Narrative Call to Action
Increase Media Coverage of the Human Side of Coaching
Media outlets play a powerful role in shaping how people see coaching. Coverage creates culture. During national sporting events and athlete profiles, there’s a key opportunity to highlight the coaches behind the scenes –especially those helping build teamwork, leadership, and resilience in positive, encouraging environments. Additionally, new media channels provide an opportunity to reinforce messages at a grassroots level.
→What this looks like when we get it right: Gameday broadcasts, halftime features, as well as blogs and social media feeds spotlight coaches at every level guiding players through setbacks, celebrating effort, and shaping who they become off the court.
→Who can drive this change? Media, including marketers, advertisers, public relations, broadcast platforms, commentators and public influencers, journalists; Coaches; Pro/College Sports
Why This Issue
This is a call to action for media – broadcasters, journalists, and storytellers – to help shift the narrative of who coaches are, what they do and how they do it. It is time to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about great coaching: winning and losing, command and control, or sport tactics and strategy. It is a limited view that misses the bigger picture of what coaches do to connect with players, support their mental health and wellbeing, or teach life skills.
Getting Started
Highlight transformational coaching online and during major events. To broaden public perception, the media should increase coverage of coaches during national sporting events and profiles of athletes and coaches. Highlight stories where prominent coaches, including at the collegiate and professional level, model empathy, inclusion, teamwork, and leadership. Include stereotype-busting messaging and imagery.
Case in point: Mike McDaniel was featured for his atypical approach to coaching pro football, positivity, relationships and humor. “McDaniel has shown that through positive reinforcement and cultivating genuine relationships, accountability doesn’t have to be shortchanged in a high-pressure environment.”
Professional teams and leagues can also create stories through recognition and partnerships with youth coaches. In 2024, the Cleveland Browns named Mac Stephens an NFL Don Shula High School Coach of the Year for his caring, structured and fun approach, “”I believe in having fun and not making things so serious that kids cannot enjoy the game itself.”
Think beyond traditional media. Engagement with traditional media continues to fall while dependence on social media and other platforms continues to grow. Therefore, increasing media must include tactics for these channels such as:
- Engaging influencers who coach, communicate to a network of coaches or have experienced coaching
- Creating blogs and podcasts that feature coaches and describe their practice and impact
- Equipping coaches with messaging and resources and encouraging to share their stories on social
Make coaching values visible. When young coaches and athletes see this kind of coaching on national platforms, it can influence how they show up in their own communities. Think ad campaigns like Sport Matters that model coaches showing up for their athletes in hard times, or Broadcasters naming connections: “Youth coaches watching Coach [X] have a lot to learn from the way they motivated and inspired players by doing [Y].” Statements like this make coaching values visible and show that great coaching goes beyond the scoreboard.
Game Changing Content
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Sport of Love | Youth sports campaign from GameChanger that features youth sports coaches in action in their communities. |
| Steve Kerr & Steph Curry | Warm, praise-filled interaction between elite coach and player during a timeout. |
| Viral joke from Little League Coach | Feature of Little League coach making a joke during a critical moment of a match, to calm his pitcher. |