THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, April 14, 2016

I remember my first youth baseball practice in my new town.

I wanted to make a good impression on my new teammates, so I took extra care to make sure my uniform — from the jersey to the pants to the stirrups — looked just right.

To the credit of my parents and my older brother, they didn’t ask me why in the world I would wear a full game uniform to a practice.

So naturally, while all the other kids showed up in T-shirts and shorts or sweats, there I was, in full uniform — team hat included, if I remember correctly.

The coach — a dad to two of the players on the team — didn’t say a word.

But as he gathered us together and spoke to us briefly before our first practice together, he noticed I had put my stirrups — the old kind that you pulled over your socks, not the new kind that are sewn into the socks — on backwards.

Rather than poke fun at me in front of my new teammates, he simply came over, and as he spoke, pulled off my stirrups and put them back on the right way.

Then kept talking to the team.

As I look back on that moment, to me, that was coaching.

SO WHEN I heard recently the Coeur d’Alene Recreation Department was having difficulty finding coaches for its spring sports teams, I started to think back to the coaches I had growing up — mostly dads who had a kid or two on the team, but I don’t remember any of them particularly favoring their kids.

We listened to our coaches as we bonded together as a team. We didn’t question what the coach said, we just did it — because, well, they were the coach and that was how it went in those days.

If there were disgruntled parents in the stands, wondering why the coach’s kid was playing in the position where they thought their own kid should be playing, well, that noise never filtered down to us. Besides, we were probably busy planning the next team sleepover.

You would think each youth team would have at least one parent willing to coach that team, but I get it. Everybody’s busy these days, and no one wants to hear other parents complaining about the job they’re doing — especially since they are volunteering their time anyway.

“Each season our numbers increase in shortage of coaches,” said Paula Austin of the Coeur d’Alene Recreation Department. “It doesn’t really matter what sport it is. This spring soccer season we had a shortage of 18 coaches for approximately 70 teams. We picked up our last coach the day before pictures and only a few days before that team’s first game.

“When we have this problem we start calling the parents on the teams to see if one of them will volunteer,” she said. “Sometimes we may have to call the teams a few times and if still we don’t pick up a coach we then schedule a meeting for the parents and cross our fingers someone will step up at that meeting.”

Austin said as the numbers in their programs keep increasing, the coaching numbers are going down. The rec department has moved games to later times in the evening, in hopes of picking up coaches, but that also means later games for the kids.

“I can give you a couple instances of calls made to parents — more than once — and that parent went as far as to ask me to read the list of kids, and then told me who he thought I should call to coach,” Austin said. “Or in another instance a parent that wouldn’t volunteer called and complained about the coach that we did find — and this happens far more than it should ever happen. Honestly, anyone willing to donate their time, even if it is only a few hours a week, should be thanked, not criticized.”

Mitzy Michaud, recreation manager for Post Falls Parks and Rec, said some sports are easier to find coaches for than others — basketball and volleyball perhaps being the hardest, “since there is a lot more involved with playing the game and the rules and skill development of the game.”

She said there are times they go into their preseason parent meeting with several coaches still needed, but they are able to find enough coaches by the time the season starts. Sometimes, a college student or a grandparent is recruited.

“What we hear a lot from parents when asked about coaching is, ‘my work schedule is crazy and I won’t be able to be at all the games, or be able to lead practices,’” Michaud said. “Those are times that we will try to pool the team parents together and see if among the group the gaps can be filled to help each other coach the kids. Many times those teams end up being the ones that have the most fun.”

OUR EIGHTH-GRADE basketball team was pretty good.

One afternoon, we had a sizeable lead, and near the end of the game, our coach made a mass substitution, and there must have been some confusion as to who was coming out. If I was supposed to come out, well, I don’t remember anyone telling me.

So when play resumed, I inbounded the ball in the backcourt, in front of our own bench. As I started to run up the floor, right past our bench, our coach stuck his arm out and gently stopped me, and quietly told me to sit down.

Turns out, we already had five other players on the court.

No one else noticed — not even the refs — and play continued.

But I remembered the subtle gesture.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.