“Winning cures all” is a popular saying in the sports world. In youth sports kids tend to prioritize winning to the point that losing becomes the end of the world. Naturally parents will do everything in their power to contribute to their young athletes being able to compete against their peers at a high level. Even though winning matters effective coaching is more vital to the social development of young athletes.

Over the last six years the Pittsburgh Flag Football League (PFFL) has striven to provide children with seasoned and dedicated coaches. Learning how to cope with losing in sports is microsomic of what it means to cope with setbacks in life. Regardless of the outcome of a game, coaches possess the ability to guide their athletes through the highest forms of adversity one might face on a football field for example.

In addition to quality coaching parents should be enrolling their children in sports programs that excel at providing parents with consistently transparent information. Thanks to our user-friendly website and official league app (available in the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play store) parents can stay abreast of vital information for their children including schedule changes and  playoff brackets.

Furthermore, the PFFL places the additional responsibility of keeping parents in the loop with league information on coaches. We understand that due to the hectic lives that many parents lead on a weekly basis the likelihood that parents might miss an important update is high. For this reason we advise our coaches to contact parents prior to scheduled games to ensure that each week all children will be able to compete at their highest potentials. When scheduling conflicts are addressed in advance both coaches and parents are more likely to contribute to the overall competitiveness of their children’s teams.