Mentoring in Sports for the Development of the Successful High School Coach

Abstract

This study involves the surveying of current high school coaches in the state of North Dakota who are certified by the National Federation of High Schools through the completion of the required courses, including “The Fundamentals of Coaching”, “Concussion Diagnosis and Prevention”, as well as CPR, First Aid and AED certification in a current, active status. The participant coaches (n=113), were sent a survey through email using the Qualtrics Survey Program. This survey contained documentation of demographic information, coaching history, opinions regarding issues in coaching and how they are/can be addressed. This survey also discussed influences in the coaches life and how they have shaped their coaching careers. Coaching education and mentoring suggestions are also offered by the subjects as ways to improve the coaching job field as well as struggles they see mentoring bringing if a program were to be introduced.Results indicated that the majority of coaches would be open to mentoring programs in their school. This includes communication sessions, coaching education, sport specific coaching development, and time for personal interaction with other coaches aimed at creating relationships and discussing professional successes, coaching issues, and questions they have. Results also show a trend happening. There is a shortage of coaches with 11-20 years of experience and a large number of head coaches that have less than five years of experience. This trend is hinting to coaches leaving the profession after ten years, with not a lot of experienced people left to take over. Young coaches lead to a large learning curve, immaturity with dealing with certain situations, and lack the experience of actually teaching the game itself.