Volunteer coaches as mentors: Tapping a natural resource

by Jean Rhodes

A family friend sent this joyous video of her dad coaching a youth hockey team last week. The pride in Braxton’s face is just incredible and, as  Michael Lewis notes, this moment is likely to endure for years to come.

A few people, and a few experiences, simply refuse to be trivialized by time. There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child’s mind; it’s as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever. I’d once had such a teacher. His name was Billy Fitzgerald, but everybody just called him Coach Fitz. Michael Lewis, in Coach

indeed, youth sports play a major role in the lives of our nation’s young people. The National Council on Youth Sports estimates that more than 35 million youth between 8 and 19 participate in some form of youth sports each year, representing 66% of boys and 35% of girls in the U.S. These coach mentors mentors can facilitate identity formation as boys internalize their mentor’s desirable masculine traits and incorporate their mentor’s appraisals into their sense of self. When relationships are emotionally attuned, and sustained over a sufficient period of time, these processes are amplified, counteracting the developmental vulnerability that many boys experience when they lack a consistent male presence in their lives.

Drawing from teh national Add Health study, Kraft et al. (2023) found that, although only slightly more female students (15.4 percent) than male students (14.8 percent) nominated a school-based natural mentor, this varied by mentor type. Female students were more likely to nominate teachers and counselors, whereas male students were much more likely to nominate coaches, with 71 percent of coach-mentored students being male (Kraft et al. 2023). My team drew on this data and found that youth who nominated a coach mentor were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of both high school and college completion, even after controlling for sports participation and baseline academic achievement (Christensen et al. 2019).

At first glance, these findings might suggest that boys have ample opportunities to engage with teachers, coaches, and other male role models in their schools and communities. However, with the decline in the number of teachers and
reduced public support for extracurricular programs and enrichment activities, opportunities for extended interaction between boys and caring nonparental male adults have diminished.

The proportion of male public school teachers declined sharply over the past 35 years, from approximately 30 percent in 1987 to 23 percent by 2022 (NCES 2023). Males now represent only 3 percent of preschool teachers, about 20 per-
cent of K–8 teachers, and 43 percent of high school teachers (Miller 2025; NCES 2023). Positive connections with teachers are considered one of the most important ingredients in promoting positive student development (Pianta et al. 2012). The decline of male teachers in the classroom reduced the availability of male mentors and increased reliance on volunteer coaches rather than traditional teacher-coaches. Today, about only half of school-based coaches are teachers, a departure from historical patterns in which school athletics were predominantly supervised by teacher-coaches, who are better positioned to support students’ academic success. At the same time, as youth sports become increasingly expensive, participation rates among boys from lower-income families are dropping sharply (Drape and Belson 2025; Project Play 2021).

More generally, growing income inequality and an overall decline in youth athletic leagues, neighborhood associations, labor unions, church attendance, and community group participation have reduced the availability of male role models. In the absence of consistent access to positive male role models, boys and young men are increasingly influenced by celebrities, athletes, politicians, and online influencers, who may promote and reinforce coarse, harmful masculine behaviors and expectations (Robb and Mann 2025; Kearney and Levine 2020). This is particularly consequential given new findings suggesting that encouragement is most motivating to adolescents when it comes from people who know both their abilities and the specific domain they are working in (e.g., a math teacher who has seen their progress in math, rather than a generic authority figure or a peer offering vague praise). Across three studies, youth said they were more likely to seek out, trust, and act on encouragement from such “knowledgeable” adults and peers; their responses suggest that, for boys in particular, role models who are both
attuned to their strengths and fluent in the activities they care about (sports, trades, academic subjects) may be especially well positioned to help them sustain effort and engagement (Asaba et al. 2025).

Breaking it down: What do coaches do?

To better understand the coach-youth relationship, researchers Ron Smith and Frank Smoll identified practices that increase players’ enjoyment, build competence, and keep them playing the sport. In particular, they observed 70 male youth baseball coaches, painstakingly coding more than 80,000 of their behaviors. (The typical coach engages in over 200 “codeable” behaviors during an average game). Not surprisingly, youth who felt better about themselves, the team, and the sport when they played for coaches who were generous in praise; responded to mistakes with encouragement and sound technical instruction; and who emphasized teamwork, fun, and improvement. Importantly, the researchers also found that 95 percent of children who played for coaches who had been trained in these positive behaviors returned to the same sports program the following seasons. Likewise, Hodges and Franks (2002) have cited considerable empirical evidence that supports the use of positive feedback and detailed instruction in encouraging student’s enjoyment and sense of pride.

Conclusion

Coaches are more than instructors and strategists. They can play a vital role in shaping a young person’s decision to continue in a sport, commitment to improvement, and identity. With training and support, the millions of men and women who volunteer to coach youth sports could be mindful about their position as role models and mentors and encourage players to, in the words of football coach Ara Parasheghian, “make his players see what they can be
rather than what they are.”

Michael Lewis reflects on his Coach Fitz