Tag: Coaching

National Mentor Month – Be a Coach… Be a Mentor

(National Mentor Month – Be a Coach… Be a Mentor Published 01/16/2026) January is National Mentor Month with #ThankYouMentorDay on January 21st. Mentorship underlies everything we do here at First Tee – Silicon Valley. For the past 25 years, our coaches have been making a difference in the lives of kids and teens, helping them integrate life skills into their lives and be amazing people.

Thank you to the incredible mentors who are the FTSV family! This past year we had 215 volunteer mentor coaches delivering over 9,500 hours of their time. Your hard work, care and dedication are what make all the difference!

This past year, we’ve featured some of our outstanding mentors and coaches. Here is what they are saying about why they chose to mentor youth.

Meet Austin

Austin graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo majoring in Sports Management from the Department of Recreation Parks, and Tourism industry. He has previous experience as a Program Coordinator and Youth Soccer League Director. Austin says, “I’m determined to build communities and influence the culture within them in order to create positive and unforgettable experiences that help people be their best.”

Sports have played a big role in Austin’s life and he fully believes in the power that sports has to make a positive difference. “There are so many role models in sports. Sports are full of metaphors for life, full of adversity and triumph. You have to learn how to be humble and respectful of others when you succeed, and how to shake things off and learn when things get hard. It’s a great place to practice one’s individual development, while also working with others either in competition or on a team.”

Meet Ysabelle

Ysabelle Lam started with FTSV in 2023. She began working with our participants at Baylands Golf Links and coaches with us every season. In her classes she successfully bonds with students over shared interests like art, gaming, and travel. Ysabelle knows how to break the ice, an important step to building a positive, trusting relationship that allows our coaches to effectively deliver our life skills curriculum in a safe, fun environment.

“When I started at First Tee – Silicon Valley, I was still in my first year of learning golf. My personal golf journey was extremely frustrating at times, so it became a great way for me to grow my character as well. I love using golf to teach life skills, because if you can stay respectful, confident, and truly persevere through an off day in golf, it prepares you to face and conquer challenging times in any aspect of life.”

Meet Sean

Sean graduated from California State University of Fresno where he majored in Communication and played on the football team. When he graduated, he became an NCAA Football Recruiting Lead and Weight Strength Coach, where he led fitness and weight training for over 150 athletes and where his joy for coaching developed. “I enjoy coaching because it allows me to see others succeed, foster deep connections, and help others grow and unlock their potential.”

Now he is excited to be part of “a unique opportunity to learn from participants, gain new perspectives on the human experience, and make a profound difference in people’s lives. This is a mission-driven career that offers the satisfaction of helping others and gaining new skills in the process.” Sean believes the most valuable lesson he can teach kids & teens in the program is “to love and respect yourself. Life is not coming at you; it comes from you.”

If you are interested in joining our coaching staff, working as a mentor and making a difference in your community, visit our VOLUNTEER PAGE to learn more. No golf experience necessary. Everyone has life experience! Hope to see you out on the course.

FTSV Appreciates Our Coaches

(FTSV Appreciates Our Coaches Punished: 11/13/2025) First Tee – Silicon Valley (FTSV) held a coach appreciation event on Saturday, November 8th, with games, prizes, and dinner.

The event brought together adult coaches from our three program locations – Baylands Golf Links in Palo Alto, Rancho del Pueblo Golf Course in San Jose, and Gavilan College Golf Course in Gilroy. The night was a great and fun bonding/celebratory event. Games were played, raffle prizes were awarded, and food and drinks were provided throughout. More importantly it was a great to have everyone together, strengthening our coaching community. We have around 250 coaches (volunteer and paid). With how big our territory is, it is important for us to bring our coaches together – whether that is through our quarterly trainings or big celebratory events like this one.

“We are HUGELY thankful for all of our coaches, who give back to kids and teens with their time and their wisdom from life experiences. They are the connectors between the kids and teens and all our life skills curriculum, so their role is critically important. Then, when we multiply this by our high number of coaches, we increase the chances that all our participants will benefit from high-quality mentoring. Thank you, Coaches!” said George Maxe, FTSV President & CEO.

Being a coach in First Tee – Silicon Valley is an incredibly impactful thing to do.

Character building is a long-game, a never-ending process, that is developed through mentorship and experiences.  Simply by spending their time coaching and guiding others, our coaches are changing lives for the better.

