Know the rules for your league or organization.
You may be more than familiar with the sport you have chosen to coach, but you will probably find that each league has it's own set of modified rules those rules will probably change as you progress through different age groups so you need to re familiarize yourself with the rules each season. Being familiar with your league rules ahead of time will be an advantage to you as the season progresses. Depending on the sport and league, things like player participation rules, age limits, league boundaries, player substitutions, player weight limits, pitching limits, timeouts, game breaks, overtime situations, injury situations, inclement weather, out of control parents or coaches and the minimum and maximum number of players required all may effect your team. Make sure that you attend all of the league meetings. Seek out other coaches who have been in the league for awhile, confer with board members of the league and make sure you receive a written copy of all league rules.

Organize
Organize your team information and have it readily available. Player names, phone numbers, date of birth, parents names, league contact phone numbers, gym and field locations, e-mail address and game schedules. A team parent who will handle this will be your new best friend. They can help you make phone calls to remind parents of games and practice time and to find out who will and will not be attending.

Prepare
Be prepared for games and practices. Know what your going to do at each practice before you get there. Have a schedule of the drills, plays and games that you want to run and more or less stick with the schedule. Encourage some parents to get involved and help with practices and or games. Break your team down into smaller groups so that no one is left standing around to long. Know who your going to play and when before the game starts. This will help you keep playing time fair for everyone.

Inspire
Seek to inspire your players by encouraging them for all of the accomplishments. Make practices and games fun for everyone. It is easy to get caught up in winning but keep the focus on developing everyone's abilities. Too many coaches only focus on there two or three better players and forget about everyone else. Your job is to develop everyone to their maximum potential. This will require that you spell out your philosophy to your parents at the beginning of the season as some parents will be completely focused on winning. Don't concern yourself with trying to please all of the parents because it won't happen, stick with your philosophy.

Fundamentals and Game Situations
Stick with teaching everyone the fundamentals for your sport. Be patient and encouraging and practice the fundamentals over and over again. Go over simple game situations in practice, simple things like where you want them to set up on defense or offense. The more familiar they become with their roles the more comfortable they will be during the game.