A Youth Soccer Magazine

The Role of Coaches in Fighting Drugs

Barry R. McCaffrey, Director ONDCP

The job of a coach is to produce winners. A good coach can forge a team from a disparate cast of individuals, nurture raw talent into seasoned excellence, and give his team the skills and confidence necessary to achieve. Although success on the field is always preferred, as any coach knows, the scoreboard is not always the best measure of performance. Nearly every coach has experienced a "successful losing season;" a season where the character of the team's players outshined the record the team posted. At every level of sport, nurturing true winners is about helping develop character, confidence, and life-skills. Coaches play vital roles as mentors, instilling in our children the values, abilities and understanding needed down the road when the field of play is far larger than 100 yards of fresh cut grass with boundaries clearly marked in white chalk. This role requires coaches to be aware of the obstacles young people face and to steer them clear of these risks.

Ask the majority of adults to name the number one risk facing our children, and they will answer: "illegal drug use." Each day, over eight thousand kids try an illegal drug for the first time. One-in-four twelfth graders is a current drug user; among eighth graders, the rate is one-in-eight. Coaches see the effects of drug use on youth every day.

The young football receiver high on marijuana has so compromised his motor skills that the winning touchdown pass sails by him as he gropes for the ball's shadow; that same night, the same impaired motor skills may make him miss a turn while driving his car on a curvy road. The basketball point-guard using heroin will miss the last practice before the state championship because her craving for a hit will overcome her sense of responsibility; later, these same dependencies may cause her to use drugs while pregnant or to lose a job for being always absent.

Despite these dangers, the message the athletic world is sending our children about drugs is at best mixed, at worst dangerous. Not a season goes by without some player being exposed as a drug user. Far too often, the response is a slap on the wrist and a swift return to the lineup. Our young people see their sports heroes using drugs while society condones the practice. We need to change this. The athletic field, the ball court, and the gym must all become drug-free zones where the ideal -- fair competition, clean in mind and body -- of sports is practiced.

Coaches must be leaders in this effort. It is up to you to set an example, and to watch over the young people you coach. Keep an eye out for danger signs. Where you find indications that a child is at risk, intervene. Work with parents to obtain counseling for young people who require it. Most of all, help us prevent drug use in the first place. Send all of your players this simple, strong message: "If you use, you lose. Be a winner."

****************************** Do you have any personal experience in successfully dealing with the use of drugs by your players? Would you like to have your thoughts and ideas published in an upcoming issue? Please let us know.

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