Sport and the Growing Good

SGG supports the development of coaches who can "grow the good" throughout their schools and communities. Coach Alvarez visited with an SGG room full of coaches and aspiring coaches to describe the plan he implemented when he first took the head coaching job at Wisconsin. 1.  Before taking a new job as a coach, you better have a real clear idea of what is expected of you by the leaders who hired you. “Where is the program today, and how are you going to support me?” You have to know the lay of the land before you take a job. 2.  The importance of identifying and securing the players you need and winning over their coaches. “The best players in the state weren’t staying here.” “I knew I had to win over the state high school coaches… I told them, ‘your program is important…You can visit anytime.’” 3.  How off-the-field problems affect on-field performance. 4.  Develop a thorough plan on how you are going to run your program. 5.  Figure out the best recruits you can get at your school – those that are athletic, academic, and geographic fits. 6.  Before you take the job, establish a detailed list of coaches you will try to bring with you. Know what kind of staff you want and get the staff you need. 7.  You have to sell your plan to recruits and high school coaches – but also to your own new staff. 8.  You must communicate your plan to “every person who touches the program.” You must be clear and precise about what you expect of everyone. You have to implement the day-to-day expectations. “If you do things properly during the day, during the week, things will go well on Saturdays.” 9.  Develop a “staff policy book” that addresses every detail about what you want/expect regarding people’s behaviors and expectations, all the way down to the way you dress and the way you conduct meetings. 10.   Among your staff, develop a specific recruiting plan. “What are we selling? What does this place have to offer.” Deliver a coherent, cohesive message. 11.  Be very specific about the roles/expectations for each of the assistants – including their key role in supporting the academic side of their players’ lives. 12.  Be clear and consistent as a staff about the way feedback is offered to players. 13.  The three questions every coach needs to know of his players: “Can I trust you?” “Are you committed?” “Do you care?” 14.  Develop a player policy book: What do you expect from your players? The importance of the “weekly truth statements.” 15.  The importance of maintaining success by staying hungry and not making compromises.

Coach Alvarez served as defensive coordinator for Notre Dame's 1988 National Championship season. He discusses his perspective on that experience, including important foundations that were developed for his head coaching career. 1.  The first time he was contacted by Lou Holtz. 2.  Hiring his first defensive staff at Notre Dame. 3.  His working relationship with Coach Holtz. 4.  Why he continually used the word “physical” with his team leading up to the first game of the 1988 season. 5.  “Re-purposing” players who didn’t find success at other positions, including Chris Zorich (“washed up linebacker”), George Williams (“didn’t pass the eye test”), Jeff Alm (“a skinny drink of water”), Frank Stams (“a converted fullback”), Pat Terrell (“a washed up wide receiver”). 6.  “Victory doesn’t always go to the biggest, strongest, fastest man, but to the man who thinks he can.” 7.  “I always want my guys to think they have an edge…I find an edge every week. On Sundays, I’ll come up with some kind of a theme and some advantage that we have. And our coaches will use it all week.” 8.  Coach Holtz was “really good on Friday nights.” 9.  Using Thursday nights to build belief. 10.  Keeping teams from getting uptight before big games. 11.  “Pick up your step. The kids read the coaches. If the coaches are excited, the kids get excited.” 12.  What it means to “think like a shortstop.” 13.  Lou Holtz’s love of Notre Dame. And the importance of representing your school. 14.  Making Michigan State “play left-handed.” 15.  The famous Miami game. 16.  How he built rapport with his defensive unit. 17.  When to be tough on your team: after a big win. 18.  Keeping up morale after difficult losses. 19.  The importance of grading players in practice as an aid to communicating about their roles on the team. 20.  The most gratifying aspect of coaching: following up with players years later and hearing about the impacts 21.  The end of season USC game. 22.  Making the transition from D-Coordinator to head coach – and waiting for the right timing. 23.  The importance of building relationships with players. 24.  Truth statements. 25.  Joe Moore: “he was uncanny in how he taught.” 26.  Joe Moore: “pretend like you’re going to pick that tree up.” 27.  Joe Moore: “I don’t want to be a train.”

What are the daily and weekly rhythms of a football team? How are relationships developed? What roles do rituals play in team culture? These and other questions are considered in this first episode of a special series examining the game of football in Wisconsin. Using an embedded approach, Professor Miller, describes one week of action... and considers how this one week is tied to multiple layers of preparation across broad time and places. The special series lends close attention to to coaching -- from youth on through college levels. SGG aims to support the development of coaches who "grow the good" throughout Wisconsin and beyond.

