Sport and the Growing Good

Marc Skelton is an author, teacher, and renowned head basketball coach at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School in New York City. His teams have won championships and his students succeed beyond their time at the school. In this episode of the SGG podcast, Coach Skelton and I discuss: 1.  Taking care of his students and players at the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in New York. 2.  Overlaps in teaching and coaching. 3.  Being authentic to “who I am” as a coach. 4.  The New York Times article about his team. 5.  His “Trojan Horse Theory” of basketball. 6.  Players making transitions to their post-basketball lives. 7.  The importance of self-care for coaches. 8.  What he’s learning these days. 9.  Watching Brad Stevens coach.

Mark Lusic is a teacher and the head football coach at Amherst High School in Wisconsin. By developing an intensive weight training program, developing deep relationships, and building a winning culture, he’s led Amherst to four state championships and built one of the most respected programs in the state. In this episode of SGG, we discuss: 1.  Learning from Coach John Koronkiewicz about how to listen and develop relationships. 2.  Does “scheme” win games? (no) What does? 3.  Make your average players good, your good players great, and your great players “studs.” 4.  What does the team talk about in the weight room? 5.  Developing a team identity, sticking to it, and putting time into practicing it. 6.  The 600, 800, and 1000 pound clubs.  7.  How kids develop confidence through weightlifting. (see excerpt from student essay below) 8.  Kids needing football more than football needs them. 9.  Asking kids to “pay it forward” one day. 10.  It’s all about the players. 11.  Why he asks his team, “Are you satisfied?” after each game. 12.  His annual “life review.” 13.  Knowing what to do on 3rd and 1. 14.  Being ok with not always knowing the answer right away. Excerpt from Amherst HS student essay on how weightlifting built his confidence: "I didn’t always believe in myself. It finally clicked last year. To understand how I found my confidence, you need to know that I have always been a scrawny kid. I wanted to get stronger, so I started going to the weight room in the mornings in middle school. However, I never really saw or felt the results I wanted. Every morning, I would see everyone lifting heavier than me. Even though I felt like giving up, I continued waking up extra early every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and lifting. This went on until Junior year. I knew I was improving, but I thought it wasn’t much. Junior year was when I figured it out. I stopped comparing myself to everyone else lifting. The only person I compared myself to was who I was the day before. I realized that I am myself, and no one else has any effect on me. Although I still don’t really look like it, I became much stronger than I ever had. I worked hard to improve myself every day. At the end of the year, we had max out week, which is when we do as much weight as we can for one rep for bench, squat, and deadlift. All I wanted since I started lifting was to make it to the six hundred pound club, which is where your combined maxes added up to at least six hundred. I managed to get 165 pounds for bench press. For squat, I maxed out at 225, and, for deadlift, I maxed out at 275. If you do the math, those numbers add up to 665 pounds. I finally accomplished my goal from middle school. I got my numbers written on the paper in the weight room and a t-shirt, which I wear proudly. My confidence spread through my life. I felt more confident with my school work. Whether it was someone I normally did not talk to or a complete stranger, I found it easier to talk to people. I also found it easier to ask for help. I always try to learn from my mistakes, but this helped me learn to ask for help, so that I did not have to make mistakes that could be prevented."

Josh Niblett is the head football coach at Hoover High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Coach Niblett’s teams have won multiple state championships and have been recognized as one of the top programs in the country. Coach Niblett is an educator who values the deeper life lessons that can be learned through sports. He described: 1.  Agape love – and what it looks like on a football team; 2.  Weekly “Mindset Wednesday” discussions with his team; 3.  How he sharpens his edge; 4.  His team’s core value of respecting cultural differences; 5.  The “lighthouse” effect of lessons learned from the team; 6.  Finding a common denominator among team members; 7.  The team's word of the year: “E.D.G.E.” 8.  What he still struggles with; 9.  How he develops personal relationships with individual players; 10.  Twenty years of Wednesday evening Bible study with his team and family; 11.  “Change pace, change place, change perspective;” 12.  Being honest with players; 13.  Hating losing more than loving winning; 14.  The books he recommends to developing coaches, especially the Program.

