Happy Sunday Everyone:
If you’re not into coaching of any sort, you can probably skip this one.
Jack and Thomas have a new varsity football coach at their high school. His name is CJ Anderson. He played for the Broncos primarily, won a super bowl, went to a pro-bowl, went to junior college before playing at UC Berkeley, went undrafted before earning a spot on the Broncos, I’d say from an outsiders observation, he has grit. Jack and Thomas would say from an insiders perspective, he’s pushing grit on them. Based on what I’m seeing from them physically (strongest they’ve ever been by a long shot), and mentally (believing they can push themselves further than they ever have), it’s working.
The contrast from last season to this season and what a single individual has done for a program has my head spinning. Trying to not really make this about high school football i.e. Friday Night Lights, but appreciating the impact of what a coach, of any sort, can have on their players/students is awesome to witness. The coaching staff has been working with the boys since mid-June. The amount of time and effort is like nothing I’ve experienced around here before. Coaches that have been with the program for years are telling us it’s not comparable to anything they’ve dealt with in the past. Time commitment, conditioning, rules, contracts, unwavering expectations, it’s both awesome and interesting to witness. We had a player/parent/coach mandatory meeting yesterday. A few takeaways for me to remember as both a parent and a coach.
1. Setting proper expectations without apology: Our community is one where you might say parents can have a larger say in how things are done than they should. There are some passive/aggressive rumblings that the conditioning is over the top for the kids. Coach CJ simply explained his “why” around injuries, safety, and mental toughness and then basically said he will not be lowering his bar for our kids to meet our expectations. Question to me is what ceiling do I unintentionally place with my own kids, and coaching students to make sure they’re “comfortable”.
2. Expect more w/ no excuses: This is parent related. He tells the parents, “if the broncos use it, we use it, if the broncos don’t use it, we don’t”. Our equipment is all 20+ years old and apparently borderline dangerous. He simply expects us to raise money to buy new stuff. His attitude is it will get done. Not sure if you call it “dreamer” mindset but it’s working. Just figure it out and get it done is better than debating it.
3. Be consistent and involved: These coaches are with these kids 4-6 hours a day 6 days a week. I’ve seen Coach CJ drive to a kid’s house that wanted to stop playing. He texts Jack and others about leadership expectations, he knows every single kids name on the team (JV and Varsity), he has nicknames for all of them. The saying “nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care” is alive and well here. Everything he says he’s going to do, he does, including consequences for not doing your job.
4. Overall betterment of life: Each kid has to sign a contract based on several pillars with bullets under each. The actual contract has expectations/definitions of each of these individual words.
1. Trustworthiness
1. Integrity
2. honesty
3. reliability
4. loyalty
2. respect
1. have class
2. no taunting
3. respect officials
4. respect parents
5. no profanity
6. effort and teamwork
3. Responsibility
1. life skills
2. advocate for education
3. no unhealthy substances
4. self-control
5. Grades-With Grades. He has a program for Grades, you’re always in Green, yellow, or red, Green you’re good, yellow, study hall at least once a week w/ tutor, red, 2X week w/ tutor:
It’s refreshing to see someone with so much passion for the betterment of a program and your child. It’s also a massive reminder for me, as a parent, a coach, and a human, on how much we’re capable of accomplishing when we throw those limiting beliefs out the door.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!