Youth Hockey Coach Shortage: An Endangered Species?

The growing shortage of youth hockey coaches

Key Points

• Coaching turnover is at an all-time high.
• Hockey coaches who are doing their job are being pushed out or voluntarily stepping away from the toxicity of some parents.
• Good kids that are coachable are a product of good parenting.
• If we don’t reverse this trend soon, good coaches will become the modern-day dinosaurs.

By Dan Bauer

youth hockey coach shortage

Why do we always need to swing the pendulum so far in one direction? Why do we always think there must be a better way and continue to take a wrecking ball to the old school methods that served us so well?

Before you rudely cut me off and interrupt me like I am a conservative panelist on CNN or a liberal on Fox News, let me explain. I am not suggesting we return to the days of Woody Hayes grabbing a player by the facemask, or Bobby Knight tossing chairs across the gymnasium. I am not advocating for a return to team hazing initiations, denying water during the heat of a summer workout or berating players publicly. That is simply swinging the pendulum too far back in the opposite direction.

I am simply imploring that we allow coaches to coach and not cuddle up to the popular methods of genteel parenting. This style of raising children hasn’t aged well, and the fruits of it are soft and entitled young adults who are completely unprepared for life’s impending challenges. 

Why youth hockey coaches quit

Coaching heads continue to roll from the vindictive parental guillotine that won’t hold their own kids accountable, but has no issues with slandering and berating coaches. From high school down into the jungle of youth sports, coaches who are doing their job are being pushed out or voluntarily stepping away from the toxicity of these Jekyll and Hyde parents. These factors contribute directly to the growing youth hockey coach shortage.

Mirroring a current cultural theme, it is the minority that are making the most noise. I will maintain that most parents understand the role of coaches and the job we expect them to do. They do not always agree with everything but have the intelligence and restraint to allow their kids to be coached. For those parents, I will continue to beat this drum that your restraint should be shelved when it comes time to support your coach.

Manipulating words and their meaning, another new and annoying fad, seems to be trying to redefine coaching.

If a coach can’t sit a player for a shift when they repeatedly make the same mistake that has been pointed out to them—without emotionally crippling the player and igniting a parental firestorm—then you don’t need a coach, you need a cheerleader who will jump up and down with joy regardless of the situation.

When a player crosses the line and argues with an official or throws a fit because of a call, and the coach can’t calmly reprimand the player without a hostile response from the player and the parents, then you don’t need a coach, you need a fun-loving babysitter who doesn’t really want to discipline anybody.

If the shift totals and ice-time minutes don’t meet the player’s and parent’s expectations, and the body language response is pouting or anger and the coach gets a call, email or text from the parents, then you don’t need a coach, you need a kindergarten teacher to make sure everything is fair.

Don’t sign your kids up for a sport if neither of you are capable of handling criticism or coping with adversity or failure. Good kids that are coachable are a product of good parenting and, well, you can figure out the other half of that statement. If you want your player to learn anything from this experience, you will need to learn to get in the back seat, close your mouth and let your athlete drive.

This is after all their journey, not yours. 

Coaching youth hockey today

Soft parenting is based on warmth and comfort. Athletics is full of cold, hard truths, conflict, competition, structure and challenging the athlete to escape their warm comfort zone. If you as a parent are incapable of pushing your child and holding them accountable, that is your choice. But expecting a coach to do the same is ridiculous.

If you make life for your kids a never-ending rainbow of delight, without rules or expectations and without trial and failure, life on their own will be a thunderstorm of challenges they are unprepared to handle. Life will soak them, because you didn’t allow them to create their own umbrella.

Athletics guided by competent coaches who are allowed to coach your kids, and not just be a hall monitor or overprotective expectant mother, will provide an experience that prepares them for the inevitable hardships life brings. They will learn that nothing great comes without hard work and that attitude, perseverance and decision making will determine who they ultimately become and what they can accomplish.

The body count of Wisconsin’s current high school coaches is at an even dozen. That calculates into the same discount you can get at a home improvement store. And that number will likely grow before next season. I know of at least one other coach that survived an unwarranted parent ambush.

Admittedly, I do not know the circumstances in every one of these changes. But I know quite a bit about many of them. Often these dismissals are about playing time or a lack of wins, but no administrator will ever openly admit the latter. Or they run out the same tired cliches like, “we need a change in direction or a new voice.”

When it comes to evaluating coaches, we have lost our way. we have forgotten what their job really encompasses.

Good coaches all bring the same voice because there is no secret sauce to success. They just package it differently. Ice time will still be earned, discipline required, effort and compete rewarded, decisions assessed and selfishness intolerable.

I have had coaches tell me that their administration personnel never made it out to a game, but they magically have the data to support making a change. Some are given a pink slip without warning; no in-season communication of a problem, no meetings, just a gentle push out the door.

That is administrative incompetence and dismissal of the wrong person.

Parent and player surveys are a popular evaluation tool used today. But instead of being used as discretionary feedback for improvement, their comments are viewed as gospel and lead to the “execution” of good coaches. When it comes to evaluating coaches, we have lost our way—we have forgotten what their job really encompasses.

I can safely say that no competent coach will ever make every player and parent happy throughout an entire season. The unrealistic expectations that exist today make that impossible. There will always be parents who want the coach gone—every season. I will never defend unethical, toxic coaches that have no business blowing a whistle. I will however defend honest, competent, passionate, character-building coaches who are just doing their job, until my last breath.

It’s that important to me.

The youth hockey coach shortage: Why good coaches are disappearing

That takes us up to date where coaching turnover is at an all-time high. Programs continue to cater to those disgruntled parents and believe that the next coach will be different. That revolving door of coaches is the quicksand that sinks programs into mediocrity and puts good coaches on the shelf. The result? A youth hockey coach shortage.

We have created a shortage of officials because of similar behaviors, and if we don’t reverse this trend soon, good coaches will become the modern-day dinosaurs.

Dan Bauer is the owner/operator of Hockey by Bauer, editor of Locker Room Logic and Girls Editor of Wisconsin Prep Hockey. This article originally appears at Wisconsin Prep Hockey.net.