The "WHY?" Culture
Coach Forester, the softball coach at Emory & Henry, spoke on the topic of team chemistry and culture. He explained his culture that is revolved around the question "why?" meaning, why someone does what they do. By doing so, this establishes a purpose with purpose comes confidence that leads to relationships. The biggest takeaway from Coach Forester's talk was that he recruits girls that not only have talent, but they MUST fit within his culture because if they cannot thrive in the culture, then they won't be positive contributors. |
How to be successful Head Coach
Coach Crutchfield, Head Women's Basketball Coach, spoke to key pointers on how to be a successful head coach. According to Coach, the number one key to being a successful coach is to create personality and establishing a culture within the team. Without culture, a coach has nothing to lean back on during adversity. Like Coach Kardulis, she emphasized how coaching is more than giving good advice. Its something that takes time, dedication, and personal sacrifice to be successful and while also creating positive relationships along the way. Lastly, recruiting is crucial in collegiate coaching and Coach Crutchfield stressed the importance of getting high character players that not only fit the culture, but are ready to serve! |
How to get a coaching job?
Coach Dickens, Assistant Women's Basketball Coach at Emory & Henry, spoke about things aspiring coaches need to know about getting a job in coaching. The first step to getting a coaching job was to establish a network with individuals in the field and making lasting impressions on them that could turn into job offers. According to her, as a coach, one must have something that makes them stand out over other candidates. Also, she says emphasized taking advantage of any opportunities to learn whether they be big or small because one may never know what doors it may open down the road. The biggest takeaway from Coach Dickens was her emphasis on taking initiative in whatever you do and don't wait for someone to come along to do it for you. Take the initiative, learn, and good things will happen! |
Recruiting
Coach Wilson, Head Men's Basketball Coach at Memphis University School, spoke to the importance of recruiting and how it's the biggest difference between high school and collegiate coaching. He emphasized the importance of not just recruiting athletes on talent, but recruiting to the culture you have established with your team. Culture is everything to Coach Wilson! According to him, to be a good recruiter one must be relational, be genuine/charismatic, be professional, observant and lastly honest, but ethical at the same time. The one similarity amongst all these traits are passion and personal sacrifice because recruiting takes TIME! To conclude, Coach talked about the 3 phases of how he breaks down recruiting. The discovery phase which is finding the athletes. The evaluation phase which is finding athletes that fit the culture. Then last but not least, the recruiting phase where you begin to sell the school and your team in hopes they commit. The biggest take way from Coach Wilson's talk was the importance of culture and how important it is in building a successful program. |
The Story of Life: How Coaching mirrors life tribulations
Coach McCall, Head Baseball Coach at Emory & Henry College, talked about how the adversity you face in sports will best prepare you for the adversity you'll face in life. Like in life, Coach stated that you will always have doubters, but once you make a decision, stick with it, and be able to back it up. Coach talked about how coaching is not a job based on popularity, meaning as a coach, you will not always be the popular individual because your job is to push the player to be the best version of them they can be which requires some "push" and or fortitude by both parties. With that said, coach emphasized the point that everybody is replaceable at any time which is another way to say, never get complacent, always strive to get better. With all that said, Coach McCall drove home the point that, no matter what you've been through or what has happened to you, don't make excuses, just get the job done whatever it is! |
The Life of Coaching
Coach Schaffner, Assistant Head Baseball Coach at Emory & Henry College, spoke to how the life of a coach is not all glamorous like it is portrayed in the media. Coaching is a profession that requires a lot of personal sacrifice. According to Coach, every situation in coaching is different and you start at the bottom at every position whether it be equipment manager, graduate assistant, etc. Coaching is also a profession that requires self-evaluation and is full of constant adjustments in order to get better. Coach Schaffner emphasized the point of never getting complacent in coaching because you can be fired at anytime for any reason. To clarify, coaching is one of the best professions on earth per Coach and he loves every second. My biggest takeaway from Coach's talk was that he said,"I say all the time, I have never worked a day in my life! I say that because although coaching is work, I love what I do, so it doesn't feel like work." In other words, Coach believes that whatever you do in life, you should love what you do and go to work every day whistling because you're excited to be there! |
Work Ethic and Impressions
Coach Kuzcko, Assistant Baseball Coach at Emory & Henry College, spoke about how he came about his job and what the coaching world entails. To start, he explained how he attained his first job by working at a high school pool for a couple years and building a network around him. During his stint at the pool, he made a lasting impression the Athletic Director which eventually turned into a job offer to be the next high school baseball coach at Abingdon High School. Coach stressed that you must come to work everyday and perform to the best of your abilities because you never know when someone will be watching. That someone could be a future boss that offers you one of your first life occupations. Overall, the biggest point that I learned from Coach Kuzcko was that you never know who's watching, so do your best work day in and day out! |
Transition from player to Coach
Matt Kardulis, Graduate Assistant with Virginia Tech Football, spoke to the transition from being a player to a coach. According to Coach, the three primary differences that comes with becoming a coach is discipline, personal conduct, and proper, correct relationships. As a player, one can get away with partying on the weekends and hanging out with anybody without worrying about the repercussions, but when one becomes a coach that all changes due to the position. He also spoke to how to be a young successful coach in a field where experience is quite valuable. He named these things: be pro-active, be coachable, be a sponge, and be organized. All these attributes require passion and determination which leads into his points that while coaching one must have a strong mentality, sacrifice, and have the ability to set goals both for yourself and the team. |