who is starting. I watched their games last year and none of the skill position players are returning, they also moved up. I am an assistant coach this year for my sons team and do not know what to say or do. I know I sound like every other parent now but this is not right. My son went to a professional football players camp and out of 27 kids in his age group he recieved the most outstanding running back for the week. I live in a small town and have a hard time believing that in helmets with no contact that this one coach can tell that 5 or 6 kids from this same small town has more ability than my son. What should I say or do if anything at all?
By the way some of the parents that were on my team from last year are wondering the same thing.
Hey listen. This is youth football. The whole idea behind youth football is to help develop skills and instill a love for the game. This isn’t about W’s and L’s at the end of the year, because it’s not about me as a coach. I measure my success by how many so called “MPP’s” we can develop into reasonably skilled players by the end of the season.
On my team the MPP’s get a lot of reps in practice because we’re trying to help them become better athletes and contribute more to the team. We even use our more experienced and skilled players to help the MPP’s with their fundamentals and mentor them in their skills. This promotes and instills leadership in them, which they’ll take on to their teams as they go on to play more competitive ball.
It drives me crazy when I see coaches playing their star kids on both sides of the ball and having the same kids on the sidelines for nearly the entire game. How do you ever expect these kids to improve if you never give them the experience of playing? It won’t hurt the starter thats playing both sides of the ball to give up some reps to the kids that need the experience. All you’re doing by benching your MPP’s teaching them that because they haven’t developed the skills yet that they are worthless to the team and that they won’t ever have the chance to develop their skills to become better players. Guess what, most of those kids will be turned off of the game because of that, and there’s nobody to blame but the coaches that insist on putting winning before player development in YOUTH FOOTBALL!
Work with those kids. Let them play. I’m not saying that you should simply throw them into situations to the detriment of the team, but there are ALWAYS situations you can put them in where they can feel like they’re contributing to more than holding the bench down. Make them work hard and teach them to be competitive. Maybe they’ll develop into starters and go play competitive ball, maybe they won’t, but at least you’ll have had a positive impact on that kids view of the game.
I want to win as much as the next coach (and I do win frequently), but I couldn’t live with myself for turning a 9 or 10 year old kid off of football. It’s a shame that so many youth coaches do. Frankly if you have MPP’s on your team, I view it as a coaching failure that you should either learn to deal with, or go coach college or pro teams.
I couldnt have said it better!This is my sons first year on ponies football after some prodding of the coaches to get him to play.I have now been on both sides of the coin …my biggest complaint is that I dont care how good a certain player is I feel as a parent every player deserves to play we have enough players on the team to make both and off and def team with about 4 boys left over..we had a new boy join us after the season had started he missed two games..but once he started playing it was like the shit rolled down hill he got the starting position and everyone else fell down behind him ..dont get me wrong he is a good player but he has a bad attitude .Its a “all about me attitude” and the coaches feel the same way…yesterdays game was 36 to 6 with our team in the lead why oh why didnt they let the bench warmers play??My son plays alot which im surprised that he does for being on the team for first time .but some of these players are returning players…As a a parent its hard to sit back and see it happening.
Will you please coach my son’s team? We need more youth coaches with your kind of attitude towards skill and confidence development. Thanks for doing it the right way coach!!
Thanks for the great response. This site surfaced amidst my search to find a voice of reason (the fact that the term “MPP” even exists speaks volumes about the mindset of most youth football coaches). In reading the “article”, I thought it was perhaps a joke or at least an attempt at satire. Sadly, I know that it is real, have lived it with my own kids, and feel for the many parents who don’t know how to handle it. Remarkably, not one of the horrible youth football coaches I’ve encountered has yet land the NFL job they feel they certainly deserve. Life indeed is unfair!
OOH-RAH
jj’s post above is excellent. Coach Parker, you’re way off base here. If your kids are playing in a league with minimum play, go read the league’s objectives. I GUARANTEE you they include the word DEVELOPMENT. If you don’t want to deal with MPP’s because they are taking time away from the stars (LOL), go to a Select or Division 1 league. I’ve seen it time and time again – the all star parents and daddy-ball coaches play their kids in Division II to they can be the stars, then they criticize the parents of MPPs because they just want some playing time. These “stars” have stolen the developmental leagues, and coaches like Parker are trying to justify it. Gimme a break.
