Episode 38: Kevin Wolma- Navigating Youth Sports

Kevin Wolma recently retired as the Athletic Director at Hudsonville High School. During his tenure in the district, he also taught physical education and health and coached over 30 seasons of tennis, basketball, and golf.

Kevin recently published the book 30 Second Timeout about navigating through the challenges of youth sports. What I love about this book is that Kevin is a parent himself, he has been a coach, and he was an athletic director so he has seen all sides of youth and high school sports. He has some really valuable information for parents to help us navigate that and the way we can talk to our kids to help them have a positive experience.

I hope you get as much out of this conversation as I did!

What we talked about:

3:15- Kevin’s book, 30 Second Timeout

5:25- Supporting your child, their team, and the support team in sport

7:35- The importance of exposing your kids to a variety of sports and activities

13:55- The response to have when your child gets cut from a sports team

16:45- How to teach our kids how to care about the success of their team rather than just individual success

20:50- How we can help change the culture of parents being disrespectful to the officials and ways to show appreciation towards the officials

27:15- Releasing your kid to the game & letting the coach do their thing and not stepping between that

35:15- Best things to say to your kid after a game

38:20- Our biases towards our kids and their skills and wanting them to go into the game

42:05- How to raise hardworking kids

44:55- Kevin’s advice looking back now that his kids are older

47:25- What’s next for Kevin now that he has retired as the Hudsonville Athletic Director

50:35- End of podcast questions

Show notes:

30 Second Timeout

Above the Line by Urban Meyer

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