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One of my favorite quotes from John Wooden, the greatest coach of all time, is “Sport do not build character. They reveal it.”
When we talk about the various benefits of sport and all the life lessons that players derive from it, based on my experience playing and then coaching multiple sports for over 4 decades, it is not sport itself that develops character, it is the coaches in sport that does.
Here are a few examples how great coaches that worked with disadvantaged youth using sport as the medium to build character and teach many other valuable life lessons.
Madison Consolidated High School – Patric Morrison
This week I was forwarded an article about a high school football program in Madison, Indiana, a small town of 12,000 and how a former player, Patric Morrison, came back to their high school to coach their football program. Sadly, the town was suffering with rates of drug addiction to the point it had been deemed a national emergency and they also were suffering 2x higher rate of suicide than other counties in the state, and just over 3x higher than the national average in the USA
Suicides, Drug Addiction and High School Football
The later struck a personal note for me as I shared in a prior post, Make it Safe 2018, that a former player I had coached in Rugby committed suicide two years later and two others that my kids knew also took their lives. As far as I am concerned, one is too many and we must keep talking to create the awareness to remove the stigma for mental illness.
Sport for me, was the same outlet as I was growing up, having bright red hair and freckles from my Irish heritage made me stand out like a sore thumb growing up in various suburbs of Montreal during the peak years of the Quebec Separatism movement. Then, to get away from same, my parents accepted a government contracts to work in a small community on Baffin Island in the Northwest territories where it went from bad to worse.
Although we (Irish descent) were not deemed a “visible” minority, it could have not been farther form the truth, we were just a handful of young families in the community that was 95% Eskimo. The verbal abuse I took from kids and their parents there was even worse than it had been in Quebec, and continued even when we moved back years later. The one constant that helped me thru all that bullying and teasing in my childhood where I did not experience it though was in the various sports that I played, thanks to the great coaches that I had that would not condone bullying or any other forms of harassment.
Patric Morrison is one of those great coaches.
His motivation for returning to coach the high school football team?
Because his younger brother had become one of the drug addiction statistics in the very small town, was arrested and sent to jail for 9 years for heroin use/distribution. Patric shares “Because of him, I’ve gained 60, 70 younger brothers, and I want to keep (them) from doing the things he did.”
He walks the fine line from trying to develop his team to ensure that he does not lose players to drugs, suicide so has adapted strategies that does not scare the players away. Now frowned upon old school tactics like screaming at players for making mistakes, using words that may be demeaning, cursing and the like will merely push players away much like it has for those that are quitting before 13 that has been well documented via social and traditional media in recent years.
The football program has only had two winning seasons in the past 25 years if you measure it strictly by the scoreboard.
The reason it is way beyond that, the program teaches all those players how to be resilient and overcome adversity they face in their small town which provided one former player, Curry Morgan, the opportunity to go on to university under an academic scholarship. At high school graduation, Patric collected money for his cap, gown and graduation ring. Curry shared based on his circumstances losing his father by kindergarten, mother passing away before his senior year and brother falling victim to drug addiction that he would be treated differently by members of the team, but Patric ensured he treated no differently than of the other players he coached.
In lieu, as a result of the culture that he developed, when Curry’s team maters found out he did not have a place to live, his team mates offered him coaches to sleep on.
“(My) Sports (Coach, Patric Morrison,) is the reason why I am resilient”
Camp Kilpatrick Mustangs – Sean Porter
Sadly the Kilpatrick football program by founded by and coached by Sean Porter in Malibu in 1990, the program a juvenile corrections officer created to stop the vicious circle of going back to gang, drugs and criminal activity is in jeopardy.
His story was shared in the movie Gridiron gang, and his role was played by Dwayne Johnson, how he took the initiative to create the only juvenile detention facility to be permitted to have a team in the school/community system.
“They have trouble responding to authority, being a member of a team and accepting criticism … We do it my way, not your way, your way got you here.”
