This Is the Future

Posted October 4, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen Mulcahy2 CommentsPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

(painfully so)

This morning I read that the Vancouver Canucks players have banned playing video games on road, in particular Fortnite, as they feel they need to develop team chemistry, something that head coach Travis Green stated they did so on their own accord, he himself is not banning video games being played. In the summer prior the NHL draft, I recall reading another article how many teams are asking prospects in their preliminary interviews leading up to the draft if they played video games due to the addictive nature and could lead to sleep deprivation as they may be playing for hours at a time. This shows that there truly is a youth movement, not just with the Vancouver Canucks who finally admitted they are going thru a rebuild and veterans were fighting for spots as Gagner and Archibald found out when put on waivers to make room for Goldobin and Leipsic. I was not able to watch the first game last night but did catch some highlights on my way back from doing presentations for Nanaimo Minor Hockey that the Canucks overcame their offensive challenges they faced all of last year and many feared would continue into this year but won their first game 5-2 against their Alberta Rivals, Calgary Flames (albeit the 5^th goal was an empty net). I know only one win, but a win all the same so perhaps the focus on developing team chemistry will lead to improvement in the standings this coming season, only the future will tell. Two of the players that contributed to points in the first game were the young guns, Elias Petterson (19), the most highly touted draft pick of the Canucks since Pavel Bure, and the player they have paired him up with another first round pick in 2014 (by the Sharks) Nikolay Goldobin (soon to be 23) who both scored goals in the game. When I saw them paired on same line in exhibition play I suspected they would stick together on same line in regular season, they play very well together so perhaps this will be Nikolay’s breakout year. When several of the players were asked in the article how they felt about video games being banned while they were on the road, they all stated it was no big deal, even Elias who admitted he did play video games when not involved in hockey activities. It would permit them to develop team chemistry by having team dinners and talking about other things other than hockey vs. ordering room service and playing the likes of Fortnite or other video games for hours on end. The sad reality is it reinforces on of the key messages that I have been sharing in presentations that Esports and video gaming IS the future and many organizations are having to adapt and implement policies to ensure that their players don’t over indulge like the Canucks have done. Below is an image that I have added to one of my slides for presentations that shows the future;

This particular picture was from an esports event in Japan, the venue seated approximately 25,000 people and it sold out in MINUTES. E-Sports are changing the landscape of sport and these are just some of the examples why;

Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, has an esports team who all live in the same house in the outskirts of Dallas and one of their coaches is one of our good friends, James Leath, who shared insight on how fast esports has grown when we talked to him in our summer summit.

The COO of Maple Leaf Entertainment, Michael Friisdahl, was interviewed earlier this year and shared insight that he felt that egamers were athletes, although they sat in chairs, used their thumbs primarily for physical exercise, in order to be successful in any of the games they played they had to execute high level decisions faster than their competitors, similar to the most elite players in any sport. They also had a HUGE fan base and have to stay in shape to endure marathon matches of game play.

Hey, if darts and poker are considered “sports” and dominate TSN’s coverage in the off seasons in the summer, I suspect Esports will be next to fill that space. One of the things about anyone that reaches the top of their game, whether it be Wayne Gretzky, Pele, Muhammed Ali or others is they are able to see the game in slow motion permitting them to do things that many struggle with as they can not handle the speed of the game. This is the biggest challenge that all young prospects face when they enter in the NHL, especially those like Elias Petterson who played against adults but on Olympic size ice surfaces allowing for more time and space than North American Sized Rinks.

The IOC and Paris Olympic Committees are considering testing esports in the upcoming summer games … yes, that’s right, esports (AKA video gamers) could potentially qualify to win and OLYMPIC MEDAL (OMG).

Even as I type those words, or say them in a presentation, I am dumbstruck. I grew up in the days of Atari, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Asteroids, playing on 13” tube TVs so after about 30 minutes of play I pretty much had my fill until I went back outside to play or off to various fields, courts, rinks for the various organized sports we played. For me, it was a form of relaxation, just like it is for the next gen Canucks, which many of the current players who either talk about when they are interviewed pre drafts or the very same Canucks like Brock Boeser who stated he and a few of his current Canuck Teammates do play Fortnite but no more than an hour at a time as a form of relaxation, much like he did when playing at University.

To give you an idea how fast esports has grown, projections for 2018 is it will exceed $1 Billion in gate revenue for events like the one pictured above, events are selling out in minutes, faster than any of the top music or traditional live sports events.