Sydney Storey (formerly Sydney Smallbone) was an exceptional basketball player at South Bend St. Joseph’s High School and the University of Tennessee. She went on to coach at St. Joseph’s, where she led her team to another Indiana state basketball championship. Sydney, who later earned an executive MBA from Notre Dame and transitioned fully into the business world, joined the SGG podcast to reflect on her experiences playing for one of the all-time great coaches, Pat Summitt. We discussed:  1. The first time she saw Coach Summitt at a summer tournament: “When Pat walked in, I think the gym pretty much went silent…She really was a show stopper…I instantly wanted to play for her.”  2. How Coach Summitt carried herself, her charisma and demeanor.  3. Why Sydney and her teammates referred to Coach Summitt as “Pat.”  4. “She really took the time to get to know you individually…She wanted to know about our daily life and not just our life on the court.”  5. Where Coach Summitt held individual players.  6. Coach Summitt’s emphasis on communication, something you can always control: “A noisy gym is a winning gym.”  7. Coach Summitt’s excellence in teaching: “Her practices were long, intense, and intentional. Everything we did had a purpose.”  8. “We were held accountable on every drill. Everything mattered. Instant feedback was something we always got.”  9. How Coach Summitt communicated roles to players, many of whom were challenged to accept supporting roles after having been stars in high school: “We all got treated the same.”  10. “She always had a pulse on how you were doing and how you were handling any given situation…Everyone bought in.”  11. The time Coach Summitt made the team managers run sprints.  12. How Coach Summitt handled losses. “She was really good at judging where we needed to go to work.”  13. “It truly was her life… So when we lost, she took it on her shoulders really heavily.”  14. Coach Summitt’s limitations: “Because she cared so much, it was hard for her to dial that down.”  15. How Coach Summit addressed the team at halftime when they trailed Rutgers by 22 points at halftime: “We’re going to win this game.”  16. How she developed her own coaching identity, know what to draw from Coach Summitt and what was not reasonable to expect of high school players.  17. Her emphasis on developing her team’s “knowledge of the game” while coaching at the high school level.  18. Sharing coaching responsibilities with her assistant coaches.  19. Why she chose to not continue on the coaching path (for now).  20. Leaning on and learning from her athletic director, former Notre Dame volleyball coach Debbie Brown. “I confided in Deb Brown, as my mentor, every day before practice.  21. Her favorite memory of Coach Summitt: “I just remember her walking up to me, gave me a big hug, looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘Thank you.’ And that was all she had to say…Those two words meant the world to me coming from Pat.”

Ty-Ron Douglas is an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Missouri. He is also actively engaged in his community – as a pastor, parent, entrepreneur, and leader. Dr. Ty, a native of Bermuda, was an accomplished athlete as a youngster who continues to see sports as vehicle for individual and community improvement. He is an inspirational leader, teacher and author whose work has been profiled at the highest levels. Dr. Ty joined the SGG podcast to discuss: 1.  Growing up playing soccer and cricket in Bermuda. 2.  Hitting a ceiling in sport. 3.  Lessons from his barber and mentor. “From him, I learned how to be a teacher.” 4.  The black barbershop as an educational space. 5.  “He saw me through the various stages of my journey. He literally gave me my first haircut. He saw me in boyhood. He saw me in my teenage years. And he was always there…For those of us who know of the transience of life, it is beautiful to have constants. He was a constant.” 6.  “From him I’ve learned how to have joy.” 7.  Finding joy in sports. 8.  Athletic spaces as “sanctuaries.” 9.  “Homophily”: finding commonality with others through sports. 10.  “I have a theory that our athletes are probably and perhaps the most underutilized educators in the world.” 11.  Border crossing – moving from space to space and building bridges. 12.  “Where we come from experiences how we see things and how we engage the world.” 13.  Thinking of “integration” instead of work-life balance. 14.  His “So Amazing Life” perspective that permeates all that he does. 15.  When things are broken, where do I go? 16.  “Broken crayons still color.” 17.  Where do you find your wholeness? 18.  “Our brokenness is a platform for our purpose.”

