Why I Coach

Posted November 7, 2019January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

One of the exercises that I do with coaches is asking them “Why do you Coach” and this past weekend I was running a clinic with 45 rep (competitive stream) hockey coaches and as we went around the room coaches shared similar answers to what I had heard before that I highlighted in prior blog post “Why Do you Coach” starting with the #1 answer they have kids playing followed by giving back, paying forward, had great coaches, love of the game, passion etc.

One coach shared something I had never heard before…

“I’m Coaching because I had 3 coaches

that touched my Heart.”

I said to myself “WOW” and then immediately starting thinking about all the great coaches, as well as teachers, I had and the impact they had on me.

We all coach for a myriad of different reasons, when I first started coaching was due to the fact I wanted to give back, then it was my kids, then learned after adopting hundreds of kids over the years our calling as coaches was to make a difference developing youth into adults.

The one that I never thought of until I heard what the coached shared, was the impact that coaches and a few teachers had on me while I was growing up.

I was born in Montreal and of course the first sport I played was Ice Hockey, but due to my father’s job we moved literally every year so he could be very close to govt buildings he managed so I played in different associations, was in different schools but the one constant was my love for sports.

Each year that we moved, I had different coaches (my father only tried to coach my baseball team one year but barely made it due to work commitments) and two coaches and one teacher really stood out for me.

COACH RON – Peewee Hockey Coach

The first was when we made our initial roots in Vancouver, BC where I played for yet another MHA and due to my Dads work commitments and fact that my mother did not drive due to prior accidents she had, the only way I could get to practices, games in Hockey was thanks to my coach.

Gone are those days due to Graham James and all other sexual abuse issues since where coaches can drive players by themselves, but I vividly remember those trips, particularly to road games where the coach would share so many life lessons like reinforcing the importance of values like respect, sportsmanship, winning with humility, losing with dignity, hard work, commitment etc that I hold dear today.

Thanks COACH.

COACHES JIM AND FRANK – Bantam Football Coaches

Fast forward a few years later, three more schools, houses, MHA’s later and we returned back to the home my parents purchased in the Vancouver area and I was now 13 years old in Grade 8. Thanks to all the schools and teams I was on, I was apprehensive of becoming friends with anyone but did end up hanging out with a group of guys that became my “friends” that and the following year.

By the time we got to the summer break between Grade 9 and 10, however, those friends were bringing me down the wrong path, they were doing drugs, drinking alcohol, vandalism, B&E’s and other criminal activities and my football coaches got wind of it and two pulled me aside during one of our two a days we had in June.

One was the receivers coach, Jim, the other was the defensive coordinator, Frank, and they sat me down on one of the benches and started to challenge me what I aspired to do with my life.

I was like “huh”, I am 15, who knows.

They then shared they knew the group of guys that I was hanging around with, that many had already been thrown into juvenile detention and were going the wrong way.

Then Frank said to me “Big Red” (my nickname), you have a choice to make, you can either continue hanging out with the juvenile delinquents or you can become part of our family but you can’t have both.

Look out at the field he said, those guys are your family (my 39 brothers on my football team).

Choose.

Then they stopped talking and just waited for me to speak and I was like, what, I can’t play football and hang out with my buds?

They waited.

I then had an Epiphone moment and realized they were right, I was going nowhere with my then druggie and delinquent peer group and I LOVED sports so I told them, ok, I choose the team.

They both then said, good, get back to practice and from that day forward I worked my butt off with all of my brothers and that year we won the provincial championship (when there was only ONE to be one before multiple tiers for community and high school football)

Thanks COACHES.

MRS. STATZ – Grade 12 French Honours teacher

The third was not a coach, but the teacher of my French Honours class in my last year of high school.

My mother did her best to raise me and my brother but both he and I had part-time jobs to help with expenses, pay for sports and what she called “luxury” items like Nike Running shoes (vs. generic shoes) or name brand clothes vs. Zellers etc.

I remember working my Pizza Driver shift until 1130PM on a Sunday then groggily got to my first class for French and just as we all had gotten seated, she (Mrs. Statz) announced we were going to have surprise Quiz as we needed to continue preparing for the Provincial Exam.

To which I said F…. That.

(My Lizard Brain kicked in again in part as I was going thru a tough time having lost my father at such a young age)

To which she said, Mr. Mulcahy, Get your Ass out of My Class!!!!

I grabbed my jacket, binder and headed out of class and once in the hallway heard the door SLAM and thought she was in the classroom but as I turned around she was standing there.

She then went on to go up one side of me, down the other side how disrespectful I was using foul language, towards her but also how much potential I had to go onto University and so on.

