I've always wanted to be a coach. When I was younger playing baseball and basketball, my coaches would often call me a "coach on the field". They were referring to how I would always be talking and encouraging the guys. When I would go to the bench I would always sit by the coaches. Some of the kids thought I was being the classic brown-noser but in all honesty I did it because I was always fascinated by the different strategies and different tactics coaches would use. It became clear though by the 8th grade that my future in sports was going to be as a coach. The injuries had mounted up to the point where I just couldn't go anymore athletically. My brain was still in coaching mode. I joined speech because I wanted a place where I could funny and compete and not get injured. I also liked the idea of having a coach.
Coach Roberts was different from my sports coaches but just as effective if not more. Most of my sports coaches were great X's and O's guys and could tell you where to stand and what to do and how to do it but the often didn't have the ability to give you the pep talk. The Vince Lombardi type pre-game speech that warmed your blood and made you think you were unstoppable. While not as demonstrative as Lombardi, Coach knew how to light a fire under me. You wouldn't think that would be important in something like speech but I'll tell you that speech is no different than sports when it comes to the competitive element. It takes energy and commitment and often times your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. While Coach always was quick to help me when things weren't working in my delivery or in my writing, he was even quicker to tell me when I was good. Often times our practice sessions were him and I joking and going back in forth and it worked. Never was I more successful then the times I worked for Coach Roberts.
After high school, I realized my dream of coaching when I started coaching house basketball. We weren't the most talented team but those kids played hard for me as I incorporated all of the coaching tactics I had learned in my life. None more important than my pre-game pep talk. The players seemed to respond to my energy and my passion and we achieved some success. Then something happened....I stopped pep-talking and started yelling. My next bunch of years we had even less talent and instead of teaching and coaching I was shouting at everyone in sight. Referees,players, parents, fans, assistant coaches you name it. I forgot what I leaned from Coach Roberts. I forgot what it meant to give the pep talk. So I stopped coaching basketball. I stopped coaching...period.
In 2005, I was offered a chance to coach speech. I took it. Not knowing if I would be good or not and early on I wasn't.. but it felt right. It felt good to coach again. I got back to basics. Setting principles and giving kids the freedom to be themselves while utilizing the pep talk as my primary coaching tool and it worked. The kids bought in and we started having success. I've been there ever since and as my seventh season draws to a close I finally truly realize what it means to be a coach. It's the little moments that are the lasting ones. This weekend one of my seniors came to me after her final regular season speech round with this huge smile on her face. I asked her how it went and she said "It went Great". She was ecstatic about her performance and about the fact that she made the final at every tournament we entered this year. No small feat in speech. It was her smile, her energy and her excitement that at that moment was priceless for me.
One last story, When I was a senior I was lucky enough to win the state championship in speech in my category. I remember running to Coach and hugging him and saying to him that "We Did It,We Did It." he stopped me quickly and said "No, YOU did it." He never wanted the credit for what we did and still doesn't to this day. I never understood why until last year when my top creative made the state final. His first words to me was "We Did It". I stopped for a second and at that moment I understood why Coach deferred the credit. You don't coach for trophies, you coach.....for the pep talk.
Back from a Break
Tim
3 comments:
"Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you." And Tim you've done that with this entire speech team. You have definitely earned the love and respect of all your speechies, and that's one trophy you cant put in a box.
Tim, you've been an inspiration for many, many people on this speech team, myself included. I have an immense amount of respect for you. The pep talks post rounds and such, they're all well and good. But your passion as a coach and as a man are so great. I'm legitimately tearing up reading this blog, just because I know the work we go through. To know in a few short weeks it'll all be over, it breaks my heart. You and Roberts have become like fathers to me, and I hope we can coach together someday.
I love your whole blog, but my favorite part is when you talked about that girl and the priceless moment of seeing her smile and excitement of making it to finals. I think in life the priceless moments make life worth living and also genuine happiness!
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