Team unity on a sports team is as essential to the success of the team as is the physical ability of the players themselves. Even in individual sports like track and swimming, building a community with shared commitment and common goals will not only foster a greater sense of belonging and cooperation, but will inevitably result in more involvement, effort, and enjoyment gained out of the sport itself. Building a truly united team is not just about putting a group of athletes together and telling them to win; both the athletes and the coaches are responsible for making a team what it is. Even if the coach is on the right track, if the athletes are not on the same page then it will be very hard to develop team cohesiveness. The opposite is also true. From my own personal experience, I was once on a team where the coach and the athletes were not of the same mindset. My coach was the authoritarian type; it was his way or the highway. All business. No fun. If you were talking that meant you weren’t focusing on your job and that would be dealt with by yelling and harder workouts. During my freshman year six people out of our twenty five group of sprinters quit after the first couple of months of the season. There was no sense of solidarity, nothing that could hold us together as true team because besides being united in opposition against our coach, us athletes did not feel like we had a say or sense of ownership for the team and had very little spirit or solidarity to one another or the sport itself. We were never given that chance to grow close or find enjoyment out of the sport, and I feel that this is why we never reached our full athletic potential. Building a truly unified team requires that both the coach and the athlete trust one another and work together for the betterment of the team as a whole. Coaches need to make sure that their athletes feel needed, recognized, and important. By finding different ways to elicit leadership, players will feel a greater sense of responsibility and commitment to the team and will in turn start to care about the team’s ideals and expect teammates to do the same as well. A united team that works together with a common vision and strives for the same goals will truly become a powerful force to be reckoned with and will not only find more success in their endeavors, but will have greater enjoyment along the way.
Sasha Blanchard
Social Foundations of Coaching
University of Notre Dame 2012
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Playing for Fun
As I walked out of my dorm today at the University of Notre Dame, I saw a group of about 40 students running around on south quad. I stopped because they were not playing any ordinary sport. They had 3 balls in one game and they were using them for different purposes. One player from each team was holding a ball and they were pegging them at the players of the opposing team whenever that player picked up the remaining ball. As I watched a while longer, I saw that the remaining ball was being thrown into hula hoops that were on top of long posts at the end line of each side of the field. I had no idea what game they were playing until the following happened. All of the sudden, as I was watching the field, I turned around and there was a kid from our track team dressed in all gold, wearing wings, and running full speed passed me while being chased by a player from each one of the teams on the field. I now understood that they had made a fictional wizard game into reality. My fellow classmates put together a non-flying game of Quiditch from Harry Potter!
I am writing about this strange, but yet interesting scene today not because of what it was, but because of how much fun my classmates were having with this game. At that moment, I came to the realization that all the games that have been made up in the past were for the pure purpose of enjoyment and I think a lot of coaches and parents can forget that in today’s society. Many parents are caught up in getting their child that D1 scholarship or that professional contract that they forget the whole reason for playing the game in the first place; to have fun!
Many parents do not understand the statistics behind their child’s chances of “making it” as time goes on. The percentage of high school varsity athletes that receive a scholarship to play a D1 sport in college is 4.9% and the percentage of D1 athletes that go on to play a professional sport is even lower at 3.2%. I am not spitting out this data because I want to crush any dreams, I just believe that it is more important to focus on developing our child’s and our player’s morals and values than to focus on making a player or child into the next Lebron James or Peyton Manning. We, as parents and coaches, have more control over developing our child’s moral development than we do over their athletic ability and I think that in the long run, their moral development will get them a lot further than their athletic ability. Aside from the fact that a child going on to play a D1 or professional sport is a long shot, it also can sideline the morals and values that sports potentially can teach these kids. Many coaches and parents argue that if a player is having fun, then they will not be competitive. This could not be further from the truth, especially in youth sports. Studies have proven that when players in youth sports stop enjoying themselves, they are less likely to want to continue playing. When coaches or parents take the fun out of playing for the children, it will cause the children to react in opposite ways of what the sport and the parent actually intends to do.
So what I am trying to say is that as coaches and parents, we should take a step back and look at what we are teaching our children and players. If we cannot honestly say that the most important thing for our players or children is to have fun, then it is time to reevaluate our reason for coaching or supporting our children in that sport.
