On the Olympics, the presidential race, and the enduring influence of athletic coaches

By Jean Rhodes

Athletic coaches are having a moment. There were heartwarming dispatches from the Olympics, including the role that Penn State Coach Randy Jepson played in the ascendance of pummel horse star, Stephen Nedoroscik. As one of Coach Jepson’s athletes said, “Randy Jepson truly felt like a second dad. He had a way about him that made me want to earn his respect and show him my best self on and off the mat.” And then there’s VP Candidate, Coach Tim Walz. As reported in an NPR story, Mitch Salsbery was a freshman on the varsity football team Walz helped coach that won the State championship. “You know, a lot of coaches will bring energy – kind of that fake energy, where it’s rah, rah, rah. But Mr. Walz brought passion every day. He loved to coach. He loved to teach. And he had a way of pushing people to meet their potential – of making you want to be better, says Salsbery. Another student asked a NYT reporter to, “Think of any of those sports movies where the team is down going into the fourth quarter, and all it takes to turn the game around is a motivational speech from the coach,” he said. “That was his bread and butter.”

Memoirs and autobiographical accounts of athletes often also abound with stories of coach mentors who provide support both on and off the field. For example, writer E.M. Swift described the enduring influence Coach Ward in shaping his identity and character during adolescence: “ Without even knowing it, we learned. How to win and lose. How to practice. To hustle. To be accountable for our actions. To laugh at our mistakes. After we left the Day School, we went on with our lives, but within each of us Coach Ward’s voice lived on…(Blauner, 2005, pp. 21, 24).

Participation in sports is one of the most common extracurricular activities and, in the US, nearly 50 million children and adolescents participate in organized sports, with three out of four families with school age children having at least one child participating in sports. Beyond winning medals and championships, engaging in youth sports has been linked to a host of benefits–from school grades, attendance, preference for more challenging classes, attaining educational goals, and improved college attendance. Research has shown that high school varsity sports in particular is positively associated with achievement in reading, math, civics, science, and vocabulary. Researchers have noted that these benefits stem from many factors, including exposure to prosocial values and peers, as well as improvements in self-esteem and personal and social self-efficacy. Likewise, sports participation provides a context for learning mastery, persistence, and self-discipline.

Research

Despite the prevalence of news stories and testimonials, few studies have used empirical methods to delve into the role and influence of coaches who become mentors to their players. To address this gap, my colleagues and I conducted a study examined the prevalence and influence of coach mentors, as well as socio-demographic predictors of access to coach mentors. In a recent study  led by researcher Kirsten Christensen, we drew on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative study of adolescent social, environmental, behavioral, and biological functioning over time. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use quantitative methods to examine longitudinal associations between athletic coach mentors and adolescent developmental outcomes. Our sample of over 12,000 student across over 120 schools nationwide, showed some interesting trends and longterm associations.

Approximately 4.5% of the sample identified a coach or athletic director as their primary natural mentor during adolescence, a rate comparable to the prevalence of natural mentors who were maternal grandmothers (4.8%), uncles (4.6%), minister/priest/rabbi/religious leaders (4.1%), employers (4.2%), or friend’s parents (4.0%). Coach mentors were more prevalent as natural mentors than maternal grandfathers (2.4%), paternal grandparents (1.7% grandmothers; 1.0% grandfathers), coworkers (3.9%), neighbors (1.4%), and doctor/therapist/social workers (.4%). These statistics support film, book, and other popular accounts of the importance of coaches in youth lives.

Moreover, having a coach mentor was associated with an increased likelihood of completing high school and college, even when co-varying for demographic variables, baseline participation in sports, and academic functioning. This finding builds on past research showing the beneficial effects of sports involvement on youth academic engagement. However, results suggest that mentorship from a coach appears to be influential above and beyond the benefits youth gain from simply participating in sport activities. Moreover, coach mentors appear to have an impact on academic persistence when co-varying for baseline academic functioning, suggesting that it is not merely the best students who both connect with coach mentors and go on to succeed academically.

