Building Team Relationships Overnight

The Play Like A Champion Today™ GROW approach helps coaches to understand that developing Relationships on their team is integral to building a successful team environment. Building relationships develops team unity and cohesion. According to the PLC Coach Manual (p.25), cohesion defined by Carron is a “dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its goals and objectives. High levels of group cohesion affect team stability, performance, and athlete satisfaction.”

Recently, I had the opportunity as a sport parent to aid my daughter’s athletic team in building relationships. We hosted the high school cheerleading team at our home for an overnight team bonding experience. The evening was characterized by a shared experience which began with every team member contributing to the menu for the evening (from subs to cookies to lemonade). The captains set the tone by opening the evening’s activities with a team bonding round robin question and answer session of “What are your favorites?” (such as “What is your favorite stunt? What is your least favorite subject in school? What is the scariest movie you have seen? What do you want to do for a career?) Team mates became more acquainted with each other as individuals with likes and dislikes. Amidst the giggles, many found that they shared similar feelings and beliefs, beyond their common love for the sport of cheerleading. The evening went on to include swimming, a bonfire with s’mores, competitive games with girls rooting for each other and a late night movie ending with athletes all in sleeping bags throughout the family room floor with their coach in the middle (maintaining a watchful eye). The sleepy team reluctantly was roused the next morning to pile into cars and head to an 8am practice. Although tired, the practice felt different to the young women who had shared a common team-bonding experience and who knew each other at a deeper, more personal level. Team cohesiveness was built and team stability was cemented.

I encourage all coaches to create such a team bonding opportunity for their athletes to build their team’s cohesion and develop Relationships on their team. I encourage parents who are in a position to support and enable this process to become a resource to their child’s coach in this regard. I encourage athletes to open their hearts to this opportunity to become a stronger, more cohesive team. The result: a forever memory of a shared team experience.

- Kristin Sheehan, PLC Associate Director

PLC Recertification Course Opens Early

In order to accommodate coaches who would like to renew their certification before the fall sports season, PLC and STEP have opened the August-October early.

The course is being offered in partnership with the Satellite Theological Education Program (STEP). STEP is an outreach program at the University of Note Dame that offers quality theological education to pastoral ministers and adults Catholics through online courses.

To sign-up for the course complete the following steps:
1. Go the PLC Recertification page: www.playlikeachampion.org/recertification.html and click on the link “Click here to register for the course.”

2. Create your login information by clicking on the link in the red paragraph at the bottom of the page. Complete the necessary information and press submit.

3. Return to the registration page to register for the course. Choose the course section dates (August 31 - October 9, 2009) in which you would like to participate and press submit.

Pro Football Hall of Fame Speeches

If you didn’t watch the enshrinement for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend, then it is worthy taking a look. Notice how each of the 2009 inductees credit the important people in their lives who have made an impact. So many of them look to their youth and high school sport coaches as inspiration and many think of their parents as the greatest inspiration. Here are some highlights:

Rod Woodson, a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, credited his coaches Dave Brodie, Jim Russo, Mike Holly and Jim Vernel who worked with him as a youth and in high school.

He gave a great description of the Body of Christ:
“You know, I stand up here in front of you as an individual. But nothing alone has ever been done good. Or excuse me, nothing great has ever been done alone. An English clergyman once said, no man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of a continent. A part of the main. What he's talking about, he's talking about the body of Christ working together. But also what he's talking about is that we're all a part of a team in some capacity throughout our lives. We are all a piece of the puzzle. We are not the puzzle itself. When we realize that, we're better people.”

Highlights to Rod Woodson’s Enshrinement Speech

Randall McDaniel, who is now in his second career as an elementary school teacher looked to Mr. O. K. Fulton, his high school coach, to thank him for his inspiration. But most importantly, he credits his parents as his “real heroes.”

Highlights to Randall McDaniel’s Speech


Bruce Smith pointed to the lessons he learned from his parents, whose commitment and strong work ethic inspired him to become the man that he is today.

Highlights to Bruce Smith’s Speech


As a coach or parent, do not underestimate the impact you can have on your kids. Hall of Fame athletes are never inducted on sheer skill or talent. They receive their recognition thanks to the great influence of the people who have taught them some of the hardest lessons and molded them into men and women of character.

What is your coaching legacy?

How do you want to be remembered as a coach? What kind of impact do you want to make on your players? What is your coaching legacy? These are quesitons always worth asking yourself. It doesn't matter what level you coach, you never know the impact you can have on your players.

