Coaching Youth Football: How to Become a Youth Football Coach

For someone who’s passionate about the sport, coaching youth football can be a dream job. But it’ll be tough to get hired as one if you’re not familiar with what employers want to see in their applicants.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide. It covers everything there is to know about becoming a youth football coach so you can start taking the steps you need to take to turn your dream into a reality.

Let’s get started.

What is a youth football coach?

A youth football coach leads a football team full of 5-15-year-old players. Someone in this position has a variety of responsibilities, which we’ll dive into below.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main job of a youth football coach is to create a fun, safe, and instructive environment for children and teenagers to get experience with football. As a youth football coach, your job duties will include the following:

• Teaching your players good fundamental football skills
• Designing and leading practices
• Fostering a positive environment in which teamwork and respect thrive
• Setting realistic goals for the team and individual team members and helping them work towards those goals
• Communicating with parents
• Coming up with plays and calling the right ones during games

Qualities

If you’re interested in coaching a youth football team, you’ll need to possess several essential qualities. These include:

• Leadership
• Ability to communicate with young people effectively
• Passion for both football and youth development
• Knowledge of both current offensive and defensive football trends
• Ability to remain calm and collected in stressful situations
• Capable of working well with many different types of people

How much do youth football coaches make?

The average salary for a youth football coach in the United States is between $28,115 and $30,703. But you could earn more or less than this, depending on the state in which you live.

For example, the average salary for a youth football coach in New York is $43,700. But a similar coach in North Carolina would earn an average of $28,568 per year. 

As a general rule of thumb, youth football coaches who live in areas with higher living costs tend to earn on the higher end of this spectrum. In contrast, those living in areas with lower living costs make on the lower end.

Additionally, your salary will likely be impacted by the type of youth football team you coach. If you coach a team in a standard youth league, you probably won’t earn as much as you would if you were coaching a premier team designed to help players prepare to excel in high school.

How to become a youth football coach

There are three main things you need to think about as you consider how to coach youth football:

• Experience
• Certification
• Finding the right job

We’ll dive into how each of these factors will impact your youth football coaching journey in the sub-sections below.

Experience

It will always be easier to find a job as a youth football coach if you already have experience doing it. That’s because the best way to prove to employers that you can do the job is to show that you’ve already done it successfully.

But don’t worry if you haven’t led a team before. You may be able to get some coaching experience by volunteering to be an assistant on an existing team. Doing this for a season or two can be enough to qualify you to take on a head coaching role.

There are other types of experience that youth football employers value as well. 

For example, playing football at a high level (such as college or professionally) can help you get this job because employers will know you have a heightened understanding of the sport.

Additionally, having prior experience working with young people can be a significant asset in your job hunt. If an employer knows that you can work with the children you coach effectively, they’ll be much likelier to hire you.

Certification

Having the right certifications can also make it much easier for you to land your first youth football coaching position. There are a few that are worth pursuing.

First, you may consider earning an American Sport Education Program (ASEP) Certification, a national organization that offers the most recognized youth coaching certificate in the country. If you earn the certification, you’ll have an easy way to show employers that you’re capable of coaching youth football exceptionally.

It can also be a good decision to earn a first aid certification from an organization like the Red Cross. 

As a youth football coach, you will be working directly with people’s children, and football can be a dangerous sport. So having a certification that shows you can respond to various situations effectively and efficiently can go a long way in the hiring process.

Finding the right coaching job

Once you’ve acquired the experience and certifications you need to coach youth football; you’ll be ready to start looking for your first job. You can use both online and offline resources to find it.

There are plenty of job boards online that will advertise youth football coaching positions as they come up. But this job is desirable, and many opportunities will be filled before they ever make it to an online job posting.

That’s why it’s a good idea to start connecting with your local youth football community now. If you can integrate yourself into that community and start building a solid reputation for yourself, you’ll be able to discover and apply to new coaching jobs faster.

Doing that could reduce the length and difficulty of your job hunt tremendously.

Start your coaching career in youth football

If you’re serious about becoming a youth football coach, consider joining JobsinSports.com today. We maintain the most up-to-date list of the best youth football coaching opportunities, which can make it much easier for you to find your dream sports job.

Create an account today to get started.