Think about that … egamers have more fans than the TOP artists in music, the top teams or individual athletes in the WORLD. I never thought that would be possible.

ESports has not been the only form of video games that has gone viral in recent years, think back two years ago when Pokemon Go took the world by storm, not only were kids playing, but adults, making it the most downloadable game of all time, exceeding over $2 Billion in sales to date. It is the “happy medium” for parents telling their kids to go out and play, yet for kids to still be looking at their screens and both adults and kids get their infamous Simon Sinek Dopamine fix from technology when doing so

The esports phenomena has not only tweaked the interest of Jerry Jones, but the NBA who are launching the 2K esports league next season. Other owners, investors, and even the top 5 professional leagues themselves are looking at how esports can increase their revenues, I suspect that MLB to be the next to jump on the bandwagon due to decreasing revenues as a result of declining attendance. The very fact that esports has evolved to the level it has in just a few years time is a mere reflection how BIG video games have evolved and why they contribute to the 7.5 hours a day that kids are spending in front of their screens. Have you every asked why kids play video games to the extent they do? Partly because they are so lifelike now than our past generation, but mainly because the kids (even if they are millionaire pro athletes) have full ownership of the experience. There are no adults standing over them, or in youth sports in the stands or on the sidelines, telling them what to do, how to do it or criticizing them when they make mistakes. If they don’t like the rules of the game, like did when played pickup or board games, would change them to speed up, slow down or add more offense/defense (i.e. no offside rule)) Video games, like youth sports used to be, are safe to fail which is the key learning environment to develop creative players And if you die in the latest craze Fortnite, League of Legends or going back to Halo when it set all the records for a video game release in 2010, all kids do is press the reset button and start over. Unfortunately, in youth sports today there are “some coaches or parents” (the vocal minority) leading to the attrition rates where kids put up the white flag to go to screens in droves, tablets, smart phones, computer dual screens which has now lead to gaming chairs, keyboards, mice and a proliferation of other products. For all parents out there, I suggest you follow the lead of the Vancouver Canucks players who self enforced themselves and have policies to not only restrict your kids video game time, but overall screen time so falls way below the current average of 7.5 hours a day. One of the deals I had with both my kids (who have now aged out of youth sports but are still involved in various adult rec sports) was for every hour of screen time, they had to have an hour away from the various screens available to them today. We also have a hard rule no electronics at the dinner table, none in our bed rooms (the excepting being a bedside lamp so could read for one hour to offset one hour of screen time) Examples:

If you play Video Games for one Hour = Ride your bike one hour

If you watch Youtube for one hour = Go for a walk, run, to a field and throw ball, ultimate frisbee

If you watch Netlix for one hour ONLY (ONE EPISODE at a time no binging permitted) = Read a book, art, listen to music (sound mind and sound body)

If you do homework on your laptop or desktop for one hour = Go to the pool for swim, gym to play hoops, volleyball, badminton

As the cliché goes, everything is ok in moderation, but what has lead to the health issues of today’s generation is they are spending too much time in front of screens daily and not taking a break to for other physical and mental activities to promote sound mind and sound body.

Also, recognize the motivation WHY they play video games as long as they do and ensure that you support them to have the same ownership of their youth sports experience and in lieu of criticism in the car, on the sidelines ..

JUST LOVE WATCHING YOUR KIDS PLAY

Perhaps if we all do so, youth sports will become just that again in lieu of adults competing with other adults thru their kids.

Don't just talk the talk, but walk the walk blog thumbnail

Don’t just Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk

Posted October 1, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

As we are heading into a new fall season for various fall sports, ice hockey, soccer, volleyball, basketball and others, coaches will be meeting with parents, players and various other team meetings as they start their seasons. I am putting the finishing touches on two presentations I will be doing on Wednesday on behalf of Changing the Game Project for Nanaimo Minor Hockey and plan to share insight with coaches how they can engage, not deal with, parents and players on their teams. Reason? Because over the years running clinics, doing workshops, breakout sessions and keynote presentations, the #1 question that coaches ask me during or post talks is “Can you provide me some advice how to deal with problem parents and parents?” The first thing I say to them is that you need to shift your focus from dealing with, to engaging. These are a few tips on how you can do so as you start your upcoming seasons:

Run an effective parent meeting

If you have not done so already, regardless of what level you are coaching from Novice to Midget, recreation or competitive, if you want to avoid potential issues you may run into during the season, starting with a well planned parent meeting will address many of those potential issues up front.

