Coaches of youth sport teams, what is the number one challenge you?
Practices tend to be the worst issue: No matter when I plan them, they conflict with some family's extant plans it seems. I prefer to do two hour blocks of practice at a time, at least twice a week for U-13 teams and about five times per week for older teams. I run goal-tending practice as its own deal aside from full-team practices. With extra practices for goalies and for other players who need it, we can reach around 16-18 hours per week which is about what is recommended (see the NCAA 20-hour rule for college in contrast). Younger kids are an additional challenge because they cannot yet drive so sometimes parents or older siblings are tardy coming to pick them up. My league has a rule coaches cannot give athletes rides home or otherwise be totally alone with young athletes (I helped design this rule: they wanted additional safeguards against child molesters and I said look, beyond background checks and all we already do, the most iron-clad measure is to say coaches never are to be alone with an athlete one-on-one. Yes, it presents problems at times for honest coaches who are good people, but it's THE one thing that can best ensure no possibility of abuse. I hate that we live in a world with sick people where we have to take such measures, but we do.) So, if no one picks up a kid, you're stuck with him until someone does pick him up. Also, some kids ride bikes to practice and while some parents will hardly let their child walk two feet alone, others see no issue at all with letting a pre-teen boy ride his bike five miles home in the dark on the side of a highway. And when I see that happen, I have to have a conversation with that parent that maybe car-pooling with another family is a better idea. So my point here is practices and their logistics can be tough. Games and travel can also but you normally can point your finger at someone in the league brass, such as the Director of Competition, for game schedules and the like, not yourself.