Hey coaches, let's try to develop ALL the kids

The older my kids get, and the more sports I watch at higher age levels, the more convinced I become that too many youth team coaches are focusing too much on winning and not enough on player development.

My oldest son played lacrosse on the high school junior varsity team last spring. He was one of a handful of sophomores on a team that was mostly made up of freshmen -- freshmen who had won a lot of games on their eighth grade team the year before and throughout their youth careers. However, those freshmen were in an unfamiliar position, as the best player on all those youth teams wasn't with them anymore; he was good enough that he made the varsity. And while that was great for him, what it meant for his classmates was that, for the first time, they were going to have to learn how to play without him.

It took them a while.

The team started off losing a bunch of games -- including some they were expected to win easily -- and morale was low. Eventually, things did turn around, though. The goalie started making some big saves and getting more and more confident, and little by little, the kids began to move the ball around more, started scoring some goals, and began winning some games. They ended up winning about as many games as they lost, and, overall, it was a good year.

Maybe, from a wins-and-losses standpoint, it wasn't the kind of year the freshmen were used to having, perhaps. But the truth is, they all got better, which is the whole idea of a JV team. Because instead of putting all their efforts into working hard to win possession of the ball and then immediately giving it to their star player, the freshmen had to learn to trust other people and trust themselves to make positive plays. There were plenty of other good players in the group -- some of them sophomores, who the freshmen had to get to know -- and those kids stepped up. And the ones who didn't consider themselves stars eventually began to try things they hadn't had to do before, which ultimately expanded their own games, making them better players and better prospects for future varsity action.

Which once again illustrates the point I keep coming back to: That everything below the varsity level ought to be developmental -- and helping every player become the best player he or she can be is what youth coaches should be making their priority. Yes, winning games is important, because you do want to develop players who understand the difference between playing a sport and playing to win -- understand that there is a level of effort and sacrifice required of players if they want to win. 

But from a coaching standpoint, it shouldn't be strictly about winning. And all sub-varsity coaches, and especially all youth coaches, need to realize they need to help kids grow as players and teach them to play the game the right way. If you do that, then the winning will surely follow.