Im in the belief that you follow good coaching. How difficult is it to retainfind good coaches? are coaches paid to help with the amount of time they spend each and every year?

Find a coach who is passionate but also a genuinely good person. He is going to spend a lot of time with your kid so that should be pretty important.

But not too passionate, or spending too much time with your kid, if you get my meaning.

They are out there. Lots of good hockey guys in this area. If you're not happy where you are right now, start networking to find out some names, and hit the phones in January to get to know the coaches for the teams you are considering for next year.

Question, specifically for E9 and Fed Mite and Squirt coaches. Are these paid positions? or are these guys simply volunteers?

Over 195,000 children in Massachusetts live in poverty, and you're worried about finding a "good" coach for your bender?

I'm more concerned that after a lifetime of collecting healthy paychecks from taxpayers, you have managed somehow to save so little of it for retirement. First time in a long time that someone wanted to be President for the increase in take home pay.

Guess there isn't much left after hookers and blow, you crazy guy.

What an a-hole thing to write. So I should pi$s my money away on something that is not beneficial to my child because there are people living in poverty? What else shouldn't I worry about? Where my son goes to school? Who his friends are?

You should stop reading and posting on this board and get back to the food bank you are volunteering at...since you dedicate your life to helping the poor, correct?

The pay is generally the cost of one player. So if you pay 3000 for your little bender that's what each coach is paid. If the coaches kid plays then he / she plays for free and coach doesn't get paid unless the program is very generous then kid plays for free and daddy gets paid. They generally get free camps and skills for free too, if offered by program.

You thought your coach was just a nice volunteer?

LOL. He's a good guy, and a good coach, but he's a dad coach. We'll see how that pans out.

You think all of the coaches are being paid... usually it's the head coach gets paid or kid plays for free. May get additional pay if they coach another team.

the norm is head coach gets paid, or they let his kid play for free. Assistants are strictly volunteer.

The problem is, not everyone can or has the ability to be a good coach, whether it be a new daddy or a retired pro. Each organizations should make it a priority to develop coaches by having a coaching coordinator who oversees everything. Trust me, it is beneficial to having your squirt do the same drills that the bantams and U18 teams are doing. Especially if they have been doing them every years since mites and then just adding difficulty and speed as they progress.

Each head coach is paid. Sometimes programs are generous and pay the assistants. It's not that much money when you factor in all the time but also very good exercise.

New to youth club hockey have a 09 that I hope will join the ranks in the next few years

my two cents you'd think with all the recent addition of programs to choose from the well would run dry for good coaches. I'd assume there are only so many coaches who have kids in a certain age brackets and there would be a scamble to grab them up or keep them from leaving.

Other thoughts....
-What happens if a coaches kid is not developing as quickly as others
-Does winning matter as far as organization is concerned
-Do all kids play tuition or do the better kids play free

I have been coaching for a pretty long time and I have seen a lot. I have three kids that I have coached up through the ranks, 2 boys and a girl. My older son and daughter were high level players, my little guy is probably going to play town forever or maybe give it up in another year or so. So I have seen a varied spectrum.

I have been around the game my whole life. Played college hockey, was a graduate assistant, coached some juniors for a few years when I first graduated.

I think I have done a pretty good job in the 12 years that I have coached youth hockey. I have had kids and their families who have stayed with me for years, and followed me when I moved orgs. Don't get me wrong, I am sure you can find a good number of parents who will say I am the devil and an idiot because I didn't feel what I was doing was a good fit for their kid, or maybe for them as parents and the player was cut from the team.

In my experience, 2 different club boys programs, 2 town programs, 1 girls club program spread out across 3 children, most organization owners don't really know much about what good coaching is. They understand winning, they understand money, and they understand fielding complaints.

When I say they understand winning, they understand what it is and they want it. They don't really care how you get it. If you go enough seasons in a row without it, they will replace you. They also know that at the end of the day, they need 9F, 6D 2G and an alternate or two on each team to pay the bills.

If a guy can get them that, win enough and keep the complaints to a minimum that will suffice. In some cases, that is a "good enough" coach to them.

They also know that if they lose a good coach, they will be able to find a "good enough" coach to replace him. There are a lot of those guys out there. In a lot of ways, to owners, coaches are like players. There are plenty of them out there looking for a spot.

I have yet to come across an organization that has has an approach they want all coaches to use. Beginning of the season there is a coaches meeting and maybe one a few weeks before tryouts, but there is no unified view how coaches should coach. In some orgs, the skills guys are hired guns, in others they are associated with the org. In the case where they are associated with the org, you at least get a year over year consistency in how skills are being run across the org.

