with Mark Gola
Most Recent Posts:
Hitting Instruction – Is it worth it?
It’s that time of year for youth baseball and softball players. While February ushers in spring training for major leaguers, youth players gather at indoor batting cages for instruction. Preseason hitting lessons are very common for youth and high school players. The question posed is, are instructional lessons worth the time and money? The short...
Why the scoreboard matters
With the dawn of 2020, the sun sets on another decade. Looking back at our sports culture over the past 10 years, there have been both improvements and setbacks. One topic that drew its share of controversy, and continues to be debated, has been the matter of keeping score in youth sports. Many towns and organizations have decided to stop keeping score and...
The best egg sandwich I’ve ever had
The holidays are about family, so here is a short post that reflects how family can be instrumental in character development through sports. When I was around 12-years old, I was invited to try out for the ’71 Central Jersey Select soccer team. Select teams weren’t common back then and I was born in ’72, so it was pretty exciting. My father drove me to...
Athletic Scholarships: How many are available?
Athletic scholarships have been a hot-button topic for decades. Chase them, don’t chase them … that’s up to the individual families and their circumstances. My only comment is that there are two essential components to receiving a scholarship offer – talent and timing. The purpose of this article is to provide adults and athletes with some general facts...
A recipe for getting your sports kids to listen
Watching your kid(s) play sports is a privilege, but when it comes to providing feedback, it can become a source of contention. Many kids resist listening to their parent’s advice about sports. Even though we’ve watched them since day one, know their tendencies, and have the best intentions, they often tune us out. But that resistance is sometimes...
Treatment of Officials – A Rehabilitation Process: Part 2
On Thanksgiving Thursday, I posted a blog about the abusive treatment of officials in our sports culture. By Saturday night, I watched a parent (coach) get ejected from a 10-year old soccer match. The scene was another example of a shameful (and unnecessary) issue that persists in our society. The purpose of these last two posts is to call it out, and...
Mark Gola is an author, former collegiate coach and athlete. He played Division I baseball at Rider University and was an assistant coach at Rider and Princeton University. Mark was an Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications at The College of New Jersey for nine years and worked full time at the Dave Gallagher Baseball Academy for six years. He has also coached high school soccer and baseball.