I was speechless, but then apologized and had another lightbulb moment that she was right. I was just coasting thru all of my courses, smart enough to get B’s without a lot of effort but was not even thinking about University, all that was on my mind then was work, sports, parties, girls etc.

THANKS MRS. STATZ

Two Coaches – One Teacher who touched my Heart.

Cared about me in different ways, steered me in a different direction and had it not been for them and all other coaches and teachers I had along the way I never would have committed to applying and completing my degree at UBC.

When I received my degree, my mother and Nanny rented a Limousine to come to see the ceremonies, one of my favorite pictures (which is buried in a trunk with others) is me with my Nanny (another huge influencer in my life)

When we went for a bite to eat, my Nanny and Mother gave me the graduation ring pictured below (shot from a smartphone) and they shared with me how proud they were as I was the first cousin from two large families, 9 siblings on one side, 5 on the other with multiple kids (first cousins) to have graduated from University.

I still wear the ring proudly to this day, not just to celebrate my graduation, but to remember my Nanny and Mother who sadly passed away.

Had it not been for the coaches and my teacher, my Nanny and Mother who knows where I would have ended up.

“That is Why I coach.”

To have the same impact in helping kids make those important decisions so they stay out of harm’s way, learn life lessons and not only become the best athletes they can be, but the best people the can be.

This is why one of my favorite quotes of all time is the spin-off of Teddy Roosevelts by Pat Summit (one of the GOATS)

Pat Summit – Almost 1100 NCAA Div I wins (#1 at the time she retired) – 8 National Championships

If you aspire to be the best coach you can be, touch the hearts of your players and ensure that the legacy is a positive one so you are not a Kid’s Last Coach.

BONUS – Download a FREE printable PDF version of this blog HERE

Why Coaches need to teach character

Posted July 25, 2019January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

For all the years that I have coached various sports, one of the most stressful times of the year for coaches, parents and players are the tryouts for competitive teams or even skills evaluations of recreational (formerly known as house) teams.

As the upcoming hockey tryout season for rep teams is fast approaching and all associations will be hosting their respective tryouts here are some tips for coaches to look for (and parents to share with their aspiring rep player son or daughter)

Rep player evaluations consist of three areas

#1 Core Skills

This is when evaluators will look at players go thru various ice sessions to evaluate players core hockey skills, skating, passing, shooting, balance, agility, and contact (body checking if applicable bantam age groups and up). Players are scored either out of 5 or 10 then after each skate evaluators (hopefully organizations have independent or ones not involved with the age group for impartiality) to compare notes and then players are ranked.

Many organizations have policies that the top X forwards (5-6) and 2-3 defencemen will receive spots on the rep teams and then the coaches have the discretion to fill the remaining spots on the team based on the holes they are looking to fill.

#2 Game Play

Players will be randomly put on to teams to be evaluated in terms of their performance during gameplay, this is where coaches not only reaffirm their skills but how they play positionally, what they do without the puck (as most of the game they will not have the puck on the stick), whether they backcheck, play on the defensive side of the puck, demonstrate sportsmanship, are unselfish and so forth.

#3 Character

This is the hardest area for coaches to evaluate, this is what I call the “Fire in the Belly Section” and coincidentally in a recent survey, I did for a parent presentation the #1 expectation that parents have for their kid’s youth sports experience is they will develop character.

Prior to every tryout of any of the sports I have coached over the years, the only tip that shared with players is the importance that they may be evaluated at any time during a skill session or scrimmage/exhibition games and share one of many great woodenisms below;

Asides from watching body language which everyone in the arena can see, below are some of the key ones that I recommend coaches look for when evaluating players for rep hockey tryouts (same would hold true for any other sports), which is why I have argued for years that sports don’t build character, it’s the coaches in sports that do.

GRIT – The Passion and Perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals.

When it comes to tryouts, it can be a stressful experience for kids, but what can really affect their stress levels is how their parents support them to reach their realistic goals.

COURAGE – The first step of demonstrating courage is to commit to trying out in the first place, I have known many kids over the years that had the skills to play at the competitive level but lacked the confidence in their ability that they would be able to make rep teams in the first place.

The other part of demonstrating courage during the tryouts are things like how hard they battle along the boards for pucks, in front of the net for dirty goals, carrying the puck up the ice, going into the corners as a D man with a forechecker coming fast and so on. If kids shy away from the puck but have the skills, chances are the more courageous players are going to be selected for the AAA team vs. not.

SELFLESSNESS – Are they a puck mover or a puck hog?