In addition to the football program, Kilpatrick also added basketball and soccer programs as well but all sports programs are now in limbo as the dated facility is being torn down and plans for the new facility do not include sports programs but many of the former players, camp residents are working on appeal to ensure sports programs continue in the new facility.
Richmond High School Basketball – Coach (Ken) Carter
Another example of a coach that transformed a high school basketball program, and many argue the school itself, was Ken Carter, who returned back to his former high school in 1997 to become the head coach for small honorarium only.
He did so, as he knew the benefits that basketball had done for him, having the opportunity to play collegiately and get a degree.
The true story came to the big screen several years later, in the movie called “Coach Carter” where Samuel Jackson plays the role of Ken Carter.
One of the first things he does each season is get all the players and parents to sign a contract that requires them to honour academic and behavioural standards, two of which were;
- Dress Appropriately including white shirt, sport jacket and a tie for games
- Maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA so they focus on their education
He also asked the school principal to share the report cards of all his players and when he found out that several were not meeting the GPA and even failing their courses, he shut down the basketball team until they received tutoring to get their grades back on track.
This was the end of their “winning” season, but it was more important for Ken that the players understood the importance of focusing on their education so they could go on to college than to take the easy route out and merely finish high school (if they even graduated)
During the movie based on the true story, Ken asks his players over and over again what is your deepest fear, each time the players would shake their heads “huhhh”?
This is not only my favorite part of the movie when one his players who struggled with drugs, violence associated with being a member of gangs provides the answer to the question;
The poem shared by the player, Our Deepest Fear, is one of my all-time favorites, written by Marianne Williamson
As a result of having all of his players and parents buy-in to his focus on education, all the players did commit to get their grades up and not only bucked the trends of not graduating from high school but several went on to college.
Prior to taking over the basketball program, 50% of the student athletes were not graduating and the overall student population at the school grades were dead last in the state of California.
There are so many other great examples out there of GREAT coaches who are doing great things, and focusing on developing character of their athletes and teaching life lessons that will transfer to their non-sport activities later in life.
The reason why each of these examples resonate with me is I was very, very fortunate to have great coaches and teachers do the same for me as a grew up playing the myriad for various organized sports, as well as teachers who did the same.
Many of the coaches who knew that I had lost my father at a young age who took me under their wing like Patric Morrisson for so many young men in high school to help them learn core life lessons to overcome the adversity in their small town.
Those that provided words of wisdom when I was going down the very same path due to many “friends” I had in junior high who were getting involved with drugs, criminal activities that the lessons I learned from those coaches steered me away from. Had it not been for those coaches who did so, who knows where I would be today.
The great teachers that I had that did the same, including my French Teacher who in grade 12, my senior year of high school who pulled me out of class when I barked out I was not going to take another BLEEPING surprise quiz and challenged me and told me that I had so much potential, don’t waste it.
As a result of her guidance, one of my core codes of conduct is no swearing on my teams as she taught me how disrespectful it was. She and my football coaches of many years are the reason why I became focused on my studies, applied for and was accepted to college, then to be the first in my large family of both sides (my mother had 8 siblings, my father had 4 so I had numerous cousins) to not only attend university, but to graduate.
This is why I strongly believe that it is not sport itself that develops character, it is the coaches in sport that does.
Kudo’s to Patric, Sean and Ken to making the commitment not only to teach the skills of the game, but the important skills of life to all those young boys over the years so they became great men.
Kudo’s to all those other great coaches and teachers, both men and women, who focus beyond the wins and losses, but on developing youth into adults.
Sadly we see so much negativity shared on social and traditional media today of the behavior of the adults that are leading so many kids to leave the game they once loved before the key development years for the the skills of life, not just the skills of the game.
What we need to focus on is highlighting the great contributions of the men, women in their roles of coaches, teachers and mentors to guide youth in lieu of merely focusing on the ones that push them away.
The later only represent a very small %, I believe the majority of coaches, teachers our there truly have the best of intentions to do the same, but have gotten caught up in the mayhem in part, and merely needed to be reminded we ALL are in it for one thing, the kids.
Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.
