Every coach has certain reasons for wanting to work with kids and coach youth sports. Weplay Coach of the Week, Steven Jaffe’s reason for wanting to become a coach is quite simple, but he absolutely lives up to his title with his group of young wrestlers.

“I became a coach because I love to teach kids everything I can and help as much as possible,” Steven says, “That’s the way my father taught me.”

Even after seven years of coaching, Steven finds satisfaction in teaching his wrestling team, Hatboro-Horsham Warriors Youth Wrestling, all of the skills and tools they need to be successful athletes.

“Watching my kids succeed out on the mat no matter how they do, win or lose, as long as they do their best,” Steven says, is the best reward he can receive as a coach and he has had many experiences coaching successful wrestlers that he will remember forever.

Steven is very proud of his team and expresses this feeling of delight by noting that the Hatboro-Horsham Warriors are doing well and they are each wrestling to the best of their abilities every week at practice and during competition.

Weplay is used by Steven and the Hatboro-Horsham Warriors to efficiently communicate with one another and post pictures of the exciting memories that take place on the mat.

“I can get a lot of info out to everybody in one shot and my parents can look at photos of the kids,” Steven says in regard to using Weplay as a tool for coaching his wrestlers.

Steven is married and has two boys of his own. His son’s are 12 and 7-years-old and when the Jaffe family wants to go out and have some fun they prefer camping and riding ATVs.

Coach Steven Jaffe’s Three Tips for Success:

1. Have a good attitude

2. Get good coaches to be assistants

3. Support from inside the home is very important for youth athletes

Click here to nominate the next Coach of the Week!

Just about everyone who has played a competitive sport has most likely been subjected to unjust politics surrounding the game. A little distraught by how players are selected on the all-star softball team from the recreational teams in his area, Weplay’s newest Coach of the Week, Brian Parson, made it his mission to never count out any player with the heart and desire for the sport of softball and formed a team of girls willing to put in the hard work and effort to become athletes of the diamond.

“I put 10 girls together of all shapes and sizes. Some were 12,13 and 14 year-olds and we went and played 16 and under travel ball,” Brian says. “We only had three girls that were actually 16 years-old. We finished our first season ranked No. 1 in points in USFA. That team was called LA WAATS.”

The LA WAATS softball girls have “gone on to bigger and better things”, Brian says and he has since organized the Sand Lot Sistas, a softball team out of DeRidder, LA that initially competed in the 10 and under age division and finished 50th out of 644 teams but moved up to the more competitive 12 and under age division six months early.

The Sand Lot Sistas are currently ranked 5th out of 494 teams in the 12 and under division in the nation (USFA), Brian says.

“The reason I coach is to pick girls that no one else gives a chance to shine, mold them, train them to succeed and build a team that works together on and off the field,” Brian says.

Brian has realized overtime that the way he was raised, has been a major inspiration for his coaching philosophy.

Growing up as the child of a single mom, money to play travel baseball was a luxury not available for Brian. He watched all of the kids who’s families had enough money to be on travel teams play knowing all the while he was just as talented, but financial troubles caused him limited baseball opportunities. Ever since this traumatic childhood experience Brian says he made a promise to himself that when he became a coach, no matter what “race, religion, or tax bracket” a child fell in, he would not deny a child the opportunity to play the sport they love.

“There are many great athletes out there that never get noticed because of lack of funds,” Brian says, “With the Sand Lot Sistas we love each other like brother and sister, we don't judge you by money and our favorite thing to do is play ball, but most of all it's to beat the teams that have fancy uniforms and a big buy in to get on their team.” 

This year the Sand Lot Sistas have been ruling the field. Five girls from the team tried out for their junior high softball teams and all of the girls are playing first team and have coaches impressed with their tremendous work ethic.

After three years of coaching, Brian has accumulated a stockpile of memories, but two memories in particular stand out in his coaching file.

