Most parents think their job at a showcase is to watch their athlete.

The job is to manage what your face is doing when they look up and find you in the stands.

They will look up. Before the opening whistle, they will find you. What they read in that half-second tells them something about how this is going before it has started.

The parent who is genuinely occupied with something else — not performing calm, actually elsewhere — gives their athlete permission to compete for themselves instead of for the stands.

There's a difference between watching and witnessing. Only one of them helps.

The Recruiting Window — 16 issues for parents navigating the full showcase arc.