Your part on a game day

Practical guidance for Lakewood Soccer Club families, in English and Spanish, on the four moments where a parent makes the biggest difference to whether a child keeps playing. Before the game: shin guards, food and water, and the two sentences to say in the car. On the sideline: encouragement rather than instruction, the one-voice problem, and why shouting at a referee in New Jersey may mean shouting at a thirteen-year-old. The ride home: five minutes of quiet, letting the player raise the game first, and asking whether it was fun before anything else. And the club’s own ten-line Parent Promise, numbered identically in both languages so a coach can point at one line in a parent meeting. Includes four short films from the NSPCC, Fundació Brafa and the Positive Coaching Alliance, and links to free bilingual child-safety material from the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

Lakewood Soccer Club is a volunteer-run youth soccer club in Lakewood, Ocean County, New Jersey, founded in 1972, for children ages 4 to 18. Call (908) 308-4109 or email info@lakewoodsc.com. Hablamos español.