Dear Coach of young people at ANY level:

"Put me in, Coach, I'm ready to play today." John Fogerty and

all young people everywhere.

The bench. The WHOLE game.

What you do, Coach, when you don't even let a player on your team play

at all during a game is a BIG deal. You don't just "not play him,"

you discount him, you dismiss him, you demean him, you shame him.

When you leave a girl, who has practiced and given her maximum effort,

on the bench for an entire game, your actions separate her out from the

team, labeling her as unworthy, useless, a liability, and an outcast to

the rest of the team. She is NOT these things, of course! But you might

as well have gone over to her and pinned these words to her jersey and

made her wear it the whole game.

Too harsh and too deep an analysis? No, it's not. Think about it. Your

players are people. They are people who think and feel and are being molded

into the young adults they are becoming. And, as members of your team,

they are entrusted to your care. But when you leave them outside the field

of play, you're not caring for them or about them!

I believe the stakes in youth sports are much higher than what they might

seem. Whether you realize it or not, you are in a crucial situation with

the awesome responsibility of helping mold the lives of the young people

entrusted to your care.

Your main job is about much more than "w"s and "l"s.

Again, you are in the crucial situation as coach with the awesome responsibility

of helping mold the lives of the young people entrusted to your care.

A coach who cares about his players as people, and cares about developing

young people, can find all kinds of ways to use his whole team -

so that it is a TEAM. After all, the coach just might need the WHOLE team

at a critical time in a game or a season.

What if this were you, Coach? Is this how you would want to be treated?

Of course not. Is this how you would want the coach to treat your daughter

or your son? Of course not. Ask any of the kids if it would be OK with

them if you did that to them.

The good news is that our young people are remarkably strong people. Stronger,

I dare say, than you or I. They roll with the punches and bounce back

with extreme character and perseverance.

The question for you to answer for yourself is simply this: How important

was the game and the score? Were the games more important than treating

all your team with dignity and respect and honor?

I promise you, if you treat all your team with dignity, respect, and honor,

they'll win more games for you! (How do you think Lou Holtz got South

Carolina to beat Georgia just last weekend? He convinced them that they

were WORTHY enough to WIN!)

And more importantly, if you treat all your team with dignity, respect,

and honor, they will remember you all their lives and be better people

for it. This world will be a better place because of you! But if you treat

your players as only pawns of your power and discount them when they don't

fit into your plans, they'll forget you in an instant and possibly be

adversely affected by the negative influence you had on them at this stage

of their lives. Think how tragic that would be!

As you go through your coaching career, one particular scripture that

might help you to accomplish a long and successful career might be this

one:

"For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses

his own soul?"

I think you lost your soul for just awhile the last time you let a player

suit up and just sit the whole game. But I bet it won't happen as easily

again or without you thinking very hard about the consequences. It's never

too late to change and make amends for past mistakes. The players make

some mistakes on the field. You make some on the sidelines as well. The

game goes on. You can shake it off because you know there's something

more important at stake - a much bigger picture.

Thank you for considering this. We honor you, Coach, and thank you for

dedicating your life to developing young people into great adults.

Good luck the rest of the season and in all the seasons to come.

Just one more thing, "Put me in, Coach, I'm ready to play today!"

(The Rev. Justin Kollmeyer is senior pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran

Church in Fayetteville.)