Brandon Porras
University of Notre Dame
Senior Class of 2011
I am writing about this strange, but yet interesting scene today not because of what it was, but because of how much fun my classmates were having with this game. At that moment, I came to the realization that all the games that have been made up in the past were for the pure purpose of enjoyment and I think a lot of coaches and parents can forget that in today’s society. Many parents are caught up in getting their child that D1 scholarship or that professional contract that they forget the whole reason for playing the game in the first place; to have fun!
Many parents do not understand the statistics behind their child’s chances of “making it” as time goes on. The percentage of high school varsity athletes that receive a scholarship to play a D1 sport in college is 4.9% and the percentage of D1 athletes that go on to play a professional sport is even lower at 3.2%. I am not spitting out this data because I want to crush any dreams, I just believe that it is more important to focus on developing our child’s and our player’s morals and values than to focus on making a player or child into the next Lebron James or Peyton Manning. We, as parents and coaches, have more control over developing our child’s moral development than we do over their athletic ability and I think that in the long run, their moral development will get them a lot further than their athletic ability. Aside from the fact that a child going on to play a D1 or professional sport is a long shot, it also can sideline the morals and values that sports potentially can teach these kids. Many coaches and parents argue that if a player is having fun, then they will not be competitive. This could not be further from the truth, especially in youth sports. Studies have proven that when players in youth sports stop enjoying themselves, they are less likely to want to continue playing. When coaches or parents take the fun out of playing for the children, it will cause the children to react in opposite ways of what the sport and the parent actually intends to do.
So what I am trying to say is that as coaches and parents, we should take a step back and look at what we are teaching our children and players. If we cannot honestly say that the most important thing for our players or children is to have fun, then it is time to reevaluate our reason for coaching or supporting our children in that sport.
Brandon Porras
University of Notre Dame
Senior Class of 2011
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Gaints "Win" through TeamWork
Before the Major League Baseball season started there were not many people who believed that the San Francisco Giants could win their division, the National League West, and no one really thought that the team could win the World Series. Well recently the Giants proved al of the experts wrong and won the 2010 World Series, their first since 1954 and their first since moving to San Francisco. The team has the ninth highest payroll in the major leagues, but this does not paint a correct picture on the reasons that they were crowned champions. Barry Zito is the highest paid player on the team, 18.5 million, and he was not on the post-season roster and Aaron Rowand the second highest paid player, 13.6 million, was a reserve. Take out those two players and the Giants fall to the nineteenth highest team salary in the Major leagues. So how did this self-proclaimed team of “misfits” and players that no one wanted become the best team in the Major Leagues? It can be summed up in one word “team”. Aubrey Huff was the teams best hitter during the regular season, but he only signed with the Giants because no other team called him in the off-season. Not only was his offensive production instrumental in winning games, but so was his happy-go-lucky attitude in the clubhouse. The Giants did not have any superstars, but they had players who wanted to win for each other. Huff and Freddy Sanchez had never made the playoffs, despite playing 9 and 7 seasons respectively. The team was made up of players who wanted to play for the team, not for individual stats. When the Giants acquired players at the trade deadline, the question was not whether they were good, but would they hurt the team camaraderie. Each member of the team truly cared about the guy next to him and they played that way the entire season and playoffs and this led to a championship. Players started growing beards, and “Fear the Beard” became one of the team’s slogans. The team was a tight-knit group with nothing on their minds but winning for each other. After the World Series, time and time again players said they wanted to win it for their teammates in interviews. There were no players that were bigger than the team, and this rubbed off on the younger players and led to an atmosphere where there was only one goal in mind. The Giants World Series win shows that it is not about who is the most talented or highest paid team that wins, it is the team that can come together and work together the most. Not many other teams wanted most of the Giants players before the season, but I bet they will get a few more calls this post-season.
Tim Sweeney, ND 2012
Social Foundations of Coaching
Tim Sweeney, ND 2012
Social Foundations of Coaching
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Play Like A Champion Today(TM) Welcomes our newest Partner St. Stephen the Martyr Parish in Omaha, NE
PLC would like to welcome our newest partner St. Stephen Parish in Omaha, Nebraska. During the weekend of November 5-6, Kristin Sheehan traveled to Omaha and presented together with Jim Lebeda, Athletic Director and Asst. Principal at St. Stephen's - also a 2010 PLC Leadership Conference participant. A Parent Like A Champion Today(TM) workshop was held on Friday night(first picture shows St. Stephen's parents) and a coach workshop on Saturday. Pictured is Fr. Tiegs, Pastor of St. Stephen's and Jim Lebeda. Welcome to PLC partnership!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Our Prayers are with Declan Sullivan's family
Declan.