The first memory is a more than satisfying comeback win while coaching the LA WAATS. The tournament had become an uphill battle through the loser’s bracket and the LA WAATS were down by seven in the final inning of the game. Player’s heads hung low, but coach Brian knew there was still a chance to win the game. He gave his players a quick pep talk and right then and there: “open up the gun show” became the team’s new motto. The gun show busted wide open and the LA WAATS came back winning the game 9 to 8.

Many softball dad’s usually end up spending Father’s Day away at a tournament since the date of this holiday falls right in the middle of prime softball season. A Father’s Day weekend softball tournament in Lake Charles with the Sand Lot Sistas, will always be a best coaching moment for Brian. His daughter was up to bat and smashed a two-run homer. While passing third base, Brian says his daughter looked at him and said, “Happy Father’s Day Dad!”

“Well, I’m not gonna lie,” Brian says “I pulled my sunglasses off my visor and busted up in tears.”

Brian will always be a coach at heart and jokes if there is life outside of coaching, “I'm an Arborist, I spend every waking moment thinking of ways to improve my team.”

Weplay is a great line of communication for a coach and Brian says it teaches his team to be responsible by checking the team page to see practice times, locations and any new updates. He also notes that posting to the team page is a lot more convenient than making 15 phone calls or sending out emails.

Coach Brian Parson’s Three Keys to Success 

1. Hard work through practice and conditioning!!

2. Educate yourself through books and seminars and form a network of coaches (be careful, make sure you can trust them to not steal your players).

3. Most of all, great parents can build a child. However, your parents must trust that you know what is best on the field.

Click here to nominate the next Coach of the Week!

Sometimes all a coach needs to see is smiling faces from his players to realize coaching youth is unlike any other job in the world. The joy on a child’s face when he or she hits a ball off of a tee for the first time, learns how to dribble a basketball or makes a game-winning save is reason enough to consider coaching youth sports one of the best jobs.

Coach of the Week , 36-year-old David Dunscombe, knows all about the joy on a child’s face when he or she scores a goal or hits a home run.

“I became a youth sports coach because my son/daughter plays sports and I enjoy teaching how to play the game,” David says.

David became interested in coaching youth sports for a couple of reasons. One of those reasons is his 9-year-old son Bryce, who plays hockey and baseball and the other reason is Oliva, David’s 7-year-old daughter, who is a soccer player and participates in dance.

This five-year youth sports coaching veteran has a lot of experience to draw from with a spectacular personal background in sports as a professional roller hockey player in the RHL and PBRHL and as a one-year Rookie A baseball player for the Binghampton Mets.

David is coaching the Royal Oak Yellow Jackets 10 and Under Squirt House hockey team of Madison Heights, MI and they hold an impressive 12-8-3 record on the season.

Watching each child develop their skills is the best experience coaching can bring, David says, and “to see improvement from the first day of the season until the very last day” is a special memory for a coach.

David is married to his wife Denise and works as a patent engineer. He enjoys kicking back to watch sports on T.V. and he also collects sports memorabilia.

David says he loves Weplay and would recommend the site to everyone. He especially appreciates the instant email reminders.

David Dunscombe’s Three Keys to Coaching Success:

1. For young kids let them learn many positions to better educate them.

2. Mix fun into your practice so they want to be there.

3. Don't focus so much on the wins or losses, focus on their development when they are young.

Click here to nominate the next Coach of the Week!

Although softball may not be on the peoples’ minds at the moment, the season is right around the corner and training has begun for Weplay Coach of the Week , Joe Cohoon, and his P.W.S.A. Brantford Bobcats ’98 Girls Softball Team from the province of Ontario in Canada.

Commitment and the ability to teach a set of skills while having fun at the same time could be considered an art form. Moreover, these qualities are the sign of a good coach. Youth sports can have a high turn-around of players and there is something to be said about coaches who are able to keep a stable roster for an extended time. Joe has been coaching softball with the same group of girls for the last three years.

“I became a coach as it is something I really like to do,” Joe says. “I teach phys. ed. for a living so it was an easy transition.”

