“I recruit parents just as much as I do kids”: The evolving relationship between intercollegiate coaches and parents

Parents play a large role in their child’s development, and this influence continues into their child’s early adulthood (i.e. emerging adulthood; Darlow et al., 2017; Dotterer, 2022). This continued involvement holds true for many intercollegiate athletes (Dorsch et al., 2016; Parietti et al., 2017). An area that research has not examined is how parental involvement impact intercollegiate coaches and how they respond. The purpose of this study was to examine how coaches view parental involvement in athletics, specifically what is the current coach-parent dynamic in intercollegiate sport. Fourteen head coaches participated in this qualitative interview study. Thematic analyses were conducted and the following themes emerged: parent-coach interaction, everybody knows what the line is, and mother/father differences. Overall, coaches are interacting with parents in various ways, and this study helps to start the discussion regarding the intercollegiate coach-parent dynamic.