Recently, Laura and I went back to a couple of high school track meets … it is always fun to see ambitious young athletes striving for perfection. What struck me very odd was some of the old feelings of foreboding. Then I saw some familiar track coaches and I realized why. They think the sport is all about them. As ‘Maranda’ said, “Don’t be silly, everyone wants to be us!”
Sports — contrary to folks like Florida’s Urban Myer –should be about athletes and at the high school level should be as much about their future beyond athletics as their future as an athlete.
Coaching should be as much about mentoring and personal development as about athletic performance. I have always respected coaches who can do both… they employ the power of positive coaching and work towards the personal development of the athletes in fields other than their sport. Just like the late great Coach of Grambling University, they are loved by their athletes for reasons beyond their sport.
I see Head Track & Field Coach Ron Allice of the Southern California Trojans in that rare breed of ‘mentoring’ coaches. He definitely has his ‘eye on the prize’, he wants to win, but he supports his athletes to be all they can be in life.
Roger Freberg