By Amy Holsinger, ND ‘12
(Originally posted 12:22 am, Friday, October 29, 2010)
I did not know Declan Sullivan.
On Wednesday, Declan was killed on campus in an accident involving a hydraulic lift. He was filming football practice for his job as a student manager, and high winds caused the scissor lift he was filming from to topple over.
He was 20 years old. He was a junior majoring in FTT (film, television, and theater) and marketing. He lived in Fisher Hall.
Tonight, Father John Jenkins, University President, presided over a Mass in Declan’s memory in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Mass began at 10 p.m.. I was in a lecture and movie screening for class until 9:45 p.m., and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the Basilica in time to get a seat. I also wasn’t sure if I even wanted to go to the Mass. I didn’t know Declan, so a part of me thought, “Why should I take a seat from somebody who knew him, loved him, cared about him? Who am I to do that?” But another part of me desperately wanted to go to the Mass to show my support for Declan’s family during this horrible, difficult time. That part of me wanted to show the Sullivans that Notre Dame is a place where everybody matters, a place where the spirit of the community links everybody together. I was already running late and I knew that my baseball-cap-and-Ugg-boot attire wouldn’t fly at the Basilica, so I decided to go over to LaFortune Student Center, where I had heard there would be auxiliary seating and a live feed from the Mass.
As I walked across God Quad in the dark, I watched people walking towards the Basilica, two by two. The doors were wide open, emanating a warm golden glow. I was able to hear the prelude for Declan’s Mass all the way at the flagpole on South Quad, and the sound of the organ became clearer as I crossed through the pine trees and made my way to LaFortune.
Up the winding staircase, I burst in to LaFortune and brushed past the representatives from the Student Activities Office who tried to usher me upstairs to the ballroom. “We have some seats left up there,” a girl with a nametag whispered. By the time I heard her, I had already set down my backpack near my usual spot in the main lounge. LaFortune was different. Normally, the building serves as a study/food/coffee/socialization/meeting space, and it’s one of the busiest places on campus. But tonight, it was quiet. Dimmer, somehow.
All of the comfy armchairs were occupied, so after lingering against a wall, cornered by a trashcan, for a few minutes, I plopped down on the floor like a kindergartener. Mass was beginning. The broadcast was coming through on the two large televisions in the main lounge. (It was available online as well.) During the opening song, the SAO folks brought out a number of chairs from another room, and I snapped up a seat just as Fr. Jenkins was greeting the Sullivan family.
Then, the oddest thing began to happen. Everyone in the room began to respond to the TV, just like Mass.
Peace be with you.
“And also with you.”
I don’t know if it was reflex, a genuine desire to participate in the Mass, or some combination of both. All of a sudden, I found myself in the midst of the celebration of the Eucharist in the same room where I drink coffee, read the paper, watch ESPN, and play Sporcle.
Notre Dame is very good at a lot of things, and one of those things is church. Notre Dame knows how to put on a great Mass, and the higher-ups pulled out all the stops for Declan. The Folk Choir provided beautiful music for the service. I was particularly impressed with the selection of the readings. The first reading was Romans 8:31-39 (“If God is for us, who can be against us?”). The gospel reading was John 14:1-14 (“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”).
Father Tom Doyle, Vice President for Student Affairs, gave the homily. He spoke eloquently and simply about storytelling—about Declan’s love of telling stories through film and about the feeling that we have been “written out of the book of life” that accompanies loss and grief. Doyle said, “Most days, we live in this place that is like Eden before the fall.” Normally, bad things don’t happen here. Students joke about the “Notre Dame bubble” for a reason. When terrible things hit Notre Dame, it seems that much worse.