When I surveyed older players (after 13 years old) what they did not like about hockey, one of the top answers I received was when their teammates were selfish. Hockey is a team sport, so when I have had selfish players on teams at the beginning of the season, I talk to them and say if they won’t pass the puck, then perhaps they should consider playing golf in lieu.

COMMITMENT – Do they show up early for every ice time, are they the last to leave the ice? Are they putting in extra time at home working on their shots, strength, cardio, balance and agility? Have they attended every ice session or have they missed any (the exception being family issues)

One of the things I remind all players, and now various co-op students that have worked with us over the years … if you’re not early you’re late.

LEADERSHIP – Do they talk to other players on the bench, do they communicate on the ice by calling defensive plays, calling for passes, letting players know to get their head up, lead warm-ups before games etc. ?

The ones that I look for are the players that bring their toolbox to every ice time, work hard, play thru adversity (other players chirping, slashing) never complain, are their early and leave the ice last, help the coaches clean up and just set an example of being a great teammate

SPORTSMANSHIP – Do they celebrate goals “they” score excessively or do they humbly circle with their teammates and thank them for making passes to set them up? Do they have “pissy” fits when they don’t score or have the puck taken away from them, make mistakes that may lead to a goal being scored against their team and so on.

PATIENCE – When they have the puck on their stick, do they methodically up the ice with the puck, make passes at the right time (without telegraphing), wait for teammates to get open, make that first past as a D man to get the puck out of the zone OR do they panic when they get to the puck and throw it right up the strong side of the boards to be intercepted easily by the opposing team?

CREATIVITY – do they try things in the skills sessions as well as evaluation scrimmages as they have the confidence to do so OR do they not take risks as they are scared of making mistakes?

The latter is usually a sign that they lack confidence due to the fact that adults have instructed them not to do things.

Many of the above are the intangibles that we look for as coaches when selecting players for our teams but are probably the hardest things to teach kids which is why coaches have to recognize the importance of not only teaching the skills of the game but the skills of life.

The last tip I would provide for coaches, if it appears that players have the skills but lack various character traits outlined above, more often than not you would be better off opting for a player perhaps with a little less skill but with the character you are looking for who fits your desired culture.

The Reason why the ALL blacks have the winningest record in the last decade of any sports organization is one of their core values is to recruit players with character that will fit their culture (teamwork, hard work, commitment, resilient, selfless, communication) vs. those having more skills and lack character traits to fit in.

This will permit your team to go thru the storming stage much faster than if you had a few players that not buying into the desired culture you aspire for the team, as Peter Drucker made famous;

They Call Me Coach

Posted May 23, 2019January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

We plan to share out our updated recommended book list again after our upcoming “Love What You Play 3rd Online Event” this summer, but one of the books that many of our past guest speakers have recommended has been “They Call Me Coach” one of John Wooden’s must-reads for coaches, teachers and anyone in a leadership role.

I just reread the book again while I was on holidays and thought would be a great reference for our next blog post.

Regardless if you are a grassroots coach parent, competitive non-parent coach, in the high-performance stream or teaching if you know anything about Coach, you have probably heard from many that many argue he is the GOAT (Greatest One of all time).

Why was he?

Many feel because of what he accomplished as the head coach of the UCLA Bruins Men’s Div I Basketball Team for 29 seasons, where he lead the team to 10 NCAA National Championships, seven of which were consecutive, 88 consecutive wins over 3 seasons.

Did you know that it took him 16 years before he lead UCLA to their first national championship in 1965?

He shares in his book that it was due to the fact that he was still learning HOW to coach even though he had been an accomplished player himself, had coached high school and at Indiana U before he accepted the position at UCLA. He also shares that in order to accomplish what he did, you have to have talent, and Coach had just “a few” good players during his tenure, including NBA Hall of fame players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.

Did you know that his first preference to coach was not UCLA, but Minnesota?

Due to a snowstorm, Minnesota was unable to call Coach at the assigned time to discuss so he assumed that they were not going to offer him the head coach position so when UCLA called an hour later, he accepted and then turned down Minnesota when there were able to call after the fact.

I Wonder …. would John have been the GOAT if he had accepted the position at Minnesota in lieu? Perhaps yes, perhaps not, but it is yet another example how the decisions that you make in life can impact the path your life takes.

Did you know that Coach potentially may not have even reached that point of accepting either offer?

He had to have an emergency appendectomy to remove his inflamed appendix that required 30 days rest from the Navy. As a result, his orders were changed and one of his Purdue Teammates who also enrolled in the Navy took his place and sadly was hit and killed by a kamikaze while at the gun position for the Franklin Battleship.

