Before the Schedules Take Over

Issue 001 - Fall Lead-In Series

Schedule announcements, equipment lists, a team group chat already. Fall sports move fast once they start. Before the schedules take over, it helps to slow down long enough to ask what kind of season your athlete is entering. Not just what team they're on or what the calendar looks like. What they're carrying into it.

1 Idea

Your athlete may need a different scoreboard than the one everyone else is watching.

Wins, stats, team placement, and playing time are easy to see.

Other things are easier to miss:

• How your athlete handles a bad practice
• How they respond to a smaller role
• Whether they still enjoy showing up
• Whether they are growing in confidence, resilience, humility, and joy

Performance matters, but it is not the only scoreboard worth watching.

1 Resource

🎙️Youth Sports United Podcast: Kayla Buck on Normalizing Parent Uncertainty in Youth Sports

Buck says out loud what many sports parents feel: I'm not sure if I'm doing this right.

Athletes get coached, coaches get trained, but parents are often left to figure it out as they go.

The move worth borrowing: Treat this season as something to learn, not something you're supposed to already have mastered.

1 Conversation Starter

Ask your athlete:

Then listen longer than feels natural. Skip the fixing, correcting, and coaching tips for a moment. Just listen.

Worth Remembering

From Rising Athlete Project

Rising Athlete Project creates parent field guides and free resources for families navigating key youth and school sports transitions: the first season, middle school athletics, and the jump to high school.

The goal is to help families slow down, ask better questions, and understand what actually matters before they are trying to figure it out mid-season.

Stephen Anderson

Founder, Rising Athlete Project

P.S. Know a parent, coach, AD, or youth sports leader who would appreciate this? Feel free to forward it along.