Joe says some of his favorite memories as a coach have been team parties because spending time with the softball girls and their “fantastic” parents off the field is important for team camaraderie. Joe believes, “The parents deserve to have fun too!”. After all, parents are the ones who drive the players to practice, among other parental duties, and are often taken for granted.

Parents, the unsung heros of youth sports, are not taken for granted on the Bobcats and Joe uses Weplay to make sure of it by utilizing the Weplay calendar of events. The calendar makes lives easier because, “The parents use this to plan their summers,” Joe says.

Other than having a good time on and off the ball field, Joe enjoys helping develop his team’s skills through hard work and goal setting. Setting goals is a great way to be successful and achieving big goals can lead to reaching big dreams.

Joe says one of his best experiences as a coach was two seasons ago when his team won five tournaments and earned the 2nd seed in the province.

Joe has been married to his wife, Leanne, for 15 years and they have three daughters, Paige, 12, who is a member of the Bobcats, Cayla, 10, and Lauren, 5. When Joe finds time outside of teaching and coaching softball, he likes to stay active by playing sports, of course. He plays fastpitch, hockey and loves to golf.

Coach Joe Cohoon’s Top 3 Keys to Success

1. Make sure the players are having FUN..if they are, then you can get them to do anything!

2. Players make mistakes....make sure they learn from them to become better players.

3. Communicate clearly what the team and personal goals are....make sure the players have a say as to what the goals are.

Click here to nominate the next Coach of the Week!

There’s no denying it, successful teams share many common ingredients. The most significant ingredients that make up dream teams extend far beyond the athlete talent pool. Being part of a team requires patience, effort, family support, hard work and of course passion and heart.

Coach of the Week Baretta Taylor and his travel baseball team, The Southside Storm Elite Top Gun/AAU, do not lack any heart or hard work. Baretta has heart and a passion for coaching, but more importantly, he knows how to utilize these intangible qualities to bring out the best in his team.

“The Storm program is what I am most proud of. First, we get to be, in some cases the only true male influence in a child's life. I enjoy teaching the lessons of life through the sports I coach,” Baretta says.

When the pool of players to pick from is not as large as the other teams you play, as is the situation with Baretta’s Southside Storm of Southside, VA, being competitive can be a challenge.

“We take our 12 kids that are selected from a population of about 25,000 and compete against teams pulling and selecting from 300,000 and most of the time come out on top in these David & Goliath battles,” Baretta says. “In 2011 our baseball team played in over 60 games and finished with a .845 winning percentage and won our leagues Winter World Series Championship.”

Baretta has molded a solid and effective coaching philosophy. With eight years of experience already under his belt, he enjoys helping players achieve their goals and watching his team players and parents become a “team family”.

“My advice is simple, play hard with open ears and have a great time,” Baretta says.

Baretta began his career in youth sports coaching his 5-year-old son, Damien. He wanted to teach Damien America’s No. 1 pastime. Damien is now 13 years-old and continues to play baseball while Baretta continues to teach youth about the tradition of America’s pastime.

Expanding on his already impressive coaching career, Baretta recently added youth basketball coach to his resume. Baretta says he is lucky his kids like having their dad for a coach and a wife who is supportive.

Baretta is a South Hill, VA native, husband to wife, Rachel, for almost 13 years and father of two youth athletes, 11-year-old Kaitlyn who plays softball and basketball and Damien, a baseball and basketball player. When Baretta is not coaching youth sports he works as advertising director for the area’s newspaper.

“Advise that I would give to a coach starting out today is if you can live without coaching then don't coach,” Baretta declares. “The passion wakes up with you in the morning an it goes to bed with you at night.”

Baretta Taylor’s Top 5 Keys to Success

1. Become a student of the game.

2. Remember T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More).

3. Learn ways to bring out the best in others and get to know your players.

4. Keep it fun but enforce discipline.

5. Winning is not everything--but making an effort to win is.

Click here to nominate the next Coach of the Week!