Rich Halverson is a professor and associate dean in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A native of Manitowoc, WI and former school principal, Professor Halverson is a scholar, author and international leader on technology, leadership, and learning. In this episode of the SGG podcast, he addressed a key question facing many coaches: How can I use technology to help members of my team learn and my team get better?  In our conversation, we discussed: 1.  His early interest and work in technology. 2.  Adapting technology to a pre-existing practice. 3.  A big problem: When technology developers don’t have a sense for the settings where practice occurs. 4.  William James: “People change their practice when they have a felt need.” 5.  Technologies must answer questions that people cannot answer on their own. 6.  “Human centered design.” If you’re trying to change people’s practices, you must understand those practices. 7.  “Old-school” coaches and leaders accepting and adapting to innovation and technology. 8.  “Sometimes you can measure things that you can’t see. Sometimes you can see things that you can’t measure. Good leadership is hybrid leadership.” 9.  Relationships still matter the most for learning and trust-building. But relationship-building creates closed networks. Combining relationship networks with technology can deepen and enrich networks and practice. 10.  How to better use video: The key is formative feedback. Specific, just-in-time feedback. As soon as possible! Video has the power of immediacy. 11.  The learning principles that can be found in TikTok videos. 12.  Technology does not replace work. 13.  “If I was a coach or a principal at a school, I would liberate the tools that are in kids’ pockets (phones)…The machinery is absolutely accessible.” 14.  Kids’ expertise with technology – and how we can better tap into it. 15.  “Our obstacles are social, not technological. The delivery mechanisms and the technologies are fully available to solve all these problems, but it’s our beliefs that hold us back.”

Sidney Moncrief was an NBA superstar with the Milwaukee Bucks, earning countless awards and accomplishments, including the ultimate honor of being selected into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Sidney’s successes are not limited to the court, as he’s also emerged as a leader in business, coaching, writing, and consulting. In our conversation in the SGG podcast, we discussed: 1.  What he learned from his high school coach, the legendary Oliver Elders: “He placed a very high emphasis on being a quality person. That superseded anything you did on the court… He made us realize that life was much more than just basketball.” 2.  “We knew he cared about us as people.” 3.  “Your impact lasts beyond those three or four years that you have with those players. It’s going to stay with them for a lifetime. If you instill just selfishness and you caring about being a winning coach without caring about them academically or as people, that’s what they’re going to spill out for the rest of their life. If you show them love, you show them compassion, you show them that accountability matters, that being a good teammate matters, being a good person matters, character matters, that’s what they’re going to show for the rest of their lives.” 4.  The critical time that Coach Eddie Sutton offered compliments to Sidney and his teammates – an occasion that built their confidence and spurred them on to the Final Four the next season. 5.  The importance of Coach Sutton’s assistant coaches giving him advice to instill confidence in his players… and Coach Sutton’s willingness to listen to them. 6.  What it felt like to get “called to the coach’s office.” 7.  “Greatness was not even part of our mindset. He interjected that greatness theory.” 8.  The importance of timing in coaches’ conversations with their teams. 9.  His wake-up call to the physicality of the NBA – and how Coach Don Nelson guided him to playing defense at the highest level. 10.  The thing that really makes you a great coach: Maintaining high expectations of players. 11.  “Players today need to know why they’re doing certain things.” 12.  The influence of his upbringing on his development as a tenacious competitor. 13.  The importance of having experienced players as models for younger ones to learn from. 14.  Discipline as an everyday part of life. 15.  His new book. 16.  Exercise, rest, rejuvenation, and personal care: “There’s only so much film you should be watching…The players don’t get the best you when you’re constantly watching film and are constantly stressed out.” 17.  Knowing and respecting the different motivations that players bring to the table. 18.  What he means by “tenacity” in his new book. “Pace, aggressiveness, focus, determination…” 19.  “Love what you do and do what you love…and change the world!”

Jay Bilas authored the book Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court. He provides a detailed analysis of specific aspects of toughness, including what it looks like in a sports setting and how it can be developed. Jay draws upon his experiences as a Duke basketball player, as an attorney, and as a commentator for ESPN to shed light on multiple dimensions of toughness. Coaches of all levels can find meaningful insights in Jay’s book. In this SGG episode, we discussed: 1.  The impact that a drama teacher had upon him: “He was as influential upon me as any coach I’ve ever had.” 2.  What he learned through public speaking and forensics competitions as a high school student. 3.  The role his mom played in requiring him to take on uncomfortable challenges – including ballroom dancing. 4.  John Ebeling, “the toughest guy I ever played against…When I played against him I realized, ‘that’s what I should aspire to be.’” 5.  Growing in toughness through your teammates: “toughness is contagious.” 6.  Duke teammate David Henderson’s competitive spirit: “You were going to try to match him because of the amount of respect you had for the way he went about things…You didn’t want to let him down in that regard.” 7.  “Whether you’re the best player or the last person on the depth chart, you can raise the level of your organization by your performance and by the way you do your role.” 8.  On former Duke player Grant Hill: “You can be incredibly tough and incredibly nice at the same time…He had a wonderful balance of being a cut-throat competitor when he was playing and then being the nicest, most thoughtful, and polite person you could ever meet.” 9.  Being smart about playing – or not playing – through pain. 10.  The importance of saying no: “Sometimes the most important word in your life is no. And in order to say yes to your priorities, there are times you need to say no to other things.” 11.  “Sometimes it’s the tough thing to do to sit out and take care of yourself the right way.”

