Shining Examples

If you didn't already know, my goal in life is to become a successful football coach.  That's not very specific, mainly because I wouldn't care what level of competition I am at, as long as I become successful.  Of course, my definition of success goes beyond the wins and the losses.  Of course at the highest levels of the profession, it is essential to win, to keep your job.  That's not the end of it though.

I think that the successes of a football coach have more to do with the lives he influences than the win-loss column next to his name in the paper.  Most of the names I remember of teachers were my coaches.  Through the years, I had the good and the bad, more often the good to be honest, which doesn't always happen.  I mean, there was the day I was digging dirt out of my helmet because I was pushed down by a coach, who I do remember by name (and hope to one day meet on the competition field or court and squash his team) and there were those coaches who did everything they could to make sure I grew up a good person, and who still check in on me from time to time. 

As I have mentioned before, growing up in Henderson came with the mentality of a lion.  We had a lot of pride and determination.  We weren't always the best team around, but you always knew we'd put up a fight.  That's because that is what our coaches taught us to be.  We had coaches who were extremely vocal all the time, and we had coaches that it took a while to get warmed up, but when they warmed up you listened.  If your grades dropped, you spent an extra two hours at the field house studying, after practice.  Yeah, I had to do that once because I wasn't a fan of reading, didn't enjoy that extra time at the field house. 

Our coaches spent so many hours up at the field house working to prepare our gameplan for every week.  Not everybody notices that or cares about it, but I did.  Our coaches weren't shooting off cuss words in every sentence, they kept their cool most of the time and knew to get through to us they didn't have to cuss and spit on us, but they knew when the time was right to have to and they did at times.  Heck, I remember falling back and banging my head on the ground and yelling out the cussing equivalent to poop, the coach pulled me up and told me to get to running, it sucked, but did I cuss out there again? No. 

And believe me, I had a lot of time to learn from coaches, after JV, I spent 90% of my Varisty games on the sidelines next to coaches.  It was my senior year in high school when I decided that's where I belonged.  I know that's not something that is normal, but when you love something you do it. 

All this isn't some "reliving glory days" blog, but a blog about this. 

The search for a job is tough, especially with the Texas Education System in such limbo as it is.  However, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that because of coaches like Reid Waller, Keith Tanner, Jamie Skelton, Craig Barker, Terry Everitt, Kenneth Malone, Sam Shields, Otis Amy, Chad Boatwright, Ken Stapp, Henry Pace, Loy Dorsey, and many others, I am going to be able to draw off of some great examples and influences.  So whichever district finally decides to take a chance on a guy who spent most of his career on the sidelines, I feel like they are going to get a good one.