You’ve Got a Home Here
by Ryan Krzykowski
Last week we tried something and it seemed to work pretty well. The high school football program I work with is going into its 10th season of existence. The school opened in 2017 and we decided to put together a football alumni cookout, inviting players and coaches from those ten seasons. With my three youngest sons all football alumni, I definitely had something to do with coming up with the idea for the event. We probably had about 40 people show, which for the first attempt, felt like a solid showing. I think everyone had a good time, and the talk is that there’s no reason we can’t do something like this every year.
We advertised the cookout as a 5:30-7:30 deal, but by 7 PM most everyone had cleared out. Just a couple other coaches and I figured we should hang around until 7:30 before we put everything away, just in case someone showed up. I’m glad we did, because at about 7:15 a player from a couple years ago rolled up. He’d just finished his workday as an HVAC technician and decided to stop by and check things out. This kid had not exactly been an impact player on the field. His senior year he dealt with a series of nagging injuries and I don’t think he ever got a single varsity game rep. Honestly, I was a little surprised to see him as he was walking up. We got him some food and a couple bottles of water, and I listened to our guy tell us about his life now. Work, family, the whole deal. And then he started talking about his time in the school’s football program. He talked about things he remembered coaches saying that have made a difference as he interacts with customers. He talked about how much he enjoyed being on the team, and how much respect he has for the coaches. I was extremely grateful we hadn’t decided to pack up early as the crowd thinned out, because this young man, who most people would barely remember as part of the team, made it clear that our program made a significant impact on him. And he’s using what he took from that experience to make lives better through his work and relationships. It was actually a little weird how much he gushed about how positive his football experience had been, and it was also one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. It reminded me that regardless of how much or how well a kid plays, there’s value in making it clear that they’re part of something and they’ve always got a home with us.
Let’s Coach With Purpose…
That. is the foundation of sport, we often lose sight of the foundation. Imagine working in a childrens hospital and losing your foundation, your original design, just going through the motions, just focused on the money, the extra pay, the more more more and losing sight of compassion and purpose, losing our sight is easy to do in this world of more me, more me and more me, I don’t believe God created me for me but me for others, when I learned that lesson I found my true calling buried inside. It’s not about me, its not about wins or the losses, it’s about connecting with others, building a place where they feel comfortable coming home too. Hey it only took me 45 steps to get to the end of me, a step a year, so 45 years!
Ryan, the way you tell this story is exactly why purposeful coaching matters. Most people see the wins, the stats and the highlight reels. But you’re reminding all of us that the real impact shows up years later, in quiet moments, in the kids who still carry the lessons with them into their work, their families, their communities.
Keeping the tailgate alive for a young man who came after work…that’s the equivalent of staying late at practice for kid to get extra reps! That’s the whole deal of being a coach for life.
This story is why we keep showing up, why we keep believing that every kid deserves to feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves. You gave him a home, and he came back to say it mattered. If that’s not a tug at the heart-strings I don’t know what is.
I love what you do and love how you lead. And I’m grateful you keep telling these stories. They’re reminders that the scoreboard never measures the best parts of this work we’re all doing.
Thanks for this detailed post — it provided very clear and useful tips.