Unconditional Coaching

When I began my career as an Athletic Director in 2000, I started the practice of writing an email to my coaches every Monday calling it "Thought of The Week." The goal was to simply encourage coaches, offer hope and possibly provide a few ideas to help them build their programs. Unconditional Coaching is a partial collection of those emails, providing you with one lesson for each week of the year (52). I certainly do not know it all, and many of these lessons come from mistakes that I made personally as a coach, so learn from them if you can. Some things you may agree with, some you may not, even still, take a little time once a week to think creatively, and challenge yourself in becoming better. Coaching is a great profession, and to say coaches shape America is not an understatement. Coaches have the unique opportunity to influence an athlete's life in the most dramatic ways that can last a lifetime. The most meaningful coaches are the ones that coach unconditionally, by not letting wins and losses get in the way of putting kids first. I made multiple mistakes as a coach, and to this day I still have regret in the way I handled some situations and players. I pulled stunts that coaches are getting fired for today, but you live and learn. All I do know for certain is that my intent was sincere at the time, and that is the best I can do in explaining it. I hope you enjoy the lessons, they all come from my experiences as a coach, Athletic Director, parent, spouse, son, athlete, and a humble member of the human race. Remember, never correlate a coach's win/loss record or title to the level of influence they can have on their players. Some of the most significant coaches in kids' lives never became a head coach or won a State Championship. Regardless of where you are coaching today, you have the opportunity to influence lives. Although winning is much more enjoyable than losing, focus on building champions first, and your career will be full of success. Without question, the most sustaining victories in this business will never appear in a W/L/ record, but they certainly do count. It is possible that you can become the most positive and significant influence in a kid's life, what other profession can boast that? Win or lose, influence is going to happen. Don't take that lightly.