We have a recreational Division and its Division 3. All of our divisions have MPP rules, we do not have Select try-out divisions in our league. Many parents do not want thier child playing in Division 3 because it is considered a recreational league.
I always appreciative posts from free email accounts posting to the blog and attacking someone they do not know. Thanks again for your post GADawg.
Wow!!!
Almost all rec leagues have rules around minimum plays, but they also have rules around practice time also. I wonder how many of the complaining parents actually spend any time trying to further their kids knowledge or skill outside of football practice. Not all leagues offer select or elite programs so that is a moot point. Just like adults aren’t built the same neither are our kids. It is the parents responsibility to work with your kid to get them to a level of competiveness. I didn’t say star because these are far and few between. All to often parents use rec sports as a 2 hour babsitter program and then want to complain about the play time. Work with your child and help them develop and stop complaining. Of course there are exceptions to every rule but I like to think humanity wins in the end. Either pick up a whistle an offer to help, because none of these coaches are paid or sit in your lawn chair and play cheer leader.
Well said Coach Paul. Thanks for the post.
no one mentioned their mpp kid being the star. just getting the fair, designated playing time as outlined in the rules of development. and what you think is a 2 hour babysitting service is a pain in the butt…you have to cram in dinner, leave the house, drop off the kid and 2 hours later or less go out and do it again. only this time, your kid is broken inside bc they did not get the same “importance” as the “select kids”. league has rules for a reason. this is the reason. if you want to make sure your kid gets all the best playing time, go pay for the expensive leagues. city league is for fun, development and skill building on an equal basis. period. i think coaches need to get out the lawn chair and watch their own kid get their self esteem get beat to crap as they warm the bench as “no good”. i think i’d rather see my kid taking Harp Lessons from a freak than to put up with the ego and mentality of a little league coach.
My daughter played select soccer for the first time this year. I have coached her in SAY league for the past 3 years, and I can say, I did not always start her on the front lines. If she played really hard during the game, I would move her up, but she had to earn it. However, the new Select Soccer Coach, plays his daughter on the front line every-single-game! She is not that great, has only scored once on a fluke, and kicks the ball to the other team more than their own defense. Although my daughter is only 11, she even asks me why this girl plays on front if she is so bad? I don’t know what to tell her, other than not all things in life are equal or fair.
Needless to say, we will not be playing select with this team next year. We will go back to SAY where there are more opportunities for development, camaraderie, and real team-work.
Coaches, if you are going to coach your children, please realize you are an example to all the children out there, not just your own.
I learned this year that different coaches see different skillsets in players. This year was the first year in a very long time that I was not the head coach. (We moved to Keller Texas just outside of Ft Worth this year) Positions that I would have put players in, the Head Coach of our Keller team did not see. This is not a slam against the head coach, but I did learn that based on our playing and coaching experience we want different attributes at certain positions from our players.
Also, there are coaches that will play their children no matter what. That’s not right, but it happens. Welcome to the world, its not fair. If you are a parent, you must do your homework on the league and the coach.
Thanks
Coach Parker
Keller Texas
Sports and football in particular are valuable to show how things work in life. Challenges and competition are a good thing. Those of you complaining that your skilled kids have to compete over again for their positions are missing the opportunity to let their kids know how important it is to show your talent and work ethic every day of every year. Those of you with kids that don’t play much have to realize that your children have to prove themselves. These opportunites come easily during practices of all sports. All kids who get a lot of playing time, pay close attention to how the game is played and give a maximum effort to help the team be successful. Are your kids showing the kind of concentration and committment that is necessary for the coaches to notice? Honestly, my own son doesn’t always have his head on straight in these areas, so I’m sure many players aren’t doing enough to impress a lot of coaches. We’ve all got to remember that coaching at the instructional and recreational level is volunteer and is by its nature political. Coaches can’t be expected to have the same faith in kids they don’t know as they do their own sons and daughters and players they are familiar with. In addition, it’s reasonable to expect a coach’s child to receive a little playing time reward for the work that a coaching family is required to perform during the season. Finally, keep in mind and educate your children that they will have good leaders and bad leaders in their lifetime. Some leaders will be fine for a while and then lose their edge. We should expect that each season will be different. Whether it’s a coach or a supervisor, they will need to learn how to perform their best in a bad situation. This is probably the best reason we have our kids in youth sports to begin with. All of these complaints can be turned in to opportunities to teach our kids about real world challenges. Good Luck!