As I watched the Mass on TV from my chair in the LaFortune, I noticed that the camera kept panning out to the people sitting in the pews at the Basilica. The Sullivan family sat in the front row. Gwyneth, Declan’s sister, wore a Notre Dame football jersey and Mac, Declan’s 15-year-old brother, wore a Notre Dame sweatshirt. Across the aisle, the men of Fisher Hall sat in the other front section, all with their trademark neon green retro sunglasses pushed back into messy brown waves and perched on blonde crewcuts. Fishermen wear these distinguishing sunglasses around campus all the time, so it seemed appropriate that they wore their shades to Mass in memory of their hallmate. The Notre Dame football team sat behind the contingent from Fisher Hall.
During the Eucharistic Prayer, LaFortune was filled with the mutterings of hundreds of students.
Lift up your hearts.
“We lift them up to the Lord.”
When it came time for the Our Father, the Folk Choir sang the beautiful Notre Dame Our Father. LaFortune joined hands and joined in. Then, everyone got out of their seats for the sign of peace. Hugs and handshakes all around.
The SAO employees notified us that the Eucharist was being distributed outside the Basilica and that we could leave and come back. After a moment of hesitation, about 75 percent of the room stood up, grabbed coats, and quietly filed out of the room. I was near the door, so I made it out quickly. Down the stairs, across the quad, towards the music and light. There were hundreds of people already standing outside the Basilica—overflow. Outside, there were musicians performing acoustic versions of the songs playing inside. As I huddled around the front of the Basilica, I turned around. A massive block of students stretched all the way from the foot of the Basilica to the stairs of LaFortune, and people continued to stream out of the building from the ballroom on the second floor.
We stood patiently, quietly in the cold. Occasionally, a priest would emerge from the big Basilica doors. People gathered around eagerly as the priest distributed Communion. Nobody jostled, nobody complained. We just waited. Slowly, more priests came out. After I received Communion, I walked back to LaFortune. I counted six priests standing outside, each man completely surrounded by students waiting for the Eucharist.
I made it back to LaFortune just in time for the final blessing.
The Mass is ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
“Thanks be to God.”
And then, as always, we sang the alma mater, arms around each other, swaying.
Notre Dame, Our Mother
Tender, strong and true
Proudly in the heavens
Gleams thy gold and blue.
Glory’s mantle cloaks thee
Golden is thy fame.
And our hearts forever
Praise thee, Notre Dame.
And our hearts forever
Love thee, Notre Dame.
The fervent prayers of the Notre Dame community are with Declan Sullivan and his family.
A night like this should never have to happen again.
By Amy Holsinger, ND ‘12
(Originally posted 12:22 am, Friday, October 29, 2010)
I did not know Declan Sullivan.
On Wednesday, Declan was killed on campus in an accident involving a hydraulic lift. He was filming football practice for his job as a student manager, and high winds caused the scissor lift he was filming from to topple over.
He was 20 years old. He was a junior majoring in FTT (film, television, and theater) and marketing. He lived in Fisher Hall.
Tonight, Father John Jenkins, University President, presided over a Mass in Declan’s memory in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Mass began at 10 p.m.. I was in a lecture and movie screening for class until 9:45 p.m., and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the Basilica in time to get a seat. I also wasn’t sure if I even wanted to go to the Mass. I didn’t know Declan, so a part of me thought, “Why should I take a seat from somebody who knew him, loved him, cared about him? Who am I to do that?” But another part of me desperately wanted to go to the Mass to show my support for Declan’s family during this horrible, difficult time. That part of me wanted to show the Sullivans that Notre Dame is a place where everybody matters, a place where the spirit of the community links everybody together. I was already running late and I knew that my baseball-cap-and-Ugg-boot attire wouldn’t fly at the Basilica, so I decided to go over to LaFortune Student Center, where I had heard there would be auxiliary seating and a live feed from the Mass.
As I walked across God Quad in the dark, I watched people walking towards the Basilica, two by two. The doors were wide open, emanating a warm golden glow. I was able to hear the prelude for Declan’s Mass all the way at the flagpole on South Quad, and the sound of the organ became clearer as I crossed through the pine trees and made my way to LaFortune.
Up the winding staircase, I burst in to LaFortune and brushed past the representatives from the Student Activities Office who tried to usher me upstairs to the ballroom. “We have some seats left up there,” a girl with a nametag whispered. By the time I heard her, I had already set down my backpack near my usual spot in the main lounge. LaFortune was different. Normally, the building serves as a study/food/coffee/socialization/meeting space, and it’s one of the busiest places on campus. But tonight, it was quiet. Dimmer, somehow.
