I am Coach..

I've coached sports more than half of my life and have met many,many coaches in doing so. I have found many different philosophies that coaches go by when coaching kids. I have known "paycheck coaches" who take on as many positions as possible to rack up the different paychecks. Never committing 100% attention to any sport. Mostly dividing the attention between all the different ones they take on. This has always seemed like a gip for the kids.

I have known the " 2nd chance " coaches who are trying to relive their own personal experience through the kids they coach. Most of the time, these coaches do more talking about their own playing days than making sure their students have their own good experience.

There's the "Glory Hounds". These are they guys who love the position of power and influence more than they actually love the responsibility of coaching. You can spot these guys by the amount of yelling they do. Usually more yelling than actually teaching, but to them, winning is everything because it validates their position, and in some pathetic way, their life. To these guys, it's more about the glory than the students.

I know some coaches who have the "love" philosophy when they coach, as in, "I love all these kids I coach as if they were my own child!" They hug their students and goof around with them and have a special bond with them. They have personal relationships with their parents and become "part of the family". Unfortunately, I have always found that this philosophy becomes a problem when a decision is made, and unliked by a student or parent. The "I thought we were friends" always has a way of making tough decisions, tougher. This also becomes a problem when the student forgets their place in the teacher/student contract and decides they no longer have to respect the decisions of the teacher.

I got to say, I'm not any of these guys.

My philosophy has always been about Obligation. I've been entrusted to be a mentor to these kids. To teach them about this sport and in doing so, teach them life lessons, so that when they leave my field, they are not only better prepared for the next level of the sport, they are better prepared for the next level of life. In this philosophy, there must be Respect! Respect from teacher to student and student to teacher. This Respect is a must, because some lessons will ultimately cause these kids to not like you much, and may even cause a bit of rebellion, and hurt feelings, but so long as there is Respect between teacher and student; a trust that is understood between both that the best intention for the future of the student is always the intent, then nothing else is needed. I demand Respect from my students, and in doing so, they earn respect in return.

They don't need another friend, they have many of those. They don't need another parent, and I'm sure the actual parent feels the same way. What they need is someone that will sometimes have to be the "bad guy" to teach lessons the student may need, but not want. This is the contract, and when my hat and whistle are put on, I'm 100% committed to honor this contract! And so long as they are my students, anything that may interfere with me completing my obligation, which includes trying to do my students harm, will be met by one pissed off coach!

Is this Love? To me it's the obligation that I accepted, an obligation that was entrusted to me, and if I fail in this obligation, which unfortunately sometimes happens, it weighs heavily on my mind.

I am fortunate to have many of my former students grow up to have become friends after their time playing these sports are over. This has always been a great pleasure and a friendship that started out of respect, I believe turns out to be a great bond. One that I have truly enjoyed, but make no mistake about it, If you or your child becomes my student, then I will go to the ends of the earth, to complete the job you trusted me to do.

Coach Brayn