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Friday, August 1, 2008
Winning Matters
Greater Louisville, KY
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A lot of ingredients go into to building a winning team: The right attitudes, the right motivation, the right support…and a good perspective on what it’s all about.
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“Winning is the by-product of doing things right.”
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Ridge Wilson will be remembered as one of the best athletes to ever don a Central High School athletic uniform. The senior is an outstanding basketball player who will most likely earn a scholarship next February to play college football.
But just two years ago, Wilson was well on his way to being just another face in the crowd in the Yellowjacket football team picture.
The scrapping linebacker had a lot of talent. He just lacked the kind of attitude and work ethic that is required to become one of the most sought-after recruits in Kentucky high school sports. All that changed when Ridge Wilson decided he wanted to do what it takes to be a winner.
“During the summer of my sophomore year, I just had to decide that if I want to play sports, I had to rearrange some things like taking constructive criticism. It’s still hard right now to take it. But I had to stop making excuses,” said the young man who led his basketball team to the Sweet 16 Tournament and his football team to the AAA State Championship last school year.
Ballard basketball coach Chris Renner says the kind of decision reached by Wilson eventually has to be made by every player and every team that aspires to become a champion.
“Winning is the by-product of doing things right,” says the coach who lead Ballard to the 1999 Kentucky championship in boys basketball. “You have to be doing things right in order to win.”
Renner says he has coached teams that had more talent than the ball clubs they played and won the majority of their games because of that. But skill alone isn’t enough to vault a team to greatness.
“Sometimes you can win on the scoreboard and lose. I’ve been in this situation a lot of times at Ballard. I’ve had the superior team, and we are supposed to win by so many points. But you know you won on talent alone,” said the coach whose team lost to Scott County in the Boys’ Sweet 16 Championship game in 2007.
Four coaches who have combined to win nearly two dozen Kentucky high school state championships say they have noticed that title-winning teams have a least three things in common: a balance of highly-skilled and role players on the roster, motivational encouragement, and proper parental involvement.
Stars and Role Players
Not many young athletes rehearse the game-winning three-pointer in the driveway by pretending to be the kid who collared the rebound that set-up the decisive play. But without athletes who are willing to sacrifice their personal glory for team goals, championships are seldom achieved.
Pleasure Ridge Park coach Bill Miller recently won his fourth Kentucky High School Baseball Championship.
Miller says each of his title winners included a number of outstanding baseball players on the roster.
However, Miller says the stars can’t shine without the help of players who understand the supportive role they play on the team.
“It’s easy to be the Zack Coxes of the world because they are getting the accolades,” said Miller of the baseball player who lead the PRP baseball team to its most recent championship. “It’s hard being the guy who sits on the bench but still cheers on his team. It is tough being the first guy at home plate to welcome home the kid who just hit the game-winning home run. But they mean as much to the team as the stars. They are the heart and soul of your team.”
Motivational Encouragement
Retired St. Xavier High School golf coach Marty Donlon knows the motivational plows employed by coaches better than just about anyone. During his 40-year coaching career at St.X., Donlon’s Tigers captured 16 state golf championships.
“One year, we put the number 15 on the collar of the golf shirts our team wore” said the man who coached Justin Thomas to the boys’ individual state championship this past school year. “We used that to motivate and remind the boys that the 15th club in their bag was actually their brain. And that they needed to out-think their competition.”
Some coaches reach for higher thinking. Others reach out to a higher power to push their players to perform at their best.
Central High School’s football team found focus from the pre-game prayer coach Ty Scroggins taught them during his first season as the Yellowjacket coach. Wilson says the player recited this prayer right before each kick-off during their 10-and-5 championship season run.
The Lord is my life and my salvation.
Nothing shall harm me.
We shall not fear.
They’ll stumble and fall.
They should not rise.
They will not rise.
I do my thing in Jesus name. Amen.
“Pre-game prayer gets you hyped,” says Wilson. “It makes you want to go out there and play for more than just yourself.”
Proper Parental Involvement
Miller says parents of today are more involved with their child’s athletic endeavors than any generation in history. And he said it is especially challenging in baseball.
“I think travel baseball is a big part of it. It used to be, a player was on a Little League team. He found a position and played it. But with travel baseball,” said Miller, “if a kid isn’t playing a position he wants, he changes teams until he finds the right position. And if that doesn’t work out, his daddy starts his own team. By the time they get to high school, they’ve already had the best uniforms parents can afford. They’ve already traveled everywhere. What do they have to work for?”
“A parent’s role in high school athletics is to support their child and help them get the life-skills they can learn from sports,” says Ballard’s Renner. “That’s not about winning. That’s about teaching your child to grow up. Sometimes that means seeing the child go through challenges.”
Renner says parents need to trust the coach to do the right thing for not only the player, but also for the team.
“Parents want to make it right right away. That’s a part of life: learning how to handle that. Parents have to support the kid, but not bail them out. It’s important that a parent not try to coach a child. Their parent’s role should also be in supporting the coach.”
Renner says one of the most destructive things a parent can do is to critique their child’s performance during the post-game ride home from the game.
“By the time an athlete gets to the high school level, in most cases the coaches are quality and they are doing the right thing,” says Renner. “The kids are getting enough coaching from their coaches. They‘ve heard it on the court and in the locker room. Then they hear it in the car going home. It’s too much coaching.”
Winning does matter. But Renner says there are more important things to garner from a successful athletic career than championship trophies and victory banners.
“When it’s all said and done, very few will play professional sports. But they will have jobs and families. So they need to learn teamwork, how to handle relationships, develop honesty, commitment, dedication, the ability to work hard and the willingness to do what you are asked to do. Those are all things a kid can learn from sports. And that’s the kind of winning that really matters.”
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