As school sports teams continue to grow, assistant coaches are becoming an important factor to athletes’ and team success. With many players, head coaches often have a difficult time effectively training everyone with equal amounts of attention. For many, bringing in assistant coaches has helped resolve this issue.
With more assistant coaches, teams are able to help individual players improve their game. Head football coach Nelson Gifford shared that managing a whole football team by himself would make many aspects of coaching more difficult.
“With the number of different sorts of positions and responsibilities that the players have to engage in, it would be impossible for even two people to coach effectively,” Gifford said. “They (assistant coaches) make instruction far more specific and much more efficient. I give them objectives to achieve with their athletes, and those coaches will then design and implement a plan to help those athletes.”
The relationship a head coach has with the athletes differs from one assistant coaches have with athletes. Senior wrestler Daksh Patel feels that he personally depends more on his assistant coach, who can provide more individualized attention.
“The main coach is more team based so he’s not really one-on-one with you, whereas the assistant coach, he’s there with you. He’s gonna help you out longer,” Patel said. “I rely more on my assistant coach. He teaches me a lot more moves because he has more time to spend on me.”
Agreeing with Patel, Gifford emphasized the importance of assistant coaches in providing feedback that leads to better improvement.
“Assistant coaches will often have much closer relationships with their position group than say I as the head football coach,” Gifford said. “For example, the wide receiver player isn’t going to come to me first to ask me about how to improve. They’re gonna go to their position coach. Their position coach is gonna give them the first feedback.”
Freshman basketball athlete Rhia Swaminath expressed how her team would struggle without the help from assistant coaches.
“When we were practicing our own skills, the assistant coach would help us direct and tell us what to focus on,” Swaminath said.
Similarly, Patel shared the setback his team would face without assistant coaches and how they would not have been able to get as far as they did without them.
“If we didn’t have assistant coaches, we would not have won league champs this year,” Patel said. “The assistant coach comes in and they’re able to help us a lot more than just one coach can.”
Becoming an assistant coach not only helps a team improve but also can be beneficial for one’s self. Gifford expressed how the work of an assistant coach is lighter weight than that of a head coach, but they are just as able to help students grow and enjoy their sport.
“Being an assistant coach can be incredibly fulfilling. They focus on the student and the student’s growth,” Gifford said. “You become a head coach, there’s a lot of responsibilities that exist well outside the sport. It’s pure and it’s really just about the kid in the game.”