Findings also point to several socio-demographic factors that may influence access to coach mentors during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Male youth were more likely than female youth to endorse having a coach mentor, despite general trends for female adolescents to identify natural mentors more frequently (Raposa et al., 2017). Females are less likely to participate in sports, likely in part because of fewer societal expectations regarding their participation and reduced access to a wide variety of sports teams (Sagas & Cunningham, 2014). Although gender disparities have lessened over the past 30 years, males continue to have significantly greater access to school and community sports, with an average of 1 in every 2.4 girls as compared to 1 in every 1.7 boys participating in high school sports nationally (Sagas & Cunningham, 2014; Woods, 2011).

Likewise, students from lower SES backgrounds were less likely than their more privileged peers to nominate a coach mentor. There are significant costs (i.e., pay-to-play fees, equipment, time) associated with sports participation, and income has been consistently associated with youth sports participation (Sagas & Cunningham, 2014).

Conclusions

Particularly given the impact of coach mentors on academic outcomes, it is important to consider the potentially far-reaching implications of policies that restrict access to sports participation for certain kinds of youth. Addressing the gender- and class-based barriers to sports participation will ensure that more youth have access to this potentially important developmental asset. This should include expanding opportunities for affordable sports involvement, as well as ensuring equal investment in athletic programs. At the same time, policy makers must be made aware that cuts in extracurricular programs represent lost opportunities, not just for youths’ athletic development, but for the kind of mentoring that can shape enduring success.

 

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Table 1. Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Matrix for Key Study Variables
Variable % of sample M(SD) Range 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. Gender (female)
54.4% — —
2. White race
56.7% — — -.02*
3. Age
15.38(1.67) 11-21 -.05** -.04**
4. Socio-economic status†
53.10(28.00) 10-100 -.03** .21** .01
5. Married parents
73.5% — — -.02 .17** .02 .40**
6. Have mentor
74.7% — — .03* .05** -.01 .08** .04**
7. Have coach mentor
4.5% — — -.09** .04** -.03* .06** .03* .10**
8. Sports participation
96.3% — — -.16* .06** .00 .02 .03* .01 .03**
9. Mean grades
2.84(.75) 1-4 .14** .13** -.09** .2** .14** .11** .06** -.01
10. High school completion
95.7% — — .04** .04** .03** .15** .05** .07** .03** .01 .20
11. College completion
36.5% — — .08** .04** .00 .32** .12** .11** .09** -.01 .43** .16**
Note: *p< .01, **p< .001
†Socioeconomic status in thousands of dollars

 

Table 2. Logistic regression testing the association between coach mentorship and academic achievement
High School Completion College Completion
Variable OR SE p-value 95% CI OR SE p-value 95% CI
White Race .65 .16 .08 .40 – 1.06 .89 .18 .59 .60 – 1.34
SES 1.03 .01 <.01 1.02 – 1.04 1.03 .00 <.01 1.02 – 1.04
Female Gender 1.20 .33 .50 .70 – 2.07 .89 .15 .47 .64 – 1.23
Mean Grades 4.02 .64 <.01 2.94 – 5.50 5.10 .70 <.01 3.88 –6.69
Sport Participation 1.51 1.18 .59 .33 – 7.05 .91 .36 .82 .42 – 2.00
Coach Mentor 10.43 10.52 .02 1.42 – 76.66 2.73 .71 <.01 1.63 – 4.58

Note: Covariates include race, SES, gender, grades, and participation in sports

 

Table 3. Sociodemographic factors predicting report of having an athletic coach natural mentor
Variable Odds Ratio Standard Error p-value 95% CI
White race 1.21 .24 .34 .82 – 1.78
Socioeconomic status 1.01 .00 .01 1.00 – 1.01
Gender (female) .39 .08 <.01 .26 – .58
Married parents 1.37 .32 .18 .01 – .04