What does it take to be a coach? How much time does it take? What’s the difference between coaches, co-coaches, or assistant coaches?
You don’t have to be an expert with Legos or computers to be a coach. The kids should do most of the work. If you are not comfortable with computers, ask another parent to help, or give the kids a little extra time to figure it out. We will provide the computers pre-loaded with the software.
How much time do you need? Just the time at meeting, and maybe an extra hour each week (especially for Jr League) to look at what the kids will be doing this week. Once Sr. League gets started, the kids will drive most of the work.
What kind of training is offered? We offer two 3 hour training sessions before the start of the season. For 2019-20, training is scheduled on Dec 7 in Windham and on Dec 15 in Saco. At training you learn about the program and receive everything you need to coach a team through the season. We also offer a couple check-in conference calls where coaches can talk through how things are going for them with their teams.
What materials are provided to coaches? We provide a full team kit, which includes: LEGOs specific for either the Jr or Sr League, a Coaches’ Guide, a computer pre-loaded with software, and contact information for League Coordinators.
Coach, Co-Coach, Asst Coach? For 4 years I have been a coach, and I’ve always asked one parent to step up as an Assistant coach. I followed the provided book to decide what the kids would do each week, and the one or two weeks I could not make it, the Assistant coach would just guide the kids through the exercises. In some meetings we’d split the team in half, and the assistant coach would watch the other group. We’ve also had teams where 2 coaches swapped off, with one coach leading one week, and one coach leading the other week.
The best feedback that we get from coaches is how much fun they had with the kids. It says a lot that many of our coaches return for multiple seasons and even coach in both the Jr and Sr Leagues.