Be prepared to answer the first question that parents have, “Why should my child play for you?” AKA – What is your coaching philosophy?

Many coaches that are just getting starting in their journeys as coaches don’t have a written philosophy, which outlines their core values and expectations for their teams. My written philosophy used to be several paragraphs but as I continued to gain experience, learn more as a coach, I tweaked it to a simple phrase; FUNdamentals, not winning, at all costs. If you have followed various contributions that I have made to various media, a key takeaway that I share with coaches and parents is the importance of making it fun. Many people say if you just want to have fun then play recreational sports as the expectation of competitive sports is to win. Yes, kids like to win, but the current win at all costs environment in sports is due to the adults focusing on the bottom 1/3 of what is fun in sports as Amanda Visek research findings found when she asked kid why they played sports.

In all the years that I asked kids why they played none said winning and although it was identified in Amanda’s study, was bottom 1/2. Others in the bottom 1/3 were all adult driven as well (tournaments, specialty trainers for specialization, trophies (AKA participation trophies), travel and getting pictures taken (the thing I hated the most as a kid but did so to make my grandparents happy). Having played numerous competitive sports in my youth, including captaining provincial winning teams in 3 different sports (hockey, football and rugby), I can tell you first hand if the coaches focused on fun even when competing at the highest level, winning is the byproduct. Just ask any professional athlete or Olympian if you don’t believe me why they play as I have found out in my interaction with many high level athletes over the years. Although seems like a distant memory, remember last Stanley Cup when the Golden Knights made it to the final in their inaugural season … how many of them stated in post game interviews they were have a ton of fun and keeping it light….

Have a detailed agenda for your meeting and be proactive by sharing the agenda in advance via email to all the parents

Key points to cover

Introductions of all the coaching team (each to share their philosophies, background and team goals for season)

Finance (Budget)

Season Plan (time for practices, games, development focus)

Volunteers (treasurer, manager, other coaches, trainer, fundraiser, tournament coordinator, snack coordinator)

Discipline / Zero Tolerance for any form of harassment

Expectations (Don’t just talk the Talk, but Walk the Walk)

It is this area where coaches set themselves for failure in the season, whenever I did not coach my kids on teams and I was just a dad, in addition to the coaches philosophies, they were the top things I wanted to know as do all parents.

Ensure that all members of the coaching staff have the opportunity to introduce themselves, don’t assume that parents know who they are or what their philosophies are (they should be aligned with yours) If you say something in your meeting, ensure that you follow thru and “walk the walk” to ensure that you maintain trust with parents. Doing so will prevent them questioning you why you did things in practices, will alleviate issues like playing time, disciplining players for inappropriate behavior, violation of team standards, as well as one of the most sensitive issues, the $$$$. All youth sports have become very costly, hockey being the most expensive, and for every line item on your budget ensure that you justify the expense.

Communicate regularly and consistently

Discuss how you (as in the head coach) and your assistants will communicate with the team, deal with any issues that arise and ensure that you enforce the 24 hour rule to ensure emotions are in check. My rule of thumb – NO EMAIL/TEXTS for issues, setup a meeting with the parents as emails can be taken out of context and can go viral Face to face communication is best or a phone call if setting up a meeting is not doable short term. It is more personal and will nip majority of issues in the bud but my experience if you run an effective parent and follow-up meeting early in the season majority of potential issues you will run into will be avoided I also recommend that you share resources to parents on consistent basis including websites, blogs, videos that reinforce the key agenda items and your philosophy. On our website home page we have a list of our various allies who share insight for coaches, parents, sport executive members as well as regular posts to various social media sites.

Team meetings – something I encourage you to do in the first team meeting is asking your players the following;

Why are you playing X (the sport you are coaching)
What is fun about it (as that will the answer from 95% of the players)
What is not fun about it (this will help you ID red flags like the ride home, criticism, abuse, coaches playing favorites)
What are the top 3 qualities that you would like to see from your team mates

This will help you define the team core values as every team you coach will have different players, coaches

Then meet with each player individually and go over their goals for the season, ones they believe the team should have
Lastly – have a follow-up meeting with the players AND parents to review their goals as well as education regarding the various forms of harassment that will not be tolerated including bullying, cyberbullying, hazing and ANY forms of abuse.