All of the comfy armchairs were occupied, so after lingering against a wall, cornered by a trashcan, for a few minutes, I plopped down on the floor like a kindergartener. Mass was beginning. The broadcast was coming through on the two large televisions in the main lounge. (It was available online as well.) During the opening song, the SAO folks brought out a number of chairs from another room, and I snapped up a seat just as Fr. Jenkins was greeting the Sullivan family.
Then, the oddest thing began to happen. Everyone in the room began to respond to the TV, just like Mass.
Peace be with you.
“And also with you.”
I don’t know if it was reflex, a genuine desire to participate in the Mass, or some combination of both. All of a sudden, I found myself in the midst of the celebration of the Eucharist in the same room where I drink coffee, read the paper, watch ESPN, and play Sporcle.
Notre Dame is very good at a lot of things, and one of those things is church. Notre Dame knows how to put on a great Mass, and the higher-ups pulled out all the stops for Declan. The Folk Choir provided beautiful music for the service. I was particularly impressed with the selection of the readings. The first reading was Romans 8:31-39 (“If God is for us, who can be against us?”). The gospel reading was John 14:1-14 (“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”).
Father Tom Doyle, Vice President for Student Affairs, gave the homily. He spoke eloquently and simply about storytelling—about Declan’s love of telling stories through film and about the feeling that we have been “written out of the book of life” that accompanies loss and grief. Doyle said, “Most days, we live in this place that is like Eden before the fall.” Normally, bad things don’t happen here. Students joke about the “Notre Dame bubble” for a reason. When terrible things hit Notre Dame, it seems that much worse.
As I watched the Mass on TV from my chair in the LaFortune, I noticed that the camera kept panning out to the people sitting in the pews at the Basilica. The Sullivan family sat in the front row. Gwyneth, Declan’s sister, wore a Notre Dame football jersey and Mac, Declan’s 15-year-old brother, wore a Notre Dame sweatshirt. Across the aisle, the men of Fisher Hall sat in the other front section, all with their trademark neon green retro sunglasses pushed back into messy brown waves and perched on blonde crewcuts. Fishermen wear these distinguishing sunglasses around campus all the time, so it seemed appropriate that they wore their shades to Mass in memory of their hallmate. The Notre Dame football team sat behind the contingent from Fisher Hall.
During the Eucharistic Prayer, LaFortune was filled with the mutterings of hundreds of students.
Lift up your hearts.
“We lift them up to the Lord.”
When it came time for the Our Father, the Folk Choir sang the beautiful Notre Dame Our Father. LaFortune joined hands and joined in. Then, everyone got out of their seats for the sign of peace. Hugs and handshakes all around.
The SAO employees notified us that the Eucharist was being distributed outside the Basilica and that we could leave and come back. After a moment of hesitation, about 75 percent of the room stood up, grabbed coats, and quietly filed out of the room. I was near the door, so I made it out quickly. Down the stairs, across the quad, towards the music and light. There were hundreds of people already standing outside the Basilica—overflow. Outside, there were musicians performing acoustic versions of the songs playing inside. As I huddled around the front of the Basilica, I turned around. A massive block of students stretched all the way from the foot of the Basilica to the stairs of LaFortune, and people continued to stream out of the building from the ballroom on the second floor.
We stood patiently, quietly in the cold. Occasionally, a priest would emerge from the big Basilica doors. People gathered around eagerly as the priest distributed Communion. Nobody jostled, nobody complained. We just waited. Slowly, more priests came out. After I received Communion, I walked back to LaFortune. I counted six priests standing outside, each man completely surrounded by students waiting for the Eucharist.
I made it back to LaFortune just in time for the final blessing.
The Mass is ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
“Thanks be to God.”
And then, as always, we sang the alma mater, arms around each other, swaying.
Notre Dame, Our Mother
Tender, strong and true
Proudly in the heavens
Gleams thy gold and blue.
Glory’s mantle cloaks thee
Golden is thy fame.
And our hearts forever
Praise thee, Notre Dame.
And our hearts forever
Love thee, Notre Dame.
The fervent prayers of the Notre Dame community are with Declan Sullivan and his family.
A night like this should never have to happen again.
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