My daughter is in 5th grade. I'll have her travel team this season and next season before she moves on to play 7th grade for the school. At that point, my coaching "career" will be finished. I've coached my son for the past 6 years and coached 3 years in a Jr. NBA league before he was born. One thing I know for certain is that I'm not ready for my "career" to be finished. I love coaching and teaching this game to players.

I just don't know how/where I can go from here. I don't have a teaching license, I'm an accountant. So getting a gig at a school is tough because most schools in my state look to higher teachers as coaches. I've thought about looking for opportunities to be a volunteer on any local staff, but my busy season of work falls right in the middle of basketball season too (January-April).

Does anybody have any sage advice for me? I have given thought to talking to the travel sports director in our community about the possibility of remaining in the program to coach wherever there was a need. My wife was kind of skeptical about how that would be viewed since I would no longer have kids in the program. I just feel like I still have a lot to offer the youth sports world and I'm not ready to be done in two years. I was on the path to playing college hoops but missed my senior year of high school due to a knee injury and the college interest dropped off the radar. I was receiving D3 interest as a Jr. though. Since then I stayed on with the high school team and helped out at practice and developed a true love of coaching.

On a side note, I was thinking of contacting the coach of a local D2 women's college team (my alma mater) to ask if there are opportunities for me to come watch a practice sometime, for my own development purposes as a coach. I've read where this happens, but I'm wondering how it's typically viewed by the college coach.

A couple comments that might help with the decision process...

- More and more high schools and middle schools are hiring coaches that do not teach. The school I'm at has a couple that don't work in the school.

- Around here there is a weekend crash course at a community college to get your coaching certificate. Might want to check into that. It might actually be two weekends, I can't remember. But either way that's not bad.

- You can check into local club and AAU programs. God knows we could use more good coaches working with young kids in the clubs. Too many are in it for the wrong reasons.

- If you have local d3 colleges, they will almost always take volunteers. They have limited spots that are paid so they often rely on volunteers and would probably be very interested if you offered.

- Follow your passion and be diligent about finding an opportunity. I'm sure you can find something that you enjoy. You may or may not like the college level. But if that's what you really want, go for it.

- In my experience most college coaches at all levels are very open to letting you watch practices and giving back to coaches like yourself. I'd definitely ask about that.

I just found out this morning that our local high school is looking to add a boys assistant coach. I think I might update the coaching resume and take a stab at it.

At the very least, it gets my name out there. And if it turns out that the time commitment isn't going to gel with my full-time job (which I suspect it won't) I will at least be able to offer my services as a volunteer wherever they need a hand, as I'm trying to get my foot in the door.

Nothing wrong with that. You might find something where it will allow you to help them Somewhere along the line you will have to make a decision as to what you really want to do

Even IF you are gong to coach full time at a school, remember, that stipnd is worth about 10% your salary. IF you want to volunteeer, that would be great, you can do what you want, wwhn you can. That's how I started and it was the best thing I ever did.

Good luck!