Who are your Football Coaches?

I to have hauled kids around from game to game and from practice to practice for years. In my first years of coaching this bothered me also. Then I realized that for some of these kids, this is the only thing they have. It is not the kids fault that they have bad parents.I have had kids from broken homes, abusive marriages, child beatings, just to name a few. I try not to dwell on these things with the kids, but if they bring it up, I am more than willing to talk about some of there problems and how they or we can handle them. I no longer feel as though I am a "baby sitter", it has gone past that. I feel that for some of these kids, us coaches are an intergral part of them growing up and we do have a tremedous influence in there lives. No, we do not always succeed with each and every kid in trying to lead them down the right path, but if you can get to only one kid, you are successful.
Let me tell you, there are rewards for coaches and they are not in winning championships or trophies. I have been doing this now for quite a number of years and the biggest reward that I have gotten is to have kids who I coached over the years approach me and say what a great time they had while they played youth football. I have about 6 kids now who I coached who are now coaching in our league and a few who I have had to coach against, and I would like to feel that I played a small role in this.