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How Do I Become An MRC Coach?

By Marlton Rec Council, 07/06/12, 8:45AM EDT

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How Do I Become an MRC Coach?

Questions regarding coaching qualifications please email the MRC Safety Director at Safetydirector@marltonreccouncil.org. For sport specific questions please email the Sports Commissioner.

The process begins at registration, by registering yourself as a Head or Assistant Coach, indicates your interest in becoming a coach.  By registering, this does not mean you are automatically a coach. It means that you are letting the sport know that you are interested in coaching that season.  The next thing you must do is become Rutgers Safety certified.  This is accomplished by attending one of Rutgers Safety Coaches Certification Classes.  After you have attended the Rutgers Certification class and received your Coaches Card, you will need to complete a background check a concussion class certification. Both the background check and the concussion class can be accomplished online at your own leisure. You will not be permitted to coach without passing both of these and both requirements are strictly pass/fail.

So, you've requested to be a coach, you have your valid Rutgers Coaches Card, you've completed the background check and the appropriate concussion training.  The final step to becoming a coach is to be chosen by the commissioner/coordinator of your league.  Some leagues are more stringent than others and may have additional requirements in order to become a coach.  Coaches serve at the sole discretion of the sport.  There is no "right" to be a coach, and your coaching privileges may be revoked at any time.  Coaches are newly appointed every season with no implicit or explicit guarantee that a coach will be retained from one season to the next or from one sport to another. 

I Was Subject To Disciplinary Action In One Sport. Will It Affect My Ability To Be A Coach In Other Sports?

Yes and No.  Our Commissioners and Executive Board share information about disciplinary actions regarding coaches, and this information may influence a Commissioners decision as to who they will submit for Executive Board approval as a candidate coach. However, the commissioner and executive board are under no obligation to use that information one way or another.

 

I Was Not Named A Coach.  Who Do I Complain To?

Not being selected to coach is not subject to Grievance Committee review in the Marlton Recreation Council.  Coaches serve at the sole discretion of the Sport Commissioner and every coach must be approved by the MRC Executive Board.  Neither the Commissioner nor the Executive Board is under any obligation to explain or justify their decisions regarding the appointment of coaches.

 

Why Do Coaches Need To Be Certified?

In the state of New Jersey all volunteer coaches that are coaching for nonprofit organizations are protected from civil liabilities to incidents involving coaches, players and spectators at each and every practice, camp and game. The law that provides this protection is called “The New Jersey Little League Law” and the requirement to be covered under this law is that a volunteer coach for a nonprofit  must have a current valid safety training certification. 

Conversely school coaches and trainers are paid professional coaches and not covered under the New jersey Little League Law. That is why trainers need to show proof of insurance as subcontractors without the proof of insurance no trainer should be allowed on our fields for a minute. For the school coaches the schools that are paying them to coach must insure them for the coaching duties and bear the liability for any incidents that occur while performing those duties for the school. However the schools do not provide them with insurance if they are volunteering for the MRC.

So even though a school coach is more than qualified to provide volunteer coaching duties in the eye of a particular sport, while doing so they are a liability to both themselves and the organization (MRC) that they are volunteering to serve. Simply put, while providing that service, if one of the school coaches had an incident at one of our events both the coach and the MRC would have no coverage under the New Jersey Little League Law and subject to all of the liability in the event of a civil lawsuit.

So the reason that we, the MRC, require school coaches and all coaches to come in and get the Safety Coaching Certification card is to insure that both the coach and the MRC are covered under the New Jersey Little League Law.  Literally it is the only way to insure that we are protected.