Other meetings in the season can be team building activities for both players and parents, finance updates, fundraising, tournament votes, planning. In sum, the more you talk the talk, walk the walk and communicate with your players, parents reduces ambiguity and will create an environment of trust. Too often, when I am asked to speak at events and I talk to executive members about their pain points that they would like me to address it comes down to issues they have with parents, players or the coaches themselves. Much of it is merely due to (a) lack of experience and (b) lack of clear, consistent and FAIR communication. Don’t be that coach that says one thing at the beginning the season and then reveal your true colours by screaming at kids, ignoring or avoiding parents, abusing officials, mandating expenses that were not approved or various other concerns that parents and exec members share with me. In lieu of focusing on the bottom 1/3 of what kids identified in Amanda’s research, focus on the top 6

Give kids an opportunity “to try their best”
Treat all your kids with respect
Give them ALL playing playing time (exception being discipline)
Provide them the opportunity to play well as a team by running efficient practices and praising effort (growth mindset) for making mistakes with positive error correction
Ensure that you have team building activities early in the season and zero tolerance for all forms of harassment so all the players get along with each other (and ensure none are singled out by players or coaches)
Ensure that a minimum 75% are active during all practices (avoid lines) and encourage all players to work on skills and be active 60+ minutes a day to ensure their conditioning levels are up for your season

If you do so, I can guarantee that you will have a tough season, but if you keep it in perspective and remember that it is all about the kids, keep it fun, make it safe, teach skills (of the game and life) and most importantly care passionately (the #1 characteristics of great coaches) you will not be a kid’s last coach. In lieu, they will love the game more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning. Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.

It’s a great day to be a Bronco Gentlemen …

Posted September 13, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents, Uncategorized

… the exception being April 6th, 2018

I never do back to back posts on same subjects, but this time was hard not to. The reason, after I wrote about the new coach Nathan Ostyrick (who ironically started his Junior A hockey playing career for the South Surrey Eagles in an arena not far from us that I coached numerous teams in over the years) and Humboldt Bronco’s rebuild last week, I watched their first regular season game at home as well as all the pregame tribute prior and post-game (thankfully there were no commercials due to TSN sponsoring). Not only was it the first home game of the “new” Humboldt Bronco’s whose roster only had 2 returning players in the game who were named alternate captains of the team, Derek Patter who optimistically told the crowd before the game they were going to get a win and Brayden Camrud. All of the players that were not lost in the accident and able to come to the came were there for the pre and post game tributes other than two still recovering from brain injuries, Layne Matechuk and Morgan Gorbeil. Three Key things that I wanted to share about the tribute as they head into their rebuild.

Considering they are from a small town with just over 6000 residents, they put on one of the classiest tributes I have EVER seen. Starting with the pregame interviews with TSN including former NHL’er Chris Joseph whose son Evan was lost in the tragedy sharing his insight as the game was only a few days before what would have been Evan’s 21^st birthday to Scott Thomas, father of another player who was lost in the crash, Evan and his eloquent thank you speech to the responders, organizations, communities, contributors to the gofundme campaign and across the world for their support.
The 29 Banners that were unveiled showing pictures and short descriptions of each member of the team, starting with the 16 that perished and the remaining 13 that survived (albeit still a couple dealing with serious brain injuries). As each banner was unveiled, I I got weepy eyed when I looked at the birth dates of the players in particular, many of which still had not reached their 19^th birthday, the official year of becoming adults.
The Third were the tributes to their former coach Darcy Haugan who died tragically in the crash. One where Darcy was awarded the first ever new NHL Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award. It was established to coincide with the Declaration of Principles that the NHL and 16 other global hockey organizations introduced last hockey season that I shared last September 2017 “Thank you Hockey”.

Below is the video where Willie introduces Darcy’s wife, Christina, who received the award on his behalf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RihyVnHWhJo

Christina also shares the Core Convenant of the Broncos team that he was so passionate of “as a tool of developing young lives.” It does not mention wins or losses as his purpose was to develop strong character and was one of core values in players he recruited.

As I learned several years back, our purpose as coaches is not to make a living, but rather to make a difference developing youth into adults and this is something that Darcy truly understood. This is a picture of the Covenant that is in the players home dressing room.

Notice the words in CAPS …. FAMILY – RESPECT – PASSION – INTEGRITY – GRATITUDE – BUILDING – BELIEVE – GIVE – GREATNESS These are core values that every team and organization should strive for.

