Quality Sport Coaching in Action: The Application of the National Standards for Sport Coaches to Intercollegiate Sport

Abstract

With no universal educational requirements to coach at the collegiate level (Schempp et al., 2006), a coach may be hired based on past playing experience (Morris et al., 2014), who they know (McCullick et al., 2016), or by demonstrating a strong work ethic (Van Mullem & Croft, 2015). Thus, in reality a coach may be unprepared to lead an athletic team. To overcome this challenge, the National Standards for Sport Coaches (NSSC) can support intercollegiate coaches regarding what a coach needs to know and how they can apply that knowledge in practice (SHAPE America – Society of Health and Physical Educators, 2019). Therefore, through the use of a case study, the purpose of this article is to discuss how the NSSC can be applied in the intercollegiate sport setting to assist coaches in following best practice relative to coaching and coach development.