Why I Coach

For the last four years, I have coached basketball at a small high school here in Raleigh.  When I decided to start my own company this fall, I had to weigh pretty heavily whether or not I could do it again this year.  The time commitment is huge.  We practice for two hours a day, and travel all over the eastern part of NC for our games.  On a practical level, it made no sense for me to sign up to do it again.

Last night was a reminder why I continue to invest my time with these young men.  Three days earlier we had what I consider to be one of the worst games I have watched since I have been doing this.  Low energy and no passion led to us getting blown out.  We had a meeting on Wednesday before practice to talk about what it would take to turn things around.  One of the best bits of advice I have ever gotten in coaching is to let the players on the team talk and figure things out for themselves.  I, along with my great assistant, simply laid out what we saw to be the things that would have to change, and then let them talk about how to change them.  And then we waited to see what the response would be.

I knew when I walked into the locker room before the game that we were going to have a good night.  I had no idea if we would win, but I knew it would be different.  What I saw over the next hour and a half was the drug that keeps me coming back.  Instead of wilting and going away, we had a room full of guys that simply refused to lose.  We got down by 11 or 13 at one point, and just kept coming.  We outscored our opponent 18-6 in the final quarter and won by three points.  It was simply tremendous to watch a team that did not care on Tuesday transform themselves ( at least on this night ) into a team that would not quit.

I have very little to do with any of this.  I was listening to an interview with Frank Beamer yesterday on a local sports radio station yesterday, and he said something very profound ( at least for me ).  Virginia Tech started 0-2 this year and lost to James Madison in one of those losses.  This is unheard of for Virginia Tech.  The host asked Coach Beamer what happened that turned it around.  He simply said ( paraphrasing ) “We believe in our players.  They are the ones that have to make the plays, and we make sure they know that we believe they will if they keep working.”

Tru dat, Coach Beamer.