The world is always in need of high character individuals, and being a coach provides the opportunity to help build high character leaders for the future.

Additionally, not only are coaches impacting others, they are building a community for themselves full of hard working, kind, growth-minded people who want to spend their free time doing something for others.

Interested in becoming a coach? Please visit our VOLUNTEER PAGE.

No golf experience necessary!

PCA FTSV Training

(PCA FTSV Training – Published 9/9/25) On September 6th, First Tee — Silicon Valley hosted two coach trainings led by Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) trainer, Peter Wood. This was the 3rd time that our two organizations came together to deliver a coach training. The first instance occurred in 2020 and was the pilot training/collaboration that led to a national partnership between First Tee and PCA.

PCA’s content, training, and resources are now shared nationwide, throughout First Tee ‘s network. Both First Tee – Silicon Valley and PCA share common coach philosophies centered around process-focused coaching, participant empowerment, and a positive and supportive team culture. The topic this time around was how to support positive athlete behavior through responsive coaching.

Successful coaching requires a balance between having high expectations for behavior and providing high support. When challenges present themselves in class it is imperative that a coach have empathy and understanding of where their athletes are coming from, while also having a clear behavioral prevention plan. Coaches should work WITH their athletes instead of being punitive, neglectful, or permissive when faced with behavioral challenges. To this point, we are grateful that PCA shared their resources and worked with our coaching team on behavioral prevention and intervention techniques. Additionally, they provided strategies for coaches to identify participant stressors and practice self-regulation. A great coach is a prepared coach who takes the time to understand their student. We are grateful PCA helped prepare our 19 paid instructors and over 50 returning volunteer coaches this past Saturday.

What PCA is saying about FTSV

Working with PCA has been a shining example of teamwork. “Chris and I work quite seamlessly together in putting together curriculum for FTSV coaches’ training,” says Senior PCA Trainer, Peter Wood. “That is a testament to the common visions and values that both PCA and FTSV share in our respective work. Much of that shared vision and set of values manifest itself in our focus on helping young kids develop into great older kids, and adults. We care a lot about the kids acquiring a good set of technical skills to be able to enjoy and play golf, but way more important than that is to help kids absorb invaluable life lessons in their athletic pursuit. This is the charge of youth serving organizations coaches around the country, and it’s a very cool thing when two large national organizations like PCA and First Tee join forces to try to make this all happen- a worthy pursuit if there ever was one.”

Click here for more information on joining FTSV as a volunteer coach.

Join us as a Volunteer Coach!

Join us as a volunteer coach! Has it been a goal of yours to get more involved in your community? To contribute in a positive way to others? To learn more about yourself, and improve your leadership, communication and problem-solving skills? If so, come join us at First Tee – Silicon Valley!

FTSV Coaches work together as a team in our classes to help participants develop their life skills, all while setting their own personal goals for what they want to improve during the season. Coaching with FTSV is an opportunity to not only help others, it’s an opportunity to help yourself. Throughout the season, coaches reflect on how classes are going and discuss different coaching strategies for delivering material, all while providing one another constructive feedback and advice.

FTSV Life Skills: Goal Setting

One of the life skills that First Tee teaches is Goal Setting. Our participants practice creating short-term and long-term goals, making sure that they are specific, time sensitive and do-able. With these skills, FTSV participants have been able to accomplish some pretty incredible feats in school, in their communities, and on the golf course. Our coaches practice their Goal Setting in a similar way, setting specific goals for themselves and what they want to practice while coaching. FTSV believes that everyone can benefit from clear goals and a growth mindset, participant and coach alike. Let’s level up together!

Our coaches and volunteers play a CRUCIAL role in FTSV’s ability to succeed. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on community members determined to make a difference to work with us, delivering our fun life skill curriculum to the participants. We strive to maintain a 4 to 1 student to instructor ratio, so every volunteer and coach makes it possible to grow and accomplish this goal. Not only will you be contributing to changing lives and growing character, but you will also continue to develop and hone your own mentorship and leadership skills, while being a part of something bigger than yourself.

Ready to join us as a volunteer coach?

Does this sound like a good fit? Join us as volunteer coach and mentor! Please visit our volunteer page to apply. Email [email protected] if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you on the course!

Published: 05-08-24