His emphasis of one of the core values in the core covenant BELIEVE, where he shared with them that “once they started believing, they would turn around their season” and to reinforce believing in themselves, he found a broken yellow kickplate in their own home arena and wrote the word “BELIEVE” across it. He then asked all the players to sign-it, as well as coaching staff, trainers which became their team mantra for complete buy-in.

Below is a picture of one of the two players parents that is still in the hospital dealing with brain injuries, Shelley and Kevin Matechuk, parents of Layne Matechuk, holding the kickplate.

On several occasions during the tribute, analysts would talk about what he would share with the team on a regular basis “It’s a Great Day to be a Bronco Gentlemen” Unfortunately April 6^th wasn’t, but Darcy always said family first, hockey second. The last takeaway is the reference to Darcy shared by TSN but I am unsure of the source “The coach every player wanted and every coach wanted to be” Without the support of all their families, both those of the ones that were victims of the tragedy and are no longer with us as well as the surviving players and the organization would not have started over as they did this Sept. 12, 2018. As they all found out, the hockey family is a global one that touched people from all sectors across the globe, not just those involved in hockey. Darcy’s legacy is one that I suspect will pay forward thru many of the players, members of the community and for aspiring or new coaches for many years to come. I believe his wife Christina said it best …. it must not stay in vegas (where the NHL awards ceremonies were held) …. the torch has been passed.

Humboldt Bronco’s (Re) Forming Stage

Posted September 10, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents, Uncategorized

Earlier this year I wrote on Tuckman’s development model of small groups and I read a great article this weekend in the National Post talking about Humboldt’s Comeback and they continue going thru their grieving period with a new team and organization for this season.

Below is a video recap interviewing the new head coach Nathan Oystrick as he talks about the challenges he faces rebuilding the proud franchise after the tragic accident earlier this year that reached millions of people across the globe.

Nathan grew up in Saskatchewan, played junior hockey in Canada then was on a journeyman path playing college, then various professional stints in Europe and North America including 65 games in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers organization.

When management was queried what they were looking for in the new coach, they shared they wanted “someone that was going to care about their kids” which is the most important aspect of coaching.

At no point did they say they wanted a coach that ran certain power play systems, breakout and regroups or other tactics and systems that too many youth minor hockey coaches focus on.

In a whiteboard pregame talk in the video, Nathan tells the players to go out there and have fun and compete.

This coming Wednesday, Sept. 12th, the NEW Humbolt Bronco’s will be hitting the ice to play their first regular season game which will be broadcast live by both TSN and CTV Saskatchewan 5:30 PM, 6:30 PM Central Time, 8:30 PM EST.

The very fact that this game is going to happen in the first place just shows how resilient the members of the Humboldt community are they lost their head coach/general manager, assistant coach, radio analyst, driver, trainer and 11 players.

The remaining players on the bus were injured, some seriously, some were able to walk away with scrapes and bruises but the end result was Humbolt, Junior Hockey and Sports, in general, was tragically impacted that day, April 6th, 2018.

They have now completed the forming stage, the first stage of group development according to Tuckman’s work, the big unknown is how are they going to deal with the remaining stages?

The next stage, storming, I suspect will start this coming Wednesday when the team hits the ice, coaching staff, trainers and all the fans including families of those lost and injured in the crash, friends, colleagues, former players and numerous others. Although I suspect there will be a moment of silence, the world will be cheering for Humboldt as they continue to go thru their healing process.

Nathan gets teary-eyed in the interview when talking about what people are going to say, how are they going to react when the team takes the ice at home for their first regular season game?

I suspect there will be a lot of teary eyes in the stands and I for one plan to be streaming the game including pregame ceremonies to see how they go thru their storming stage so can get to some sense of normalcy (if there will be such a thing this season) so they can perform and compete as the season goes on.

I also believe I won’t be the only one that is watching Nathan and the team with great interest to see how they build on the proud legacy of #Humboldt Strong as the world found out not that long ago in April.

The gofund me campaign that reached over $1 Million dollars in what seemed like minutes and to date has raised over $15 Million, the press coverage they received including images from supporters worldwide including their pic that was tweeted (and subsequently retweeted by thousands) of the child from Uganda with stick by the door who received funding from Humboldt as one of their designated charities prior to the charity.

This is why Humboldt’s tragedy, their rebuild as an organization will be followed with great interest as they continue to go thru the group development stages.

