Effective Coaching for All Athletes within Youth Recreational Sports

Margaret M. Flores was a special education teacher in the public schools before earning her doctorate in Education of Students with Exceptionalities from Georgia State University in 2004. Her first position in higher education was at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2004-2008. During this time, she met her co-authors and expanded her research interests in academic interventions accessible instruction for students with disabilities to include recreational sports. She and her colleagues began a line of research related to children with learning, behavioral, and attention deficits and their experiences in recreational sports. In 2008, she accepted a faculty position at Auburn University and is currently a Professor of Special Education in the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and Counseling. 

Tiffanye M. Vargas, Ph.D., CC-AASP,  is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at California State University, Long Beach.  A native Texan, she received her B.A. in Plan II and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin before earning her M.A. in Counseling and Ph.D. in Sport Psychology from Michigan State University. Listed on the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology and Mental Training Registry, she has worked with aspiring Olympians and Paralympians, collegiate, and club coaches and athletes on mental skills training. A former collegiate athlete and youth sports coach, Tiffanye uses her research on coaching education and personal experience to develop coaching curriculum and seminars for youth sport volunteers.  She is the past president of the National Council for the Accreditation of Coaching Education, serves on the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Sport Science and Coaching, and is an active member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

Robbi Beyer, Ph.D., is a full professor at California State University, Los Angeles.  She received her B.A. in physical education from Cal State Pomona while competing as a varsity athlete in multiple sports and receiving All-American honors in basketball.  Upon graduation, she worked within the public schools as an adapted physical educator and as a volleyball and basketball coach. Her passion for adapted sport took her back to school where she received her doctoral degree in adapted physical education and pedagogy from Texas Woman’s University.  She now focuses both her teaching and research on methods for delivering inclusive instruction in a physical activity environment.  She has had 24 years in higher education and is currently the Director of the Physical Activity Center for Education, a community-based university program that trains pre-service teachers to deliver adapted activities of socialization, fitness, and basic movement skills for all categories of disabilities, ages 4-22 years.