Coach shares further nuggets how his journey evolved while coaching at UCLA and the path to the first of 10 NCAA National Championships and those that followed but what amazed me the most is how many players he remembered, their contributions to all of those teams and his constant refusal after he retired to share whom he felt were the “best” or what he felt would have been his overall all-star team.

One of which was the script that his father shared with him that he carried in his wallet that was his guiding words of wisdom;

Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance, count and give thanks for your blessings every day.

As my father passed away when I was really young, anytime I come across advice relayed from a father to son it strikes a special note with me, I can only hope I can do the same for my son.

Some other things he shared regarding two the ones that went on to NBA Hall of Fame Careers;

Back Cover of “Coach Wooden and Me”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Probably one of my favorite pictures of Coach is the one that was taken at an event where Kareem helped him walk across the court when Coach was in his 90’s decades after he retired and had coached Kareem. Just one example of the impact that Coach had on so many of his players’ lives, many continued to stay in touch with Coach and attended his service when he passed away in 2010 at the age of 99.

Imagine if the hundreds of players you coached still reached out to you decades after you were their coach?

Did you know that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s birth name was Lewis Alcindor? (as shared in the book, but his full birth name was Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.)

Like Muhammed Ali who changed his name from Cassius Clay when he opted to convert to the Islam faith, so did Kareem when he did so.

As Coach went on one of the very few recruiting trips (he did not believe in visiting players at their homes and relied heavily on his assistant coaches or referrals to recruit players) to spend time with Lewis’s parents at 1AM in New York (his father worked afternoons) to confirm his acceptance to play at UCLA for the better part of the remaining chapters when he references Kareem, he still called him Lewis.

When pressured by media in the years after coach retired, he shared that Kareem was the best overall player that he ever coached and was one of the main contributors to 3 of their NCAA National Championships.

Another “pretty good player” that Coach had who followed Kareem was Bill Walton, also went on to the NBA to have a hall of fame career, who potentially may not have been on the team after his first season.

Why?

Because Bill grew his hair, beard, sideburns and showed up at the beginning of the season and Coach told him that he had to get it cut. Bill tried to retort to say he had been MVP of last years NCAA championship but as always Coach won the argument as he had a few demand rules, one was that his players be clean shaven, hair and sideburns at a certain length that ONLY HE determined was appropriate.

What were Coaches other demand rules?

Don’t be Late:

He did not want players to arrive late for practices, games nor did he believe in running practices longer than planned as he understood that they had to focus on their studies as much as athletics

No Profanity:

I too don’t believe that swearing is appropriate at any age group when you play for a team regardless if it is recreational, competitive or high performance you represent your community with CLASS.

Never Criticize a Teammate:

Coach, as do I, believed in the importance of teammates have each other’s backs and the importance of selfless play (vs. selfish), you win as a team, you lose as a team.

My version is the value of respect, in addition to players respecting their fellow teammates, I expect them to respect their coaches, parents, opposition, officials, the game itself, as well as others in their community, their elders, classmates, teachers and so on.

Coach also shares insight on his pyramid of success, still a go to for many coaches and leaders, and what I loved most about the book is each chapter he shares one of his infamous “Woodenisms / Quotes” or a poem/verse that he was fond of to be the theme of the chapter.

Many of those we have shared over the years on our social media pages, but for this weeks Newsletter Quote of the Week is one of my all-time favorite quotes by anyone;

The reason why Coach was the GOAT, is not only what he accomplished in terms of success his teams had over his career, but it was the legacy that he left behind in terms of developing all of his players into the best people they could be.

Our role as coaches is not to make a living, our calling/purposes like Johns and other amazing great coaches others in past, present and in future is to make a difference by developing youth into adults.

That is our role, our reason for being.

Please ensure that the legacy that you leave behind is a positive one and you are not a kids last coach.

You have not taught until they have learned

Posted April 24, 2019January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

I recently had the humbling experience of participating in a year-end wrap-up reception for alumni builder award recipients at my Alma Mater UBC for my contributions to the school of Kinesiology as a mentor and speaker. The following evening I attended a Mentorship wrap-up event and the dean of my school shared that there were over 40,000 Kin alumni and over 380,000 alumni.

He further shared that the UBC School of Kinesiology is now #1 ranked school in Canada and #5 in the WORLD.

As I said, truly humbling to be one of select few to be recognized by your alma mater.

Below is the group picture with all of the recipients this year where yours truly is standing beside the current President of UBC, Santa Ono, whom I had the opportunity to chat with among many others at the reception.

The following evening I was also at UBC for the mentorship wrap-up event where the mentee I worked with this year, Alex, was going to connect with me before he heading on holidays but unfortunately got hit with the flu but sent me a note he had hoped to give me a gift but posted it in lieu.