Some may even be future coaches themselves. In an article in the Rockland Standard Tom Grady, Braintree High School softball coach, remembers the coaches who made an impact on his life:

“I guess the first was Bob Lee, he was my CYO coach at Sacred Heart parish in Roslindale,” said Grandy.

Another coach who he admired was his high school basketball coach at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Ronnie Perry. “He was inspiring and he taught us how to win,” remembers Grandy, who went on to a business career instead of one in education.

Sean Kiely, who retired after 23 years of coaching soccer at Hamilton Catholic high school left a long-lasting legacy according to the TheSpec.com. Co-coach John Ivanic said:

"I was crushed," said Crusaders' co-coach John Ivanic. "I've worked with him for eight years. He has been an inspiration to me. He's taught me a lot about being a good human being and a coach."

Take some time, today, to reflect on the coach or coaches that have made an impact on your life. What was thier legacy? How can you do the same for others?

Probability of Competing in Athletics After High School

How likely is your son or daughter to play their sport after high school? In the appendices of our Coach and Parent manuals we include these statistics not to discourage young people from playing their sport, but to put play in perspective. Sports are meant to be played for enjoyment. Competition is fun, but if athletes are motivated by "playing at the next level" then they do a disservice to their teammates and the spirit of competition. If we encourage athletes to participate in sports in order to gain a reward, then sports become work not play. For a longer reflection see our post, "Playing Sports to Pay for College."



The links provided to the NCAA statistics in our coach and parent manuals has changed. Check out the new links at:


http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?key=/ncaa/ncaa/academics+and+athletes/education+and+research/probability+of+competing

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?key=/ncaa/ncaa/academics+and+athletes/education+and+research/probability+of+competing/methodology+-+prob+of+competing

ESPN Fan Feast: Notre Dame

Looking for a little history about the Play Like a Champion Today sing? Check out this video from ESPN's Fan Feast essay on the famous Notre Dame sign.

Unfortunately, Greeny, you missed one key link that pops up when you google Play Like A Champion Today: the Play Like A Champion Today Educational Series. How can that phrase be so special? Want to find out what its like to Play Like A Champion? You could attend our annual PLC Leadership Conference and touch the sign for yourself or just ask the thousands of athletes coached by our Play Like A Champion Today trained coaches and you'll find that young people all across the country play like champions every day!

ESPN Fan Feast: Youth Games

I caught this video essay on youth sports this morning on ESPN SportsCenter this morning.

"The best entertainment, the true spirit of any sport can be found in any children's game. Disregard the handful of pushy parents or the coaches who think they're the second coming of Vince Lombardi"

Well said Kenny Mayne!

PACT Trainer Inverviewed About Motivating Scholarship Athlete

Max Trenerry is a trainer for PLC's partner program Parents and Coaches Together (PACT) in the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association. In a recent interview with CBS local station WCCO, Max shared the PLC-PACT philosophy and how it helped him coach, University of Minnesota athlete, Stephanie Brandt.

Trenerry effectively sums up the three C's of the PACT progam: "student athletes need three essential things to be happy in their sports: a choice in which activities in which they participate, a sense of accomplishment [competence], and a sense of being cared about. That means screaming parents on the sidelines or a focus on performance above all else, can lead to burnout."

For the video of the interview click on the link below:

http://www.wcco.com/video/?id=63909@wcco.dayport.com

New Blog Address

The Play Like A Champion Today Blog has moved to its new home at www.playlikeachampion.org/blog/. We began our blogging experiment in 2008 to see if there would be any interest in reading about our program and its partners on the web. We found that there was quite a bit of interest and that we should integrate it into our own website. Return here or add us to your RSS Feed to read about the growth and success of the PLC program and its partners as well as relevant news from around the country.

The Irish Win the Championship!

The Irish baseball team consisting of eleven 10-12 year old South Bend boys made their “professional” debut at the 4th Annual Play Like A Champion Today™ conference as they models for what a Play Like A Champion team-building session looks like. The team worked together, not just physically to build their baseball skills, but they learned how to emotionally support each teammate and morally how to treat opponents and officials. The result was the South Bend Clay Park League Championship. Congratulations to the Irish and their coaches, Dan Sheehan, Dave Deahl and Nick Mahoor. The team’s motto was “We Play Like Champions.”