At CFC we talk all the time about Coaching With Purpose. As a coach, I want to understand and live into my purpose for coaching. When I’m doing it right, my purpose is athlete-focused. My role as a coach exists to help take young people to a place they could not reach without me. It really is all about the kids.
At the same time, I recognize that while my stated purpose is athlete-centered, coaching sports has changed my life. Quite honestly, I can’t imagine who I would be or how different my life would look if I hadn’t gotten into coaching at the beginning of my adult life. Coaching has been one of the most significant factors in my development as a man. I have grown as a leader, become more organized, learned to handle conflict, and much more. Because I am a coach I have become a better husband, Dad and teacher. I have become a much better communicator. I have become more mindful of my words and actions, and have felt the regret of messing it up along with the joy that comes from seeing what happens when I’ve gotten it right.
Maybe as much as anything, as a coach, I have become a better friend. I have learned to value people in a way that I usually didn’t when I was younger. When I started coaching I was one of the most selfish people on the planet. Don’t get me wrong, I can still be selfish, but have become progressively less so as the years have gone by. Probably most notably, many of my closest friends in the world are among those that I first coached with 17 years ago. I have moved to another part of the country and more than a decade has passed since we last coached together, and yet the bond that we formed coaching high school football together is powerful. Hardly a day, and certainly never a Friday in the fall goes by without them crossing my mind. These men have been my friends, mentors, big brothers, counselors and more. I treasure them and our friendship. I thank God for them, the work they do with young people, and the incredible influence they have had not only on me, but on every kid I will coach/teach for the rest of my life.
So while I recognize that youth and school sports exist for the kids, and my stated purpose for coaching reflects that, I also recognize that the picture is so much bigger. Being a coach has changed me and has blessed me with relationships that I doubt would have materialized any other way.