I received this week, knowing how much I love reading coaching books and am a big fan of Coach Wooden, he got me a book written by one his mentees, Valorie Kondos Field, long term UCLA Women’s Gymnastics Head Coach.

Head Coach Valorie Kondos (Field) and UCLA Bruins Women’s Gymnastic Team

Having had the opportunity to talk to a few people for our virtual events who had the opportunity to meet Coach, I immediately started to read Valerie’s book and she shares insight on how she lead UCLA to 7 NCAA National Championships even though she was not a gymnast or team sport athlete herself , rather her passion was dance and choreography.

Her book is appropriately called “Life is short, don’t wait to dance” and one of the anecdotes she shares about coach Wooden is how he regretted NOT dancing with wife often enough due to his time commitment coaching the UCLA Men’s Basketball Team for over 2 decades where he lead them to 10 NCAA Championships.

Having lost my father when I was really young I have always believed that you must live each day to the fullest, as Life truly is too short, for some even shorter than it should be.

Another tidbit that Dr. Gordon Bloom shared with me who met John a few times including an LA road trip to and from a conference along with Dr. Wade Gilbert, was the fact that it took John 16 years before he won his first National Championship.

One of the chapters I thought would be great to share was early on in the book, “Choosing to Motivate” where she shares one of the great Woodenisms “You have not taught until they have learned.”

The reason it took John 16 years to win a national championship is he had to learn all the nuances of coaching as he started his tenure at UCLA as a professor of English.

In this chapter, Valerie Highlights her approach has always been to coach the person before the athlete which was well before she met John or read any of his books.

She then highlights various leadership traits of coaches, which one(s) are the ones you focus on most?

#1 – The Defeatist

Coaches that are pessimists, cheerless and uninspired

My daughters Competitive Coach was one of these coaches, he had a tendency to critique all of the player’s mistakes and never applaud the good things that they did. Needless to say, she (nor I) could not wait until the season was over.

#2 – The Narcissist (Egoist)

Athletes Exist merely to feed the coaches ego

They constantly refer to “My team”, My athletes, My Program.

This was my sons Bantam AAA Hockey Coach, everything was all about him, not the team. I would him hear over and over again if you don’t do this right you won’t be on MY power play, MY penalty Kill, MY first line.

All about wins, losses, banners, trophies, and feather in HIS or HER cap.

6 players, one of which was my son, quit hockey after that season, the third year that the coached had lost 6 players but fortunately he was not invited back.

#3 – The Strategist

These are the coaches that focus on the fundamentals of the game, tactics, systems and NOT on the athletes.

They are known as “knowledge” or “transactional” coaches and also are infamous for focusing on winning at all costs.

AKA – Old School.

New school coaches that are transformational leaders recognizing by focusing on the person that winning is a byproduct.

Both my kids had more than their fair share of these type of coaches as did many of the kids that I had coached when their parents would share with me that my approach was so refreshing as I am not a big fan of systems, strategies until the kids are much, much older. Too often I see coaches focusing too much on strategies when kids are too young, they lack the skills to implement and coaches get frustrated and criticize their players for making mistakes as a result.

Early on coaches should be focusing on FUNdamentals and doing everything possible so kids love the game more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning.

A measure of great coaches is when all the kids that a coach had one season return to play the following season.

If more youth sports organizations would do deep dives into the reasons why players play, to begin with then they would be able to reverse the current rates of attrition many are experiencing.

#4 – The Altruist

Examples – John Wooden, Clare Drake, Valerie Kondos Field, Pete Carroll, Sean McVay, Pat Summit, Phil Jackson and the numerous other transformational leaders that have been identified as GREAT COACHES.

Coaches that care more about their athletes then they do about themselves.

Coaches that recognize that family comes first, education second, sports third.

Coaches that will take the higher road and not go down to the level of winning at all costs focus as they recognized that our main role as coaches is to develop all of their players into adults, not just “their favorites”.

An ideal coach incorporates all 4 leadership styles at one time or another, thankfully we have started to see a shift where more are focusing on altruism than had in past and recognizing that it is all about coaching the person.

At the grassroots level, however, this is still a work in progress which is why we focus on working with grassroots coaches to focus on HOW to coach, not what to coach.

For more insight on these styles of leadership and other great nuggets, check out Valories Book

Thanks Alex for sharing such a great read with tons of great nuggets with me so I, in turn, can share with others. It truly was an honour to be your mentor this past school year, never lose your passion for helping your gymnasts become the best people they can be.

“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.