If you've been around sports, you know the pulse of the team comes typically from the heart of the coach. As a player, a coach can stay with you for a lifetime, good or bad...but as a parent? It's surprising how the impressions you have of the coach of your child can be.
We've all experienced it. Coaches we've loved, coaches we've...well...but what makes a good coach? Growing up playing sports and now having kids of our own, we've come across more than we can count between the years. There are the typical categories every parent has become accustomed to - the always present, "Dad Coach", you know the one. The head coach who has one purpose in life - to guarantee their child will be the quarterback, point guard, center of the universe and most assuredly attain fame one day solely because of their efforts as a coach...all while every other player on the team wonders why they're there.
You have the "We will win at all costs" coach, who cares about little else other than the scoreboard. Character, development, integrity...all pretty much go out the window if it means getting in the way of victory.
But what about the good ones? The ones who you can hear even throughout your adulthood? Coaching words of wisdom in the best and worst of times.
My hometown had one of these and our two older boys have been lucky enough to play for one as well. Their school's football coach has been an integral part in their middle school years in finding the meaning of what it takes to be on a team. He focuses on coaching the heart of a player, their thoughts, actions, intentions. He can be heard stating how he's coaching future men, not just boys on a team and how each practice, each game should be filled with work, heart, integrity...and heaven forbid, fun. His motto is, "We're here to play football, not work football" and play they do. Our oldest son has been on a conference championship team each year and was taken aback handing his helmet in for the last time. We've heard our boys speak of very few coaches the way they have in regards to him and nothing on earth can replace that.
So to the coaches who coach. Really coach, not just your son or daughter, not just for the win, but for the true heart of the player and of the team. To our son's coach. The lessons you instilled of personal strength as well as in the imperative importance of the team with a fight so strong you can feel it, Thank You. Their lives will forever be changed because of you.
We've all experienced it. Coaches we've loved, coaches we've...well...but what makes a good coach? Growing up playing sports and now having kids of our own, we've come across more than we can count between the years. There are the typical categories every parent has become accustomed to - the always present, "Dad Coach", you know the one. The head coach who has one purpose in life - to guarantee their child will be the quarterback, point guard, center of the universe and most assuredly attain fame one day solely because of their efforts as a coach...all while every other player on the team wonders why they're there.
You have the "We will win at all costs" coach, who cares about little else other than the scoreboard. Character, development, integrity...all pretty much go out the window if it means getting in the way of victory.
But what about the good ones? The ones who you can hear even throughout your adulthood? Coaching words of wisdom in the best and worst of times.
My hometown had one of these and our two older boys have been lucky enough to play for one as well. Their school's football coach has been an integral part in their middle school years in finding the meaning of what it takes to be on a team. He focuses on coaching the heart of a player, their thoughts, actions, intentions. He can be heard stating how he's coaching future men, not just boys on a team and how each practice, each game should be filled with work, heart, integrity...and heaven forbid, fun. His motto is, "We're here to play football, not work football" and play they do. Our oldest son has been on a conference championship team each year and was taken aback handing his helmet in for the last time. We've heard our boys speak of very few coaches the way they have in regards to him and nothing on earth can replace that.
So to the coaches who coach. Really coach, not just your son or daughter, not just for the win, but for the true heart of the player and of the team. To our son's coach. The lessons you instilled of personal strength as well as in the imperative importance of the team with a fight so strong you can feel it, Thank You. Their lives will forever be changed because of you.
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