From what I’ve seen in nearly four years on the job, the Plant City area is full of sustainably successful sports programs.
Obviously, player talent gets taken into consideration there. But I’ve seen teams shatter talent-based expectations and go on to do great things. There are teams out here that always seem to bring it, year in and year out, and that’s because of strong coaching.
I’ve had conversations with plenty of those coaches in my time here, on and off the record, that eventually steered to the topic of coaching itself — whether I’m standing on a team’s practice field with such questions in mind or having a chat while out and about. These men and women love talking business, and I hear about different styles and philosophies all the time.
When I’m on those practice fields or at game day, I pay attention to the athletes. You can learn a lot from body language, even if you can’t hear a conversation, and the way kids move, react and interact speaks volumes about a program’s culture. I think it’s safe to assume that every coach out there wants their athletes to show alertness, focus and positivity — even if those things aren’t spoken out loud.
In my opinion, the best coaches — the ones that constantly get the most out of a roster or an individual — tend to show three traits that anyone looking to lead a program, whether it’s for their child’s Little League team or for bigger things, must have.
Consistency
Longtime readers of this column know that I’m an advocate for program consistency whenever it’s possible and reasonable. But “consistency” in that sense falls more on the people pulling the strings behind the program than the coaches themselves.
This week, I’m talking about the consistency that starts with the person in charge and flows downstream through the rest of a program.
Good coaches are only predictable in that their athletes and assistants know exactly what kind of attitude and effort they’ll bring to the table day in and day out. When a group of athletes trusts that a coach has established and abides by a culture, everything else falls into place. Eventually, things get to a point where kids can know what they’re in for and what’s expected of them before they set foot in a program — like Alabama football, though probably without the fancy locker room.
Accountability
No two coaches are the same. But whether a coach is an energetic leader by example or an old school, tough-but-fair delegator, they’re always going to have one thing in common: they build trust and respect through accountability.
Coaches must be able to recognize their own mistakes and accept blame when they deserve it. No one’s going to get anywhere, at least long-term, while being too stubborn to change some things. Athletes want to know that their coaches aren’t above the rules they set, that it’s not all talk and no walk. They want to feel that the person they’re playing for respects them as peers, or something close enough to that label.
You don’t want to end up like Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly, who I believe (as a longtime Irish fan) has never taken the blame for anything in his entire life. As college football fans saw last season, no one wants to win for a purple rage monster that projects his own mistakes onto everyone around him.
Adaptability
Obviously, it’s important to go into everything with a game plan. It’s extremely difficult to win any kind of championship relying on luck over strategy, even if you sometimes do need fate to smile on your team for a moment.
But there are times when a good game plan can be foiled by a better one, and a popular saying begins to apply: “It’s not how you start, but how you finish.”
I’ve seen coaches lose their cool and their decision-making skills in the moment suffer for it. I’ve also seen coaches take a deep breath, assess the situation and make the right decisions to get teams back in a game. The backup plan may not always work, but the chance of success goes way up when a coach learns to expect the unexpected. The ability to make the right adjustments and close out games or matches is often what separates the best programs from the rest.