With Mother’s Day coming up, I’d like to pay homage to all of the team mothers for all of the sports teams on Kaua’i. Don’t worry dads, your day is coming up too! A team mom has a huge responsibility
With Mother’s Day coming up, I’d like to pay homage to all of the team mothers for all of the sports teams on Kaua’i. Don’t worry dads, your day is coming up too! A team mom has a huge responsibility that doesn’t stop until her athlete is off to bed. For most teams, it is a necessity to have a team mom. She is the person who coordinates all of the other mothers and makes sure that each player is accounted for.
When it comes to youth sports, I think that it is imperative to have a team mom because she is not only there to support her student-athlete, but she is also there to assist new moms, so that they can get acquainted with the responsibilities. It’s a network that you will be working with all the way up through the high school ranks, just to make sure that everything goes as smooth as planned.
I remember as I came up through the sports world and my own mom became a team mom for community league basketball. She made sure that there was enough food for all the players and their families.
I remember my first coach, Kaleo Perez and the first team I ever played on, the Lihu‘e Warriors pee-wee community league basketball team, which I will never forget because of the tremendous experience and friends that I came away with. As the head coach, Kaleo Perez, who’s a terribly good competitor, created a family atmosphere. His first order of business was to appoint a team mom, who was Mary Adviento. She definitely brought all the families together and I’m not going to say that because of that, we won the championship, but it certainly made a difference. I still see most of the players and families associated with the team around town. I know that no one on that team has forgotten the incredible experience.
In addition, I have played on teams with amazing people who are willing to help out, just because they care about the players. No one gets paid for the position of team mom, it just comes from the heart. I personally think that every mother who has a young athlete in their homes should take on this responsibility at least once in her child’s athletic career.
A team mom has to juggle many responsibilities besides taking care of the motherly position. She’s always there to make sure that you get everything you need to succeed and she won’t stop until she gets the job done right.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the team moms on Kaua‘i!
