A month or so ago, I started asking parents what they wanted from their child’s coach and club. One parent had a simple answer that seemed like a good guideline for coaches to use when working with kids.

“I want a coach who can relate to my daughter in a way she can understand,” said one mother.

Makes sense, I thought. That shouldn’t be hard to do. But now this whole Yanny vs Laurel thing comes up, and I wonder what they actually hear when I speak.

If you haven’t heard of Yanny and Laurel, it’s a recording that has caused the internet community to freak out. It debuted on Snapchat Tuesday and was viewed 18 million times by Thursday morning. The recording says a word. Some people hear Yanny and others hear Laurel. It has something to do with pitch and how it is interpreted differently by different people.

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What exactly do parents want? That’s an important question for youth soccer clubs and coaches, and one worthy of extended discussion. So, in a completely unscientific study, I asked 25 youth soccer parents what they want from their child’s coach and club. This is the second of several posts that will look at what they said.

A dad of a player I once coached told me, “These girls are not going to remember many of their teachers, but they will remember their coaches.”

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