After 2 years of female coaches, my son quit baseball. He has always had a male coach for soccer, and prefers soccer because there is more contact (his favorite sport being football). Maybe it’s where you live ... he has never had a female soccer coach and we always have dads on the field helping with soccer practice.
As a spectator I enjoyed both Rugby Union and American Football. Just wondered how Americans regard rugby.
Soccer and hockey are very popular for boys and girls of all ages and over here moms and dads are actively involved. I can’t actually think of a single instance of there being a “soccer mom” on the sidelines or assisting in the running of the team, where there wasn’t a “soccer dad” doing the training, practice, refereeing and so on.
I think the key difference is that When Brits get involved in team sports they want to play something that goes on pretty much uninterrupted for over an hour and where almost all players will stay on the field from start to finish unless they’re carted off through injury or sent off for committing a foul.
Soccer, both forms of rugby, Twenty20 cricket and hockey all fit into that mindset.
My home town did set up an American Football team and got plenty of spectators, but it had a huge problem retaining players. There was no shortage of people who wanted to try the game, but our Sports Billys (Jocks in American lingo) expect to be on the pitch for the entire duration of a match and they can’t stand interruptions in play or being sat on a bench.
They couldn’t cope with the idea of a three hour game with the ball being in play for less than 60 minutes.
One guy I was at university with, commented on a sullen Italian soccer player called Ravanelli who played for Middlesbrough FC. This guy pretty much stood around for 85 out of the 90 minutes on the soccer field waiting for the ball to come to him, while the Brazilian counterpart Juninho in the same team would be running from one end of the pitch to the other and back, chasing the action for the full ninety minutes.
But, once in a blue moon, the ball would arrive at Ravanelli’s feet and he’d actually start to play like an international soccer star. For about 30 seconds. Then, he’d lose the ball, and just stop moving.
My friend drily observed, Ravanelli had the perfect temprament (if not the physique) for American Football. I think that’s a bit unfair.
He was more suited to Test Cricket.