The Importance of Leadership

Today's Blog comes to us from Social Foundations of Coaching student Bennett Jackson, a junior, and corner back for the Notre Dame Football team.

As leadership develops, so does the character of a team. Each person on a team becomes more intertwined with one another’s everyday lifestyle, allowing them to learn more about their teammates. As individuals learn about their teammates they build relationships that create team chemistry. The chemistry of a team is the main factor that creates great teams.

When you compete with your teammates and share similar emotions, feelings and times together, you grow as a team. As the relationships amongst a team grow, so does leadership. When I say leadership grows, its not necessarily one person stepping up and being that individual who pushes the team forward in the right direction. Team leadership builds as teammates begin looking out for each other and keeping one another in line.

Real leadership begins with the coach. The coach is the one who lays down the plan and the players are the ones who follow it. The coach must be consistent with his or her description of the plan. Players will need to be taught how to follow the plan by simply growing as a team and being coached to make the right decisions by their coach. Eventually the players learn what is right and what is wrong, they know the plan at task, and they know how to stay on the right track.

Once the coach does their job of providing the guidelines to becoming a successful team, the players take responsibility in their actions; they respect the plan because its what they put all their hard work into. As competition picks up the team will go through tough times, and these times will build the character of the team. Teammates will lean on one another for support, and this is where true leadership will occur. When a teammate puts all his or her confidence in the player next to them, and isn’t let down by disloyalty respect builds amongst their relationship.

When teammates respect each other, they will listen to what one another have to say. I know from a personal standpoint, when I didn’t respect my teammates, and looked at my team’s possible outcomes from a personal, individual outlook, the team never had that extra edge we needed to succeed. Being a part of a team where each person has respect for the one next to them gives you something else to play for. You play for the person next to you. When you see one of your teammates step forward to set an example, or a group of your teammates step forward and put in that little bit of extra effort needed to keep the team on the right track, leadership is in the air. A team with great leadership will be a great team no matter the outcome of their battles, but a team with poor leadership will never truly help develop a player into being a successful person in our world today.

Becoming Legends

Today's Blog is offered by Social Foundations of Coaching student, Meghan Talpash.

This Saturday, November 17^th was Senior Day for the Fighting Irish. It was the day where we as Notre Dame had to say goodbye to many great players. Senior Day is a very emotional day because it is the last day of football for many of the players. It is the last time they will play on their home field; hit the ‘Play Like A Champion, Today” sign, run on to the field with their beloved teammates, and have a rowdy student section cheering them on.

It is hard to stay focused during a game when emotions are taking over. Players had to choke back every emotion as they put on that jersey and ran to their parents on the field for their last time. They knew they had to concentrate everything on winning the game, and they did.

This senior class has been full of surprises from having a rough three previous years, to being referred to as ‘irrelevant’ early in the season by Rick Reilly, to currently being ranked number one in BCS standings. What has happened this year in the stadium in which Rockne built has been unforgettable and with a team that will be remember forever in the history of Notre Dame Football.

Many players are dealing with uncertainty for the future, and are dreading saying goodbye to the sport and the University they have fallen in love with. These seniors have given it all they got, and have proven so by having an undefeated season which has not happened since 1993. These seniors are leaving a legacy, and they will never be forgotten for all their hard work and dedication. As Manti Te’o said himself, “when you're a champion at other schools you're a champion. When you're a champion at Notre Dame, you become a legend.”      

Notre Dame is special, it is a family. It is a place that will always be home. As these seniors, go on to greater things, they will always have a place to call home here a Notre Dame. 

From the Perspective of the Watergirl

Today's Blog comes to us from Social Foundations of Coaching student, Caroline Corbett.

“Hey, moron! Hey! Moron! Duh! L-L-Look at me. I'm th-th-the waterboy.” This is one of the first few lines in Adam Sandler’s The Waterboy from one of the college football players taunting the waterboy, Bobby Boucher. While this may be an extreme representation of the lack of respect us waterboys and watergirls (more formally known as student athletic trainers) get on a daily basis, it certainly is how we can feel sometimes. And many times, this feeling can result from the actions of coaches.

           

This blog is not to whine and complain about how we are underappreciated and do not get enough respect. On the contrary, I often feel very well treated in my position and that many players treat me as their good friend. Instead, it is to reflect on how the behavior of coaches can be inconsistent with the message they project to their athletes.

           

I recently attended a lecture on business ethics by a CEO of a health care company. He described that whenever he is considering a person for a position he takes them out to dinner. Not to make them feel more at ease or schmooze them, but to see how they treat the wait staff. If they treat with the wait staff with kindness and graciousness, it is an indication of how they will behave with clients and colleagues.

           

I believe the same should be true for coaching. Coaches often advocate respect for others and being gracious to all, but often do not practice what they preach. Players see the disrespect the coaches have for support staff and feel they can behave the same way. This disrespect can then be translated off the field. This type of behavior is not helpful for the development of a champion.

           

It seems like a simple concept, treat people with kindness. But it can be lost on some of the “rougher” coaches in the country.  As Cardinal Roger Mahony once stated, "any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; the last, the least, the littlest." This quote can also be applied to any team. I am suggesting that coaches keep this principle in mind because it can have an affect on players as well as the representation of the team.   

