Coaching at the sport social work boundary: a competency-informed perspective for athlete well-being

Coaching has expanded beyond technical instruction into developmental leadership that includes athlete welfare, team culture, ethical decision-making, and long-term well-being. This expanded role creates important overlap with sport social work, particularly around person-in-environment thinking, cultural humility, trauma-informed practice, psychosocial risk recognition, and interprofessional collaboration. That overlap, however, must not be mistaken for role substitution. Coaches are not social workers, and sport social workers are not auxiliary performance staff. This perspective advances a competency-informed framework for connecting coaching and sport social work while preserving professional scope. The framework is organized around five domains: athlete-centered development, ethical and reflective practice, culturally responsive coaching, psychosocial risk recognition and referral, and systems-level collaboration. The central argument is intentionally bounded: coaches can become more social work-informed without becoming social workers. Coaches can create safer and more responsive sport environments, recognize when athlete needs exceed the coaching role, and activate qualified support. Sport social workers provide specialized expertise in assessment, intervention, advocacy, policy development, and systems change. The article concludes with implications for coach education, sport social work training, organizational policy, and research.