quote:
Originally posted by rainmaker:
The real question is, How can we clone Hawks' Coach? Is he always this rational and far-seeing? What area of the country is he from? Do they teach this in his school district? And in my insecure moments, I wonder if I've worked for him and what he thought!!
I see that he is from Maryland. Too bad, we need his type here in California.
One thing I suggested to our association board is to begin considering post-season coaches awards from the officials. There is plenty of reward for those who win, but my point is the program is not intended to product Michael Jordans, or if so it is failing. (There aren't that many MJs around!) The program should develop young adults of good character that are better equiped for life as an adult. Thus the emphasis on sportsmanship.
And the award? It would be for leadership in sportsmanship. As an example, this last year I did several games for the Calistoga girls' JV team. They were cosistently beaten, sometimes badly. However, in every game, to the very last tick of the clock, they worked hard, played clean, kept positive attitudes -- everything I would hope my own kids would do. And this was not just the characteristics of the team captain or just a few, but of every last player on the team. My experience says you don't see such uniform behavior without strong leadership of that from the coach.
Obviously the logistics of such an award could be tricky, plus issues of maintaining objectivity, even year to year. Those discusions belong in a different thread -- not here. The point here is to echo appreciation to such objectivity on a coaches part.