Friday night. Tryouts are tomorrow at 9. Your kid has a runny nose and a cough. He says he feels okay-ish. You don’t know what to do.

The triage

Three questions.

Does he have a fever? If yes, he doesn’t go.

Is the cough at his chest or his throat? Throat is fine. Chest is not. Chest cough means he stays home.

Is he sleeping normally? If yes, he probably has a cold. If no, he’s getting sicker. Wait and see.

If he has a basic cold, no fever

He goes. Most colds at the early stage don’t significantly affect performance. He’ll have less energy than usual. Coaches will not weight that heavily if he plays through.

Tell coach when you arrive. He’s fighting a cold. He’s playing today but he’s not 100%. This is honest, sets context, and protects against the kid being marked down for what looks like effort issues.

The energy question

Mid-cold means his energy is 80%. He should pace himself. Don’t sprint the warm-up. Save it for the drills.

The hygiene question

He doesn’t share water bottles. He covers his cough. He uses hand sanitizer between drills. Don’t make a thing of it. Just have the kit.

Most coaches appreciate the kid who manages his cold well during tryouts.

If it’s worse than a cold

If he has a fever, body aches, fatigue beyond the cold range. Stay home.

The temptation is to push through. The cost is the rest of the week. The cost might be the next four kids he infects on the field.

Coaches understand. Email coach Friday night. He’s sick. We’re not coming tomorrow. Is there a make-up?

Most teams have a make-up tryout the following weekend. Some don’t, but you ask.

If there’s no make-up

You eat the loss. He misses tryouts. He tries out next year.

This is rare and feels harsh. It also teaches him that health is not something you push through arbitrarily. That’s a real adult lesson.

What you don’t do

Dose him with cold medication and send him out. Most cold meds dehydrate him further. Performance drops more than the cold itself.

Lie to the coach about how sick he is. Coaches see through it. The kid coughing through warm-up is harder to evaluate than the kid who said I’m fighting something up front.

The post-tryout

If he went sick, the recovery is real. Fluids, rest, early bedtime. Skip Sunday’s optional activities.

Don’t let him jump back into a full schedule on Monday. He’ll relapse.

The harder version

The tryout is for a team that matters a lot. The cold is real but he might be okay. You don’t know.

Trust the body. If he can warm up without coughing hard, he plays. If the warm-up makes him worse, he stops.

Most kids self-regulate during tryouts. The kid who said he was okay and is dragging at minute 20 will tell you. Listen to him.

The longer arc

One missed tryout, one cold-affected tryout, neither defines a sports career. Coaches who see kids over time see all the data. They factor in injury and illness.

If your kid is genuinely capable, missing one tryout because of a real cold is a footnote, not a chapter. Don’t make it bigger than it is.