Coach Beyond is a project partnered with The Ohio State University to bring free coaching resources to schools, teams, and organizations within the entire state of Indiana. All services are free to any youth sport coach, organization, or school in Indiana.

Dr. Jerry Reynolds is project lead over this endeavor. He is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and BSW Program Director. He is also the Immediate President of the Alliance of Social Workers in Sports and his interdisciplinary research focuses upon sport social work practice and family functioning and spectator behavior in youth sports. His background in sports social work makes this project even more meaningful to him.

“I did a lot of work prior to this on family and spectator behaviors and youth sports, and so I try to use that knowledge that we have to build this program,” Reynolds said. “With Ohio State, we were able to have a really good foundation of the other people I brought to the table, and we can get into the coaching space.”

Coach Beyond has significant meaning and purpose, this can be seen even through the name of the organization.

“One of the reasons it’s called Coach Beyond is because the whole idea is we want coaches to coach beyond the X’s and Os of the game,” Reynolds said. “We know that they might know their game very well or they know their sport, or they know their team very well, but are they equipped to know the things that will help them be more successful? When I say success, it’s not connected to wins and losses, it’s about how they feel as a coach.”

Coach Beyond has clear goals they want to hit to truly make an impact on the state of Indiana. Because Indiana is rich with sports history, it is a motivation for Coach Beyond to make that legacy lasting by giving the coaches numerous opportunities to improve themselves and succeed.

“Our goal was to train at least 7,500 coaches in positive youth development practices,” Reynolds said. “The next thing we’re doing is a statewide needs assessment as part of the project, so we’re hearing from coaches specifically about the challenges they are facing specific to Indiana. We’re in the process right now of doing some more in-person type of trainings, whether that’s on mental health, on performance anxiety, on building team culture, those kinds of things.”

Dr. Reynolds even uses the Coach Beyond platform in his classes to give his students the resources needed to prepare them for their future career field.

“I teach a sports social work class, and, in my class, they must do five modules for Coach Beyond as part of my requirement for my class, Reynolds said. “These are future social work students who have been exposed to how we can work in sports-based settings, and they’re equipped with tools to help them.”

Coach Beyond has the ability and resources to reach numerous coaches around the state of Indiana. Positive sports culture starts with the coaches, it is important we build up the ones who are influencing this next generation of athletes.