Great coaches stay there for kids & don’t care about the status points, either.
“Many coaches want to be there for kids when it looks good to be there for kids.
But it’s not really who they are. They’re just looking for job security points.
It’s cheap as hell.
Great coaches stay there for kids and they don’t care who sees it or knows about it, either.”
-Ray Zingler on X
This social media era, while not new, is very weird.
I get the kids and their computer wiz buddies making the clout driven highlight tape music videos. I understand the draw (for an 18-year old) to have your photographer buddy come out and get some “hard” pics from your work out (despite your workout being backwards, lol).
But coaches? Grown ass adults NEEDING to put themselves in the limelight? I still laugh every time I see a photo on social media of a coach in a headset (knowing the camera is there) trying to stand like a tough guy, only so he can make a caption on IG a few days later that says something like “pressure creates diamonds.”
Or better yet, the coach who hires the videographer to come out so that he can try to “showcase his or her kids” (get him or herself some camera time in the act of coaching) all so they can look good on video “in their element” saying things like, “good, goooood” or “fasterrrr”. What impeccable coaching!
But are these guys hammering their phones at 11:37pm on a school night hashing it out with these athletes who are going through trials and tribulations? The kids who need them?
They “care so much about them” that you’d assume they would be there for them all the time, right?
But guess what, they aren’t.
They are there only when it looks the part to be there.
They are there when they know they can benefit on the back end from being there.
They type the right words on a social media caption about being “grateful to coach such great kids!”
They say the right things at the potluck dinner, too.
But is this who these people are?
Do their actions defend their claims 365 days a year?
Are they emphatically intentional about being difference makers, even (especially) when it’s inconvenient?
They’re not.
And that’s why most coaches are, by definition, average or below average.
You don’t go from “acceptable” to great, by knowing the most about scheme or having great players.
You go from good to great, when you are who you say you are every day your feet hit the floor.
You can’t talk about the code. You actually have to live it.