Bed of Lies

In a  college sports culture driven increasingly by profits and cash, Sean Hannon, a Notre Dame Senior and student in Social Foundations of Coaching,  offers an opinion on the state of coaching.

Coaches in collegiate athletics preach loyalty, dedication, and perseverance.  They recruit young teens, wide-eyed and ready to trust successful, smart adults.  They promise these young men a chance to play for a great team, to attend a prestigious university, and to be coached by the best.  However, I am not so sure that coaches nowadays practice what they preach.

Todd Graham, Urban Meyer, Lane Kiffin, and John Calipari are all successful coaches in their respective sports.  They are great recruiters, they get their players to buy into their philosophy, and they say the right things.  If you have ever heard one of them talk, you cannot help but believe what they say.  These four men use their persuasive speech to bring their team together, to build a community, to win games, and then they use it to find the door, to flee, to find a better job, at a better school, in a place that pays more.

Last December Todd Graham texted, that is right, texted his players at Pitt that he had taken a job to coach at Arizona State only 11 months after he had taken the head coaching job at Pitt.  To be clearer, Graham, after not receiving approval from the Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson to talk with Arizona State, texted his decision to two Pitt assistant athletic directors, who forwarded the text message to the players. 

Graham, only seven days prior talked with Pitt receiver Devin Street and, as Street recounts, “He told me he's here to stay.  He said he wanted to make me the best player he can.”  After Graham’s decision, Street told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “It's all a lie. It's been all a lie this whole time. Everything he told us has been a lie.”  This abuse by a coach is mind numbing.  A coach is trusted with so much by his players, and it is baffling to see the coach return so little of that trust. 

Pitt Senior defensive tackle, Chas Alecxih, put it best, saying, “How is it in college football, if a player wants to leave he has to do all kinds of stuff, he has to fill out paperwork, he has to sit out a year?  But if a coach wants to leave he can up and leave without so much as a moment's notice.”  As some would say, loyalty is as thin as a dollar bill.

Seeing this really makes me question this double standard the college athletics hold.  Teams and coaches expect their players to be loyal to a school, but coaches are free to do whatever they want.  They have to pay a buyout clause if they leave before their contract expires, but that means nothing to a coach who has just found a higher paying job.  The school and team are left high and dry.  However, if a school wants to fire a coach, it must pay him a termination package.  Coaches seem to be the ones with the upper hand here.  They lie, they scheme, and they win.

Coaches like Todd Graham are horrible examples of how to be a coach.  Graham coached at Rice in 2006, signed a contract extension with the Owls through 2012, and then, one day later, used this new contract as leverage to get more money and become the head coach at Tulsa.  What makes this deceit even worse is that after he signed the contract extension with Rice, Graham said, “I am very grateful to Rice University for the opportunity to coach this team, and for the commitment the university has made to me and to my staff as we look forward to build on the efforts of our first season.”  Also after he got hired as the Pitt head coach he said, “I've spent my whole life working to get this job.”  Graham says these grand things making one think he is committed to the team, but instead he just says whatever will allow him to make it to where he wants to be next. 

Graham is unfortunately not alone in these deceitful practices.  Urban Meyer resigned as the head coach of Florida in 2010 to spend more time with his family, only to take become the head coach for Ohio State this season.  That does not seem like much family time after all.  Columnists in Florida say that Meyer built a house of cards in Gainesville and let them all come falling down on the next coach after he left.  Additionally, Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for USC after only coaching there one season.  Kiffin recruited a class of young men, selling to them the University of Tennessee, the football program, the school’s ideals, and himself, only to bolt for another, more lucrative offer.  Finally, in college basketball, John Calipari fled Massachusetts in 1996 when it seemed like NCAA sanctions were about to hit UMass.  Then, after he coached Memphis for nine seasons, he darted to Kentucky in 2009 before Memphis received sanctions from the NCAA for violations under Calipari.  These coaches all preach good things but when the going gets tough, and the money is on the table, they choose I over WE.  They do what is best for themselves and disregard the others in their wake. 

What is happening in college sports with coaches is sickening.  Coaches are meant to be people athletes trust, look up to, and respect.  Instead the coaches say one thing and do something else.  They preach “WE” but do what is best for the man in the mirror.  What is worse is that universities fuel the fire more than anyone.  Universities only care when they are the ones hurt by the coaching carousel.  They offer coaches more and more money in an attempt to get their team to win.  However, athletes are lost in this equation.  They are the ones harmed by these lies, and they have to deal with the consequences of decisions they do not make.  Coaches have a responsibility to their players and the universities for which the work to show the commitment, loyalty, and dedication they so often preach. 

Coaches have the unique opportunity to shape the lives of young people.  They are trusted with the development of these individuals, and with this trust comes responsibility.  

Coaches must be held accountable for their actions, because right now they are abusing their power.  Coaches need to reflect on why they became coaches, and they need to get back to the fundamentals of developing and teaching their players.  Steps by coaches AND universities will correct this scary and unpleasant path we have gone down in college athletics.  One can only hope steps are taken sooner rather than later, before any more young athletes get used by these smooth talking adults.