OPINION
So, here’s the scenario that plays out time and time again throughout the year in your local youth sports association: We have a team of kids that are ready to put in work and compete, but there’s one problem. Nobody will volunteer to coach the team.
It never fails. In every season of every sport, we ask the exact same question: Why doesn’t anyone volunteer anymore? Why is it so difficult to convince parents to step up and commit just a couple hours of their time a week to help our kids? Why do we consistently have to try and find members of the community, who don’t even have kids on the team, to step up and help out?
Unfortunately, the lack of volunteers isn’t just prevalent in your local youth sports association.
It’s everywhere. Your church, your school, your community service organizations.
All of them.
What is seen consistently across all these organizations is a select few volunteers do 95% of the work and if any of those few people were to suddenly decide to stop, those organizations would be in serious jeopardy of ceasing to exist.
In my years of experience with the Tioga Youth Sports Association I have had this exact conversation hundreds of times. I have had to cold call parents repeatedly and inform them that if we can’t find anyone to step up and coach Little Johnny’s or Susie’s team, then they won’t be able to play this season.
I’ve heard every excuse in the book. “Sorry, I just don’t know anything about softball,” or “I just don’t have time to commit to practice during the week.”
What really breaks my heart is when the parent’s response is, “Well, we can just get a refund and try again next year.”
It may sound a little harsh, but what I hear when I have those conversations with parents is, “I can’t to commit to spending time with my kid for two hours a week.”
It hurts my heart every time, and what’s unfortunate is, in the end, it’s their kid who suffers.
Their kid, who really doesn’t even care if they know anything about the sport they’re playing.
They just want to go out and play with their friends and have fun, especially in the younger ages.
Their kid, who will forever remember that Dad cared enough about them to commit his time to helping them improve.
Will they understand the sacrifice and effort you put in right now?
Of course not. But they will understand it when they get older and realize that not every kid was lucky enough to have a parent that was involved in their childhood.
One of my favorite things about volunteering and spending so much time with the youth of our community is that I get to spend time with and show love to kids that may not get to feel love and attention at home. When you know what to look for, it’s easy to tell which kids need that extra attention and support. If a kid who isn’t used to positive affirmations and supportive words gets to experience those things from you, you’ve just made a friend for life.
Every time that kid sees you, whether it’s at school, grocery store or wherever, they will run up to you to say hi.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have been walking the hall at our school and no less than 8-10 kids have come up to me to tell me about their day or something cool that happened to them. Just recently I bought some dry wall off Facebook Marketplace and when the guy came to drop it off at my house he goes “Aren’t you the guy that coached me in second grade basketball?”
That was almost 17 years ago, and he remembered me.
It’s so rewarding to know that you’ve made a positive impact on a kid’s life.
I wish everyone could experience what that feels like.
Volunteering to help make a difference in someone else’s life is one of the most rewarding things we can do in life.
Committing a couple hours a week or a day a month to a cause that’s bigger than yourself is always worth it.
When you get older and your kids are grown, you won’t look back on life and say, “I shouldn’t have wasted all that time coaching their teams.”
It’s usually the opposite. Volunteering isn’t just a good thing to do; it’s the Christian thing to do.
God calls on us to serve others as a ministry of His love. 1 Peter 4:10 tells us, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
It is through our actions and not just our words that we can show the world the greatness of God’s love.
God gave me and my kids a love of sports, so that is what we have dedicated so much of our time to.
He may have given you a gift that is something completely different like music, art or gardening.
Whatever gift God may have given you, He is calling on you to use it in a way to serve others.
Open your heart to the idea of serving a purpose bigger than yourself, and I promise you that an opportunity will present itself sooner than you think.
Dallas Slay is a Tioga resident. He can be reached at [email protected].