In my 12 years of doing this, there were 2 years where the org I was in sent out a parent survey. I was in the org for 6 years. Not sure what they did with that info, but none of that feedback ever made it back to me. I asked some of my fellow coaches if they ever heard anything and no one I spoke to ever did.

I just think a lot of the people running these orgs are business guys first, hockey guys either second or not at all.

One of the richest owners around essentially bought his org to make sure he had the utmost control over where and how his kids played. Basically reinvented bantam major in this area into U14 right around the time his son was going to be a bantam major and wasn't quite sure what to do about high school. Now his little guy skates 5 time per week and his mite major team has their own locker room.

As for the coach's kid not developing, I was lucky, my older one were always upper-middle of the pack on their teams in club, my little tried club for a year, but he was over his head so we moved him back to town. In my opinion that was in his best interest and keeps him more engaged. Not all coaches will do that.

From an org's perspective I have seen a couple of approaches. In some cases, the elite coach is asked to moved down or move along. I have also had one of the owners tell me he didn't care that one of his elite teams had a coaches son who was way over his head. In his mind having a good coach for that team was worth the sacrifice of having a weak player.

As coach, I really appreciate the way that guy thinks. However, I also know that would have put my son in a tough position for a lot of reasons and I that is why I took my kid back to town.

I have never had a kid play for my team for free just because he was a stud. I have heard of it happening. I have had one parent not play for me because another org offered him 50% off tuition, or at least he claimed that.

That is basically all I know.

I am sure I will take a lot of flack for being a daddy coach, but there it is.

Nice informative post.

Probably at the 1/4 pole of a similar path.

Very informative thank you

Our assistants dont get a thing

Why should assistants get compensated. Half of them can't even open the door on time.

My kids coaches really seemed focused on their own kids more than anything. It is very frustrating.

I find the term daddy coach to be hilarious. You think Claude Julian is going to come down and coach in the BHL for 3k a year?

No, but it might actually be a good spot for Peter Chiarelli though.

There are tons of really qualified people that would make good non-daddy coaches if the programs would pay them a fair wage - and actually pay them. i know several that have gotten stiffed.

I would think a handful of post college aged kids trying to break into coaching would jump at the chance at the higher youth levels. Build a little resume and move up the ladder similar to what assistant h.s. coaches are doing.

i love this board because most here think club is the only game in town.

HS teams are always looking for assistants. most coaches would love to have former players return. AND established coaches have contacts throughout the state. so work for me a couple of seasons then i will help to get a higher D1/Catholic team for you to hook on with (as an assistant), then its off to head jobs. ADs prefer varied HS experience, especially ones in which their former heads vouch for them.

and HS season is only 3 months.

Yes, but this thread is on the youth hockey board. Where club is the only game in town.

I agree, these guys exist and some of them do a really good job. However, as others have pointed out, a 25-year-old guy right out of college has no idea how to communicate with a 10-year-boy on a normal day, forget it if the kid is going through something at home or school.

I will never forget a rant I heard a childless, but well-meaning assistant go on about kids tying their own skates. It was a squirt minor team and we had 3 kids with OT issues. OT issues were not on his radar. I know this is a convenient and contrived example, but it demonstrates my point. You would be very lucky to find this kind of guy, who really knows hockey and really knows kids.

Also, add to it, that a guy like this almost by definition could be coaching a team for the very first time. Ask any coach how much they have learned with experience. How many other situations would you put your child in where a non-parent is running the show and learning on the fly for the first time? The hockey season is very long in club hockey. It isn't like a 10 week U8 soccer thing.

I will also say this, and it is a generalization, but I have seen many cases where young, single, well meaning coaches, get offered "real" jobs in October, coaching jobs or just more demanding jobs, and suddenly their commitment to peewee hockey gets lost.

As a parent, I am going to be there. Sure, I'll miss the odd game or practice because I have a job, but I love coaching, and love my kids and I am committed to both.

Someone would have to financially well of to take a job that requires hundreds of hours a year for 3k to coach youth hockey if there kid was not involved. Sure there may be some who do it or supplement their incomes other ways but let's be realistic. Vast majority of all coaches are "daddy coaches" and many of them do a great job.

Tuition would go up by a few hundred dollars and you may or may not be better off. "Professional" coaches will be hit or miss like parent coaches, and many times won't have the faintest idea how to communicate with a kid. Think about that post-college kid...won't have any idea how to deal with young kids. Bantam and up different story.