Any good youth sports coach will admit that some players don’t require heavy-handed coaching.

Those players come to practice early, put in extra hours honing their skills and virtually coach themselves.

Others tend to be more of a handful. Quite frankly, not every player who seeks to lace up his cleats and take to the field comes to the game with adequate skills.

That does not, however, mean those children don’t need to play. In some cases, those players simply need some discipline and encouragement to find their inner talent.

The same applies to practically any sport — even the sport of education.

Natchez-Adams School District leaders recently announced plans to create three new coaching positions within the district. Literacy coach positions are aimed at helping third-graders reach an adequate reading level.

Reading is the basis for a lifetime of success ahead. Those who are unable to read at an adequate level often struggle through the remaining years of school and in many cases life outside of school, too.

School board president Tim Blalock said the district was simply trying to be proactive in hiring the new coaches.

We applaud the effort to help coach future “players” in our community by teaching them the fundamentals of the game of life before they fall through the cracks and struggle to ever catch up.