In my years of covering sports in this area I have had the pleasure of working with several great high school coaches. There are some terrific coaches still on the sidelines and some from the past or that have gone to other schools: Gary Blevins, Steve Hancock, Duane Hiler, Randy Bishop, just to name a few that are great influences but no longer coach in the tri-lakes.
What is it that makes a great coach? Winning? Well, that certainly helps. There is a saying that “winning cures all”. Well, winning does a lot. It is the easiest sign of accomplishment for those not close to the program to gauge. But, not every school is going to be in a position to win every season. If you are at a public school (that plays by the rules) you don’t get to pick your players. Its not like you can look at your team, say I need a quarterback or a point guard, and go out and get one from the next town over.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to win. I am as competitive guy as you will find. But, years ago, I came to realize that there is a whole lot more important things than winning. I am a staunch believer that it should be an extremely rare instance that a HS coach loses his job strictly because of wins and loses.
Of course a coach needs to know the game. A great coach cares more about helping your kid become a better human than he/she does about them making All-Conference. At the end of the day, if being part of a program eventually makes players better future spouses and parents I would say that is pretty awesome. After all there is not much more important than that.
I have learned that you cant judge from limited exposure: For instance, a coach yelling at a player during a game. I can tell you, from experience, that the vast majority of the time it is not being done to embarrass or berate the athlete. Yes, there are exceptions, but I really think, those are exceptions. Usually it is being done to drive home a point that has been discussed, a few, if not many times before. Sometimes, its all about challenging the athlete and getting the very best out of them. And many times its as much of a life lesson as it is a game lesson.
Sometimes it is the ones that are the most vocal that actually care the most. I cant tell you the number of times that I have seen kids that were on the other end of some of those discussions talk about how much they love that same coach that laid into them. They talk about how much of an influence that coach was on them.
We are blessed, in this area, to have such a great group of men and women to lead our young folks. Not everyone is as lucky. I am grateful, not only for their help, but for the wonderful leaders they are. THANKS COACH(es)
