I Lost, therefore I failed. WRONG!

 

 Sports have results. Wins and losses. It’s the greatest blessing and greatest curse of athletics. The result is final, public information. That’s not always the case with your criminal record, your academic record, or your financial history. You can hide that stuff if you want. Not sports. The result is out there somewhere, and if you’re playing at any level worth its salt, there’s probably a website or a newspaper somewhere that will preserve that result for all to see.

 

At the professional level, that makes sense. It’s their job. They play to win the game. Just ask Herman Edwards. He’ll tell you exactly that. To paraphrase the great Bill Parcells, you are what your record says you are.

 

But that’s the pro’s. We’re talking about athletes who are still developing.

 

I remember my first ever coaching gig. I was 16 years old and the head coach of the Milton Recreation Association Bulls middle school girls’ rec basketball. I’d never even been to a middle school girls’ basketball game, but I knew I wanted to get into coaching, so here we go.

 

 I chose my roster based on t-shirt sizes and last names that I hoped were related to somebody locally that I knew was a good athlete by the same name. The problem I had was that the girls who wore large t-shirts were not because of their height, and the girls I thought might be related to a local stud athlete were not.

 

I had a team full of first time athletes. Most had never been on a team of any kind in any sport. We lost our first team to the Milton Recreation Association Knicks 52-2. Those girls were running pick-and-rolls. They had an outstanding understanding of the 1-3-1 zone. They made about 65% of their free throws; not bad for middle school girls. My girls were still learning why we all had to wear the same color shirts.

 

Fast forward to the championship game three months later. Yep. I said championship game. My group of rookies made it that far. We had to play the undefeated Knicks again. The same team that beat us by 50 in our first game of season. The same team that beat us by about 30 two weeks earlier.

 

But we found ways to beat enough teams to make the playoffs, and win two playoff games by hook, crook, smoke, and mirrors.

 

Final score: Knicks 52, Bulls 50. We lost. Success. Major success in my book.

 

Fast forward about a dozen years and I’m coaching arena football. I took over a team with no direction and even less talent in a league that worked to promote players to higher levels of minor league football. My NY/NJ Revolution lost in week 2 to the New England Surge 66-6. They were, bigger, faster, stronger, and, quite frankly, we were outcoached. After a season of learning hard lessons, we were finishing up after 14 long weeks. We put our 1-12 record on the line against the 8-5 New England Surge who, with a win, would clinch a playoff spot. Along the way, we made adjustments, changed how we did things, found ways to put the ball in the end zone and found other ways to keep the other team out of the end zone.

Final Score: Surge 29, Revolution 27. We lost. Major success.

 

Fast forward another 3-4 years and I’m coaching tennis at Fairleigh Dickinson University. We played Arcadia in a match that, on paper, should have been 9-0 FDU. We were better at every spot. Our players had better pedigree. Our players had more experience. Our team had a better record and had beaten multiple teams that Arcadia had lost to. Easy day. Chalk up the win before we show up.

 

Their coach preached a survival philosophy all day. “Just one more ball. Make that kid hit one more ball. I don’t care if you dye trying, but give it all you’ve got.” His guys were ready, hungry, and had nothing to lose. Mine assumed we had a win locked up and played like they would rather have been somewhere else.

Final score: FDU 5, Arcadia 4. We won. I failed. I was outcoached, and our players were outworked. We were lucky to get out of that one on the winning side. Arcadia made progress that day and we regressed.

 

If you judge these games by final score, you’re missing all of the little success that went into the process. It’s all about progress, process, and getting better. A loss is not always a failure. A win is not always success. Moving in the right direction is always good. Moving in the wrong direction is always bad. 

Judge your progress as an athlete or as a coach on direction, not results.

From Nowhere To Super Bowl Champ? It Happens All The Time. Here's Why

 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl with the usual collection of well-pedigreed players and coaches. They have All-American’s from Michigan, LSU, Nebraska, Iowa, Arizona, and other top-flight football schools all over the place. They’ve got coaches who combined for over 100 years in the NFL as players and nearly double that many years in the league as coaches.

 

What might be a little surprising is that Tampa Bay also has 15 players in their program, more than half of whom were active for last night’s game, that did not play at the FBS level. Schools like Hobart, Wagner, Southern Arkansas and North Carolina Central are represented among the players who will be wearing shiny rings from Super Bowl LV. Great rags-to riches stories. Every one of them.

 

But, that’s not even the group of champions that will surprise fans the most. Fans will be shocked to know that the former Assistant Defensive Line Coach of the Semi-Pro Central Penn Piranha will get a ring. The Former Head Track and Field Coach at California University of Pennsylvania will get a ring. Schalick High School (NJ) will see it’s former Running Back’s Coach get a ring. Whittier College of California can boast that it’s former Wide Receiver’s Coach is getting a ring. The same boasting is going on this week at dozens of high schools, division III colleges, and other smaller, lesser-known programs around the country, all because a coach who was once theirs is now a Super Bowl champ.

 

Lifelong coaches are not surprised. We see it all the time. The coach that spend three seasons getting the head man’s coffee as a freshman assistant basketball coach at the local high school may someday be the head hoops coach at a Power 5 school. The coach that volunteered to coach soccer clinics in a small town in Texas might someday be the 3^rd base coach for a big league team.

 

What matters in coaching is not where you start. Where you start is often a product of the opportunities afforded to you by others; your parents, your high school coach, your neighbor with connections. What matters in coaching is your ability to adapt, your commitment to coaching, and your network.

 

Tampa Bay’s Head Coach, Bruce Arians, is known throughout football for being willing to give a shot to somebody in whom he sees potential regardless of what other coaches think. He’s the only coach in the league with black coordinators on offense, defense and special teams, and he’s the only coach in football to employ two women on his coaching staff. And, while both of these facts are impressive, noteworthy, and noble, they’re a product of relying on his network and committing to coaches who can adapt and are committed to the game.

 

Look further into Arian’s staff and you’ll see almost a dozen coaches who once played for Arians, whether it was back in his days at Temple in the 80’s or in the NFL. You’ll see a strong group of young coaches who attended the same university as Arians (Virginia Tech), some of whom Arians would have never even met if he didn’t stay connected to his Alma Mater. And you’ll see coaches who did a ton of winning and had a great reputation as many different levels of football. They stayed with the game, they changed with the times, and they stayed connected to the football community any way they could.

 

With each new season, a coaches’ network grows, as does an athletes network. Players and coaches don’t have to keep in touch with every teammate. They just need to make sure that their connections respect them. I’ve had players and coaches who I haven’t spoken to in years reach out for help, a reference, or a recommendation, and I’ve done the same reaching out. Absence and dime don’t diminish how I felt about that player or co-worker when we were together. I remember what they brought to the table when it mattered. The ones that I don’t have a strong memory of rarely reach out, and I rarely reach out to them. That’s just how it goes.

 

Next fall, when you watch high school football games, your eye will often be drawn by the kids who score all the touchdowns and the kids who look like Greek gods in a helmet. There’s nothing wrong with that. Those kids are impressive. But the kid who’s most likely to take football to it’s highest level is the one who learns from every play. The kid who soaks up the information and finds a way to use that information to help him and his teammates grow is a valuable commodity. And, if the kid who scores all the touchdowns is also the kid who learns from every play, you’ve really got something special on your hands.

 

Just remember that the kid most likely to succeed in any sport might not be the best player. It’s possible that, during any given season, the most successful long-term could be the least successful at the time. In fact, he or she might not even be on the team.

 

The most successful will be the one who is committed to the game, committed to evolving, and committed to their network.