I for one can hardly wait for them to get to the performing stage and be a contender and compete in playoffs as new head coach Nathan aspires them to.

Until then, we all must be patient and recognize that it may be a season or more before that happens.

Until then, I plan to just Love Watching them play, as I did all of the teams I have coached to date as recommend parents of young boys and girls do the same.

#Humboldt Strong #leaveyoursticksout

“à bientôt” (see you soon)

Posted August 24, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents, Uncategorized

For the last couple of months we have been going thru a move from our former office, a 2 story warehouse with office buildout that was very cold in winter, very hot in summer as we had no HVAC systems and we have now officially moved into a new 2^nd floor office space with HVAC, multiple workstations, a boardroom, a “real” lunchroom and fully wired for sound with Fibre Optic to permit us to upload and download audio and videos much faster than we were able to in prior office space.

We also will be able to host workshops in our open area for 20 or so, and the ability to rent and ultimately lease the adjacent office space to host workshops and presentations for groups up to 80 vs. having to rely on orgs to provide meeting spaces with all the A/V setup for our presentations.

Why am I doing a post this week on the subject of our move?

Because yesterday I said, “à bientôt”, ( = see you soon) to our most recent co-op student who had worked with us this summer and continued to add to the building blocks of prior students since we started a few years back.

Her name is Myla, and she was responsible for editing and uploading all of the interviews for our inaugural For the Love of the Game Youth Sports Digital Summit that we hosted mid-July. She also created the new blog thumbnails, quote templates for both PARADIGM Sports and our digital arm For the Love of the Game in addition to posting to all of our social media platforms including setting up our Instagram account.

The reason I am sharing this is when I went thru her evaluation as a part of the co-op requirements, she shared with me that her experience working with us this summer was unbelievable, mainly as we are advocates for providing a safe to fail environment for all of our staff just as I do when I coach teams. We also have a zero tolerance for ANY forms of harassment, something that many NCAA schools in particular need to implement, including the most recent at Maryland University due to prehistoric coaching practices that lead to the death of one of their football players from heat exhaustion.

She was not the first, nor will be the last co-op student that will work with us, and each time that there last day comes it is a difficult one for me as I look back on the prior 4 months and am truly amazed of everything that they have accomplished by praising their effort, encouraging them to make mistakes vs. being concerned about outcomes and the fallacy of being perfect as I learned from an executive coach I worked with there is no such thing.

This is the main issue that I see with many youth sports coaches, regardless of the sport they are coaching, until they have coached for many years and realize there is so much more to coaching than writing up a drill on a whiteboard or drawing up lines, positions for games. Particularly in today’s environment with the pay to play system and emphasis on winning at all costs that have been outlined in numerous articles and press that we have contributed to.

Prior to Myla, there were several other co-op students that were instrumental in our growth as an organization, whether developing our websites, social media platforms, graphic design, research, creating data systems, audio and video editing.

Every single one of the students has shared with me how much they enjoyed the experience, learned a ton and gained valuable work experience to prepare them for the workforce after they graduated and all have reached out to me for references or commented on posts we have done thru social media.

The first was Mitch, he worked with me as was coming up with the initial business plan and brainstorming for PARADIGM Sports in the summer of 2015.

Another former co-op student was Jordan, who worked with us last fall term, and was responsible for creating our For the Love of the Game Website on our hosting platform for online training and setting the building blocks for us to be able to host our first digital summit.

Just last week he sent me these two images of the great John Wooden, one when he was coaching Kareem Abdul Jabar at UCLA when they went on their great run of national championships, the other when Kareem was walking with John 38 years later during an event to honour him at halftime for his contributions to coaching and the development of the young men at UCLA under his watch. Some of which including Kareem went on to play in the NBA, many others became doctors, lawyers or other professionals in the workplace and have left positive legacies thanks to John’s guidance as COACH.

Another of our students, Melvin, worked with us last Spring, he created our original WordPress site and registration links for the love the game.org for our inaugural live conference where we created our first wave of training modules with some amazing speakers. He then went to China for a back to back co-op as a hockey instructor as they are aspiring to put a competitive team together for the winter Olympics they will be hosting in 2022. His partner, Chase, when we were going thru the interviews made me aware of various grant programs to help us sponsor co-op students and was instrumental in creating our new PARADIGM Sports website last spring which we continue to build on today.

