Is it really about "Wins and Losses"?

[GOBLUEDAVID]

This short OP is about what makes a ‘Great Team’…..not a ‘good one’…but a GREAT one.

The Question:
What indispensable part of a team lifts it from good to great?

….I put forth the answer is a ‘Great’ Coach.

Herb Brooks, the legendary hockey coach of the Gold medal US Olympic team once said:
"My recruiting key -- I looked for PEOPLE first, athletes second. I wanted people with a sound value system as you cannot buy values. You're only as good as your values. I learned early on that you do not put greatness into people...but somehow try to pull it out."

If you look at history and spend a little time studying some truly great teams of almost any sport…not teams that just ‘win’….. but more the teams that have ‘dominated’ their sport and then some how....in the next season they simply reset and reload and do it all again…and then again. These teams ALL seem to have a common thread running through them…..

a truly GREAT coach....

Coach Scott Frost who won the FBS Coach of the Year award, is quoted as saying:

"Nebraska's home to me, I love it. I know how much we can accomplish there and what I’m most proud about isn’t the wins and losses, it’s the relationships we built in Orlando and the difference that we made and I can’t wait to do the same in Nebraska."

It’s been said that just about anyone can coach…. All you have to do is have a clip-board with x’s and o’s….” “and say….stand here…run there….try harder….go faster….do it again”… you don’t have to be a ‘good’ person….or even a nice one. You don’t have to be a genius….. or even very smart…just show up...look like the boss and get on with it....

…but to be a GREAT coach, well that is entirely a different matter.

First, you must LOVE your sport….truly love it. Not “like it”… there is a huge difference here. To ‘like’ something speaks of a casual relationship with it…..but to LOVE something is a type of immersion into it. A selfless life long giving for it….. a cherishing of it.

Second, you have to know….truly know your sport. You must be a student of the past…present and future of it…. . Taught by the best your sport has to offer….. learning from the current ‘masters',..…you drink in the years of knowledge they give to you…..your grateful…humbled by the chance to learn from the best…. And you never forget where the knowledge you now hold came from….and you know that what you will ‘add’ to the sport will be built upon the wisdom of those who came before and gave it to you….

Third, You must have ‘lived in the trenches of your sport’ ….. breathed its air…. Felt its pain…..paid the very personal price for its highest rewards…. Have taken in the view from the summit of your sport…. breathed that rarified air…and now you desire, with all your heart to bring others, who just like you…have the ‘love’ necessary and the values necessary to climb with you to that same peak, again and again …..

….”its about relationships”….. said Coach Frost. ​

…yes it is….
….its never about the wins and losses….
…it has always and will always be about the relationships…..

…“I don’t want the best ones….. I want the right ones”

Herb Brooks.

• 
• "Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory."
• Dr. Tom Osborne

 

[21Husker1984]

You don't expect people to read that novel do you?

 

[chrsmneric]

You don't expect people to read that novel do you?

I scrolled right to your post...that makes two of us!

 

[TruHusker]

To answer your question - Yes. In the current economy of sports you have to win and win big and often. Don't think for a minute that Nebraska fans are going to be satisfied with great relationships - they want championships.

BTW - I do understand the premise. This is what I looked for in hiring HS coaches. There the pressure to win isn't like college, well in some places it might be.

 

[GOBLUEDAVID]

To answer your question - Yes. In the current economy of sports you have to win and win big and often. Don't think for a minute that Nebraska fans are going to be satisfied with great relationships - they want championships.

BTW - I do understand the premise. This is what I looked for in hiring HS coaches. There the pressure to win isn't like college, well in some places it might be.

TruHusker,

Thanks for your reply and input.

I understand the need for W's, and it is my thought that 'great' teams... are born not out of W's but 'first' out of relationships.

Now, the great news with this is that W's are almost an immediate result of a relationship driven team.

..so, you have W's...... and so much more foundational, you have strengthened your program going forward....for even more W's.

Look no further than the first two respondents to this OP. In today's culture there is the absence of meaning... belonging....replaced by the surface and immediate.

When you scratch the surface of today's culture you find a morbidly narcissistic society being fueled buy a valueless media....

When you can tap into (as Coach Frost is able) the need for 'relationship' and 'life meaning'....you can help the athlete achieve much more than just W's....and in doing so help foster a better person...more stable and happier and all the while bringing out their very best performance ....

When this becomes systematic within your program… Great and lasting results will be produced.

Summarizing, its relationship first. Wins comes second and as a byproduct of the relationships.

Thanks again for your response.
Have a great day..and GBR!!

 

[21Husker1984]

TruHusker,

Thanks for your reply and input.

I understand the need for W's, and it is my thought that 'great' teams... are born not out of W's but 'first' out of relationships.

Now, the great news with this is that W's are almost an immediate result of a relationship driven team.

..so, you have W's...... and so much more foundational, you have strengthened your program going forward....for even more W's.

Look no further than the first two respondents to this OP. In today's culture there is the absence of meaning... belonging....replaced by the surface and immediate.

When you scratch the surface of today's culture you find a morbidly narcissistic society being fueled buy a valueless media....

When you can tap into (as Coach Frost is able) the need for 'relationship' and 'life meaning'....you can help the athlete achieve much more than just W's....and in doing so help foster a better person...more stable and happier and all the while bringing out their very best performance ....

When this becomes systematic within your program… Great and lasting results will be produced.

Summarizing, its relationship first. Wins comes second and as a byproduct of the relationships.

Thanks again for your response.
Have a great day..and GBR!!

Tl;dr