Nothing is easy in sports, especially when it comes to youth football.

This is my son’s eleventh season playing youth football and while his experience has been mostly fun, enriching and exciting, there have also been some sad times. As parents, we don’t get an official handbook with instructions when our child is born. When it comes to handling youth football issues, it’s kind of like a microcosm of life…you just have to know your child and give them the best guidance you can.

Playing Time

Playing time has always been a huge topic of conversation for me. It’s something that we all as a family on both ends of the spectrum and on all fields, not just the tackle field. Whether it’s tackle or flag football or youth or high school football, playing time is an issue that every player and parent must deal with.

I’ve had a son who was only getting a handful of plays each game at the pee-wee level and I’ve had a son who was barely touching the ball in flag football. In both situations, all you can do is keep encouraging your child to work hard. There’s not much you can say to ease the pain they’re feeling, but what you can do is try your best to keep their spirits up, try talking to the coach about the situation and then perhaps even look at other program options for your kids.

Losing

Another disappointment in youth football is losing, which can certainly be hard for parents. All kids deal with loss differently and that’s proven in my house. My older son hates, and I mean hates, to lose. I guess this is both good and bad – good in the sense that he’s got a desire to succeed, but bad in that he’s hard to deal with after a loss. On the other hand, my younger son will be disappointed with a loss, but he has a more positive perspective where he knows it’s okay, he still had fun and now can work harder the next time.

It’s important for parents to try and put things into perspective for children who take losing as hard as my older son does. I remember after a tough overtime playoff loss a few years ago, he was downright impossible to deal with for a few hours after the game. When we got home, he took a shower and went to his room to decompress.  The best thing my wife and I could do was just give him some space for a little while and then try to find something we could to help get his mind off it.

Losing stinks, but life goes on. This applies to youth football too.

Position Play

Last on the list but not least problematic, there is the disappointment of not getting to play the position you want. In the case of my son… he’s the starting center on his middle school team, but he wanted to help in other areas and that’s not happening for him. What we’ve tried to do to help him is reinforce the fact that every play on offense starts with him snapping the ball and that’s a huge responsibility.

What’s also important to realize is that if you work hard enough in life, good things will come to you. Disappointment is part of life and it happens all the time in football. Just try to have your kids keep things in perspective, continue to work hard and not get too down when things don’t go their way. 

Peter is a sports anchor for the CBS Sports Radio Network, FOX News Headlines 24/7 and WCBS 880 Radio in New York. His son Bradley plays middle school football on Long Island and is a participant in the U.S. National Team program while his younger son Jared plays flag football. Peter, his wife Sheryl and the boys are busy cheering on the New York Jets when they’re not at a youth football field.