I would like you to make this email public so hopefully someone somewhere may learn from what I’m saying and stop with immediate effect treating grassroots coaches like employees.
I will start by saying I love the game and I love coaching with all my heart, I have coached grassroots football for 6 years now and on average devote about 10-15 hours per week. On top of this I also have a full time job and a family with all the job/family commitments like everyone else.
I will also add that most people who give up 10-15 hours per week of there time for charitable or community work are well regarded and at the very least thanked for there efforts.
When I first started 6 years ago with a bunch of 5 year olds with parents who had no expectations of grandeur and we’re happy to watch their children play.
I can’t tell you when or why this changed but instead of the nice texts “really appreciate that little talk you had with x he’s buzzing about what you said” or “thanks so much for taking little x and bringing him home, I would of been really stuck”
I now feel like I’m being treat like an employee of the parents with virtually every text or conversation being
- A complaint
- A request to do something or buy something
- A problem
- My training needs improving
- The facilities we use aren’t good enough
- The way we play isn’t good enough
- Referees at the league aren’t good enough
- The league isn’t ran well enough
- Other teams have better strips/tracksuits/balls etc etc
Before I go any further the subs are £15 per month.
I want to know at what point I turned into an employee!!
I started this as a fun hobby to give something back and to be a role model for my son to look upto.
I can honestly say now that I dread games, dread training as there’s always an issue no matter how tiny and it has slowly but surely wore me down.
Please if you are a parent reading this just give your coach a little bit of credit for spending his or her time with your child, don’t criticise everything they say or do. Of course they will make mistakes because there just level 1 coaches trying to do a little coaching with kids. Every once in a while even give them a pat on the back and say “Cheers” as it means more than you will ever imagine.
It is with a heavy heart that I will be walking away from Grassroots as this grassroots coach has had enough.
Yours in sport
Anon
