We Can Do Better

by Ryan Krzykowski

It’s been an unbelievable last week.  At least an unprecedented week from my perspective.  While I’ve coached a variety of different sports with children of all ages, I am officially on a high school football coaching staff this fall for the first time since 2004.  I’ve spent so much time coaching, thinking about coaching, talking about coaching, and writing about coaching over the past 15 years that I can’t believe it’s been that long since I’ve been in this role.  But here we are.

With daily temperatures over 100 degrees, our outdoor practices were moved to early mornings with meetings, etc. after school.  It was weird and a bit of a grind, but everyone pushed through and we’ve got cooler days coming soon.  As we progress through the season, I’m expecting to have stories to share about lessons learned.

One other thing that happened last week — I received an email from our friend John O’Sullivan.  My CFC teammate Alec and I recently interviewed John on our podcast, as he co-authored The Champion Teammate, an outstanding book that we’ve already plugged in this space before.  This email from John was not about the book, at least not directly.  It was a list of comments overheard at a soccer game for 8-year old athletes, and while these comments are nowhere near the worst I’ve heard, it’s a reminder that we have more work to do.  Collectively, as a community, we can do better.

Let’s Coach With Purpose…