DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT WE WERE?

I met this week with a man from the state department of education. He was reviewing our academic offerings at the high school and recommending changes that would help us improve. Over and over he would compliment our work and then say, "now, this is great but how can we take this good program and make it great?" He was a former coach so he kept using analogies like, "OK, this is a 7-4 team, how do we become undefeated." The amazing thing is, decisions were made that the teachers bought into and when the meeting was over everyone wanted to improve their programs because they liked being challenged.

I walked away from that meeting asking myself the same question about the football program. How do we take our 7-4 team and create a great program? There's no question that it's possible. Snowflake was a terror 15 years ago. Nobody wanted to play them because they were big, strong and they always won. Then I realized, that's a long time ago.

Therein lies the problem. I think I can illustrate it best by relating a visit I had recently from one of our coaches. After smalltalk, he asked if I knew the proud history of the athletic program. He was concerned that I was discounting all that had been accomplished at the school when I was asking for change.

I grew up playing Snowflake in most of the sports. I remember getting beat by them 60-0 my Junior year. They went on to win the State Championship. So, yes I had a pretty good idea of the things that had been done in the past.

My question is, and I directed it to this coach, "Yes, we had a great winning tradition, we had state championships, we were a feared school. But when was our last state championship? I don't mean individual championship like Wrestling, or cumulative championship like in track, but a team championship? This coach couldn't think of one in the past 10 years. My point was proven.

We are hanging on to a past life of greatness. I'm not a part of that past life. All I see is what is. Every coach laments for what they could have had if only something would have been different. I want to say at the end of my coaching career that I never sat back and waited for someone to do something so my teams could be successful. I don't care about what we were. That's for the old men to talk about. I care about what we are because that's what my players will remember when they are the old men.