A team of lanky 13-year-olds trails Coach Mike Del Valle into a hallway outside a Canisius College gymnasium.

“You played hard. You never quit. You can be proud,” Del Valle assures the Niagara Rapids girls. Their defeat – to the powerhouse Blessed Sacrament Yellow Jackets of Hamilton, Ontario – came in the opening round of an Amateur Athletic Union super-regional basketball tournament in Buffalo, N.Y.

Del Valle asks his players to stretch, as he draws upon experience and knowledge that tell him conditioning after a game prevents sprains and joint problems in growing muscles.

Del Valle, who has coached youth sports for 40 years, has more training than most of his peers. While AAU has no specific training requirements for coaches, he also is head coach of the North High School Lady Spartans in Williamsville, N.Y. As a scholastic coach in New York, he must complete some of the most rigorous certification requirements in the the country for coaches.

Most states are at the other end of the spectrum in their rules, a CNHI News Service study found. In some states a police background check is the only requirement to coach.

Doctors and advocates say training coaches is key to preventing injuries among young athletes. More athletic organizations are now recognizing that as they reexamine their programs and implement rules to emphasize safety.

Jim Flannery, director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, says injury prevention isn’t the only motivation.

“We believe we are losing sight of the purpose and mission of high school sports,” Flannery said. “Schools are for education. Coaches enhance educational outcomes using their sports.”

Spotty requirements

Legal concerns and lack of experience among coaches usually are what lead schools or youth groups to create training rules. But while many states require some form of training for school coaches, programs usually touch only on helping athletes avoid injury, the CNHI News Service study showed.

Half the states require teachers to take courses in basic first aid or sports first aid before becoming coaches, and 34 require first aid classes for coaches not trained as teachers.

Coaches usually meet these requirements by taking online courses from the American Sport Education Program or the National Federation of High School Associations. The first aid programs address injury prevention but focus mainly on how to handle medical emergencies.

Seven states – Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Virginia – have no training requirements at all, the survey found. Another 12 states require no additional training for teachers who become coaches.

Only three states – Iowa, Wyoming and Connecticut – require specific training in sports injury prevention.

The world outside interscholastic sports is even less regulated. Some national youth sports groups do not require training for coaches. Even if they did, local leagues are not always affiliated with national groups.