Our friend John McC
arthy has carved out a long and distinguished career in athletics – as a coach, administrator, author and speaker. A few years ago, John introduced me to the idea of a “Coaching Paycheck”, which is basically the satisfaction a Coach receives when a current or former athlete clearly demonstrates that the lessons we worked to teach were received, lived out and subsequently used to change lives.
Back in January, I received a Coaching Paycheck.
In 2003, I met Jackyson Bazile. He was a high school junior who decided to come out for football, and I was coaching at Naples HS in Southwest Florida. Born in Haiti, where he lived until age 12, Jackyson was new to football. I didn’t work with him directly, as he was playing defense and I was helping coach the offense. However, one day in 2004 our paths crossed in a significant way.
I was throwing passes to the scout team offense, and one throw was just a bit too high with a bit too much air under it. And unfortunately for our 10th grade running back, 12th grade Jackyson Bazile flew up and hit him. Hard.
I lost it — yelling at Jackyson and jumping all over him for making what I called a selfish, dangerous play. In reality, his hit wasn’t selfish or foolish at all. He was a defensive player playing hard and doing his job, and I was a young coach who was embarrassed because I threw a bad pass and a 10th grader paid for it. I immediately knew I was wrong and regretted hollering at Jackyson.
I found him after practice and apologized, told him he had done nothing wrong and that I had unacceptably lost my composure because I was embarrassed. After we talked, things were cool between Jackyson and me. In fact, that experience seemed to forge a kind of bond, as he would seek me out from time to time, and even wrote me a really nice card right before graduation thanking me for helping coach him.
In the past 13 years, I’ve bumped into Jackyson a time or two, seen Facebook posts and exchanged a handful of texts. Now living in another part of the country, it’s more difficult to stay connected, which is why I was so fired up when I read this article, detailing Jackyson’s outstanding work with the First Baptist Academy girls soccer team.
A couple important quotes from the article:
He’s also brought a philosophy that made Naples High football coach Bill Kramer and Hall of Famer and two-time state champion – that a team is a family.
Kramer, who coached Bazile in high school, talks often of his players loving each other and playing for one another. First Baptist soccer players now echo the same sentiments.
I don’t take credit personally for Jackyson’s impact on the FBA soccer team. I honestly didn’t work directly with him that much compared to some of our other coaches. It was just really cool to read that article and see the generational effect of a program that I was honored to be a part of, as one of our kids is now making a difference in the lives of his players.
That was a coaching paycheck.