Two others, Danette and Karly that worked with us a couple of years back, were key in developing the initial WordPress PARADIGM Sports Website, powerpoint decks, logo, colors, business card design and sourcing imagery for blogs.

Karly shared this with me after she completed her co-op term,

“My time working for Glen was great – not only do you learn about business practices you also learn a lot about yourself. Though his guidance and mentorship, I gained confidence in my work abilities and succeeded in areas of my job that I presumed to be impossible. For example, I never thought that I would be able to create and maintain a website with no prior training, but Glen was confident that I could figure it out, which gave me sureness in my own capabilities. This is how he treated every task that was foreign to me – he believed that it was possible for me to accomplish it and knew I would benefit from learning something new. With some dedication, encouragement, and help from Google (and Youtube) I have found a new sense of certainty in my work and what I can produce.

Glen also instills a great amount of trust and loyalty in his employees, which is reflected in the work he does. He is incredibly passionate about youth sports and making a positive change in this environment. It was great to learn from someone who is so invested in making a difference and who truly cares about this matter. His high values and business integrity were very impactful and they will be brought forward into my future career.”

Needless to say, when I read this I got weepy-eyed that I had this type of impact but as I have continued to learn more about transformational leadership, that is the effect it has. In lieu of old-school coaching/leadership that creates an environment of fear and hesitation, it provides the opportunity for people to thrive and achieve things they never thought were possible.

In the summer of 2016 I attended John O’Sullivan’s Way of Champions inaugural conference, was unable to go last year but went again this June and connected with all of my Changing the Game Projects counterparts and interacted with over 100 coaches from across the world that was looking for more insight on transformational coaching, something that still in its infancy in youth sports and is our focus to change in Canada and beyond.

The last contribution that Myla did in her last couple of weeks was developing the Love what you Play podcast platform that will permit us to host the audio-only clips of our interviews from digital summits as well as other interviews going forward.

Our first podcast launches today, my talk with James Leath, and he shares insight on his new organization he founded Unleash the Athlete and his role working in the Esports segment coaching Egamers for a team that is owned by Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He also talks about the importance of engaging parents on your team and many other tidbits.

Pic of coin provided to all coaches at the Way of Champions conference, this one outlining core values on the back with the first being fearlessness.

When we were at the first Way of Champions conference, I recall all too well how James reminded us all of one of the quotes from Dr. Jerry Lynch made on Friday evening as we were all wrapping up Sunday afternoon to head to the airport to return to all of our various homes.

“I don’t have a Job (this from one of the top Sport Psychologists in the USA who has guided over 30 teams to NCAA national championships and worked with Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors in recent years winning NBA championships and author of 13 books)

When you have a job, all you are doing is making a living, paying the bills.

In lieu, I learned long ago that my calling, purpose if you like, is to make a difference.

As coaches, our calling is to make a difference developing youth into adults.”

That was an epiphany moment for me and all the other coaches that were sitting on the gym floor in 104 degrees heat with no AC in Boulder, Colorado and as our most recent co-op student tapped the sign I finally got up from unpacking “Play like a Champion Today” and headed down the stairs for the last time it was further reinforcement that is our role as coaches, leaders, managers, teachers.

Each week we will be releasing another podcast to coincide with our newsletter and as we now have a dedicated space in our new office we are calling the “Green Room” (due to green screen and green workstation that my kids said why are you moving this Dad, it’s UGLY but it I countered back it is functional) will be sharing video clips as well as working on incremental training modules.

This fall we will have two new co-op students, Cairo and Francis, working on the podcast, our next digital summit and continuing to build our social media platforms to provide you insight from ourselves and our various allies in the space who are aspiring for the much needed change needed to reduce the attrition rates and a generation of kids missing out on what should be a “transformational” youth sports experience so it ultimately leads to being active as adults.

As I have with all prior co-op students, I am looking forward to seeing how they continue to build on the prior blocks from prior students and how they thrive in a safe to fail environment that strongly believes in the Growth Mindset “I can’t do that YET” vs. fixed mindset “I can’t do that”.

We would love to hear from you in terms of feedback on what we can do to help you as a parents of young kids involved in youth sports, help you become the best coach you can be or administrators to develop cultures of excellence so you not only recruit, but retain your players and ultimately grow your programs.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids …. where it belongs.

Please ensure that your legacy is a positive one and you recognize your role as a coach is to develop youth into adults, not just writing up X’s and O’s on a whiteboard.