Pat Rice is a Hall of Fame coach at Waunakee High School. Coach Rice’s teams have won six state titles and his overall winning percentage is among the highest in state history. More importantly, Coach Rice has positively impacted countless lives over the course of almost 30 years as head coach. He’s recognized as one of the best coaches in state history and as a leader from whom young coaches can learn. On this SGG episode, we discussed: 1.  How coaching is different from when his dad coached at McFarland HS: it’s a year-round process. 2.  “My dad always put kids first…It starts and ends with the kids.” How Pat’s tried to model this lesson in his own coaching life. 3.  Being a “coach of coaches” – using the curriculum for player development and coaching development. 4.  How technology has changed coaching – and how Coach Rice views “techy young guys” as important members of his staff. 5.  The development of pillars and identities on the team. 6.  Getting buy-in on the offensive line by developing the “Hogs” and making the offensive line a high-profile position. 7.  Staying on the trending, forward-thinking side of the game and not lagging behind in innovation. “You have to stay in front of the curve.” Continually learning and not being satisfied -- including making the change to the spread offense even though the team was in the midst of a long streak of great success. 8.  Not going half-way in making changes – being fully committed to changes that are made. (including the example of Nick Saban making the change at Alabama) 9.  “My staff knows that their thoughts and opinions are respected and we’re in it together.” 10.  The nuts and bolts of end of season meetings on “where can we get better.” 11.  Working with a neighboring school to evaluate each other’s programs. 12.  “If you’re going to make changes, you’ve got to be willing to listen to other people.” 13.  Having a staff that is passionate, committed, loyal, and knowledgeable. 14.  The positive, meaningful role created for parents via the booster club. “Make the parents part of the equation…We’re all trying to move this forward together.” 15.  Keeping interactions with parents positive and fun. 16.  “We don’t want football to be the pinnacle of their life…We want football to be a part of their life. Something they can build from.” 17.  End-of-practice conversations with the team that center on bigger life issues and developing into better young men. 18.  Focusing on the journey and appreciating it. “Once Friday night comes, the hay is in the barn and we’re going to give it our best shot…If you aim completely at wins and losses, then you’re missing the mark.” 19.  Always staying together, getting up, and bouncing back together. The opportunities provided by setbacks – “that’s when they need you the most.”

Diana Hess is the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a leading expert on productive classroom discussion. As many coaches in and beyond Wisconsin are regularly challenged to lead their teams through challenging issues, Dean Hess presents a range of research-supported, practical insights on listening, learning, and moving forward together. We discussed: 1.  Coaching gymnastics at the YMCA and at Downers Grove High School, and the lessons she learned from coaching. 2.  Her research on how middle and high school teachers can help their students discuss controversial issues. 3.  Disagreement about issues is not a bad thing. 4.  Distinctions between “topics” and “issues.” 5.  Live controversies vs. settled topics. 6.  “When students learn how to participate in discussions of controversial issues, they learn an awful lot about how to think, how to articulate their views, and how to listen to people with whom they disagree.” 7.  “We want our students to learn how to talk with people they disagree with.” 8.  Asking students to prepare in advance of discussions about controversial issues – but not necessarily to have a firm opinion about them. 9.  The importance of getting everyone to participate in discussions – and how to do it. 10.  If you want everyone to participate, preparation is the best way to do it. 11.  Sports provide us a wonderful opportunity to learn with and from others who are different from us in a number of ways. 12.  “It is important that the coach sets a really high standard for how we’re going to respect one another.” 13.  Listening. 14.  “What I want on my leadership team is genuine disagreement about what we should do...But at some point, we have to make a decision.” 15.  “There are some times when a group makes a decision that, for whatever reason, you just can’t support. And then, you really have a hard decision to make. Do I stay with this group or not?”