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#5 I am the Creator of Spirit: The Power of Athletics at its Best

Recently, I posted a list of 13 Beliefs of Good Coaches.  Now I’m following up by digging deeper into each of them.  This post is the fifth principle: I am a creator of spirit.

In the dark hours of August 17th, 2017 a storm like no other hit the Gulf Coast of the United States.  The devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey is still being felt months later.  However, after the initial shock has worn off, we can begin to appreciate the stories of courage and heroism shown by so many during the disaster.  Many of these stories highlight the courage of coaches and athletes who stepped up to meet the challenge.  Please look here and here for a couple of these heartwarming stories.

Great coaches understand the power of athletics.  They understand that there is an energy inherent to sport that can affect not only athletes, but everyone in our society.  The special power that athletics possesses, call it spirit, comes from the fact that athletics joins people together.  Spirit cements a group of athletes into lifelong friends, it bonds coaches with players, it connects parents with children, it can even unite nations.  We see this when a town rallies around its team, we also see this when a team rallies around its town.  Good coaches stand at the nexus between these inner and outer forces acting as the catalyst for courage and hope.

Good coaches understand that the human virtue athletics best demonstrates is, courage.  When a great coach recognises an opportunity to step up and teach his athletes to be courageous, they often do.  We see it all the time, a college sports team bringing food to the hungry, a coach pushing his players to help victims of a tragedy like after the tornado in Joplin, MO, an athlete having the courage to stand up to the bully on campus and say “no more”, the list goes on and on.  Call it politics or call it teaching life-skills; by pushing athletes into the community, a great coach is also pulling the community into their program, making the neighborhood a part of the team.  That is when a sense of spirit is truly created.

However, it’s not easy to be the creators of spirit.  There are times when a coach must act as a shield for his athletes.  Great coaches recognize there are times they must protect their players from the evils of outside forces such as, an overzealous recruiter, unrealistic parents, or even the temptations of everyday life (i.e., drugs, alcohol, cheating).  That is the difficult paradox that good coaches find a way to balance; pushing their athletes to bring the power of athletics to the larger community while at the same time protecting their athletes from the dangers the community can bring to them.

I define politics as combing the in-crowd with the outer community.  If you think of your team as the in-crowd then the outer community may be sponsors, the larger school community, or really anyone not directly connected to your program.  Like it or not, politicking is a part of the coaching process.  Wayward coaches too often attempt to isolate themselves, and their teams, from everything and everyone.  Usually these same coaches are the first to complain about the lack of support their program are receiving.  Great coaches on the other hand understand that good can come from bad, spirit is often created from tragedy, inner circles of individuals and outer forces from the community must ultimately join if the true power of sport will ever be reached.

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