It's said that it takes a village to raise a child. Generations ago, instead of two stressed-out working people trying to commute and raise kids, you had dozens of aunts, uncles, and grandparents to help out. With youth baseball, I think the same thing is true. Many teams have two assistants - but my teams typically have six or seven or even nine assistants. Everyone is on the field - parents, siblings, uncles, you name it - we use a village. And it's fun. I decided I needed to write about it, as no one else does it - despite my advocating it when I was in charge of safety and training for my own league. Somewhere it seems to be written "And thou shalt have only two trusted assistants and thou shalt do thy best ? but good luck to you.

" Having just two assistants is probably fine when players are 15 or older. At that age they can do a ton of stuff on their own. With kids ages 7 to 9 or even younger, if you tell them "Go play catch" it's not going to go well. Sure, some can do it, but many of them can't. With everyone helping, though, you can put players in a position to succeed - you can generate positive reps and the kids get better quickly. I have coached youth baseball for 25 seasons starting back in 1998. My intent here is to write a quick guide that will help new coaches and parents - so the kids ultimately benefit.