A Visit to the NCAA

Today's blog as written by Sam Gans, a senior Political Science major at the University of Notre Dame.  Sam is a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching course taught by Play Like a Champion Today director Professor Clark Power and Kristin Sheehan.  This month, Sam participated in a spring break seminar sponsored by the University of Notre Dame Career Center called Sports Industry Career Trek, on which he visited NCAA headquarters, among other tropical locales. 

I spent a day of my spring break this year taking a tour of the NCAA in Indianapolis (basically the exact same thing as being on a tropical beach) as part of a career trek through the Notre Dame Career Center.

When you first walk into the NCAA’s facility, there is a quote on the wall from the late Myles Brand, former president of the organization that describes the NCAA’s goal as one of service first and foremost to the student-athlete. It doesn’t mention money, publicity or even anything resembling a strong athletic product. The quote is about service, an indicator that the goal of the organization should be to make sure the student-athletes gain skills for life in education and within the community.

Often, we forget what’s really important when talking about sports. I watch March Madness on television and see the huge buzz the college football bowls generate and don’t remember that the athletes I see plastered on the television are normal people. I entered the NCAA tour with a slightly negative view of the NCAA as the institution that wanted to prevent fun and inconsistently laid down harsh punishments for schools. That was until meeting with the people who work there made me realize just how much they care about putting the student-athletes into the best possible situations possible, both now and in the future.

My sophomore-year roommate was a member of the Notre Dame football team. I saw every day how much of a toll getting up before 6 a.m. to practice took on him and how difficult it was to manage his academic and athletic responsibilities. He had to work extremely hard to succeed at both. And although athletics were important to him, so was setting himself up well for life after football. He wasn’t a robot produced to perform athletically for the university. He was a human being trying to find his place in the world, with goals and ambitions that didn’t involve playing sports for the future.

It’s important coaches of youth – high school and younger – remember this. If this type of attitude of academics, learning and growth is what’s most important at the college level, where some athletes do have a chance at the professional ranks and which generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year, it should without a doubt be the goal of those below collegiate athletics, as well. The athletes aren’t employees of their schools whose worth is determined by how good they are at throwing a football or dunking a basketball.

High school coaches should act the same way toward their players, focusing on growth and improvement – in the classroom, on the field and in life – rather than just winning and losing.