Coach Alvarez joins SGG to discuss readiness on the field and in the classroom. Coach Alvarez is the athletic director at the University of Wisconsin. Formerly, he was a championship winning coach at high school and college levels. Coach discusses: 1.  Finding the right fit in the recruiting process; 2.  How did he know which players to take a chance on? 3.  What did he expect of his assistant coaches? 4.  What supports young student-athletes need.

We can learn valuable lessons about coaching and sports from Jane Addams, the famous social worker and leader in the early 1900s. This episode of SGG describes four specific ways that today’s leaders can learn from Jane: 1.  Identifying the basic needs of your team in order to make bigger things possible; 2.  Developing and sustaining teams as “places of enthusiasm;” 3.  Starting with what is right in front of you; and 4.  Gaining “sympathetic entry” into team members’ lives – meeting them where they are.

Coach Dusty Mattison is the highly-regarded head coach of the University of Wisconsin’s Lightweight Rowing program. We met at the Porter Boathouse, where she described 1.  Lessons she learned from her background in swimming; 2.  Teaching “the basics;” 3.  The importance of everyday steadiness; 4.  Some of her key organizational strategies; 5.  Her “practice binder” – and the down-to-the-minute practice plans that she develops; 6.  Why she utilizes email instead of apps for team communication; 7.  Her use of a “daily focus” for each practice session; 8.  Why she pumps music during early morning practice sessions; 9.  How organization at home affects her coaching; 10.  Developing a balance between coaching and family life; 11.  Finding the balance between technology and old-school work in training; 12.  Encouraging athletes to develop life skills; 13.  Weekly check-ins with individual athletes.

As the youth sports industry continues to rapidly grow throughout the US, Professor Bell warns us of some problems with the athletics pipeline. He discusses: 1.  What should parents and youth coaches know about sport? 2.  What are the impacts of physical activity in youth and young adulthood years? There are widespread physical and social effects. 3.  Why are more and more kids dropping out of sports at younger ages? 4.  What is the definition of youth sport specialization? What does “highly specialized” mean? How is this different from just being a “single sport” athlete? 5.  What does puberty have to do with specialization? What should parents know? 6.  Why are there higher rates of specialization among young female athletes? 7.  The importance of the triad between coach, parent, and athlete in creating a healthy sporting experience. 8.  Recommendations: delaying specialization as long as possible; play on one team at a time; don’t play a single sport more than eight months per year – especially before puberty; play a sport no more hours per week than your age; and take two days off per week. 9.  What can college-level coaches and leaders do to help foster a healthy pipeline? 10.  Previous injury predicts future risk.

Coach visited with us to describe the many details he addressed when taking over a struggling Wisconsin football program in the early 1990s: 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 roles 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. 16.  Being honest with parents and players, including questions about playing time. 17.  Putting players in uncomfortable positions in practice in order to prepare them to perform in difficult situations. 18.  What Coach Alvarez learned from Bob Devaney, Hayden Fry, and Lou Holtz.

What happens when families and communities come together every weekend for youth sports games? SGG presents ten minutes of condensed Saturday morning basketball action. What do we hear in these ten minutes? 1. A community of volunteers coming together…running concessions, coaching, running the clock; 2. Parents meeting each other and developing relationships; 3. Young athletes cheering for each other and have fun playing a game together; 4. A kid getting a bloody nose; 5. Teammates communicating with each other and coordinating their actions on the court; 6. Parents cheering for their teams; 7. Coaches giving the players instruction, encouragement, and correction during the game...and across the years.

Yvette Healy is the head softball coach at the University of Wisconsin. She’s led the team to great heights during her ten years in Madison. Coach Healy discusses: 1.  The value of small group practice sessions; 2.  Why an indoor dirt field is important; 3.  Her daily routine – splitting time between the office and the field; 4.  One of her coaching models, Eugene Lenti; 5.  Building a competitive atmosphere; 6.  Developing belief on a team; 7.  Designing practices that are fun and competitive; 8.  Making players uncomfortable in drills; 9.  What coaches can learn from watching kids run the bases; 10.  The best advice she received from Barry Alvarez; 11.  Being more present to the team; 12.  Having “side-to-side” conversations with players; 13.  Modeling self-challenge; 14.  Building relationships off the field with the coaching staff.