Something New

by Ryan Krzykowski

I began coaching high school sports in 1998, and have been training/developing coaches professionally since 2008.  I certainly don’t have it all figured out and I haven’t got all the answers, but I’ve seen quite a bit in the past 26 years.  It’s not often I get to try something that’s completely new.  Well, perhaps not completely new, as this idea was one I borrowed from a friend/mentor named Jeff Duke.  Jeff told the story and wrote about it in his book, 3D Coach – Capturing the Heart Behind the Jersey, that came out in 2014.  In this story, Jeff’s son is a young coach in his 20s looking to establish a stronger connection with the athletes he’s working with, and he winds up spending some time in each athlete’s home visiting with them and their families on their turf.  And largely as a result of these visits, that stronger connection he was looking for began to take shape.

I heard that story from Jeff and then read about it a decade ago, but didn’t have a great chance to give it a try.  That is, until last week.  At a preseason team cookout, I gathered the parents from my position group and let them know to expect to hear from me to schedule a time to come by their home for 20 minutes or so.  I got a lot of puzzled looks — this clearly sounded pretty strange to them.  I explained that everything was fine, that the idea came from a mentor of mine, and the goal is to build stronger relationships to maximize the positive impact I can have with the players and they can have on each other.  They seemed willing to give it a shot, but I could tell it still felt like an unusual request.  For my part, I figured maybe it goes great, maybe it doesn’t do much, but there’s no real downside.

On Wednesday night I had my first meeting with a parent who had the courage to be the first to sign up.  It was terrific.  I complimented their home, talked about my Coaching Purpose Statement, laid out goals and expectations for the coming season and then did a lot of listening.  I wanted to hear from this young man and his parents about his goals for the season, his thoughts about post-graduation plans and how he feels about being part of our team.  I brought a gift, a copy of John O’Sullivan and Jerry Lynch’s The Champion Teammate, and gave a short assignment from the book.  It was just the first of what I hope winds up being nine visits in all, but I left feeling like it was time well spent.  At a minimum, this family understands I actually mean it when I talk about football being a tool to build young men and develop meaningful community.  We’ll see where it goes from here, but if you’re coaching young people and willing to consider the home visit idea, I’d say go for it.  Not much to lose.

Let’s Coach With Purpose…