A Coach's Diary

“Make each day your masterpiece.” - John Wooden Do you waste days or win days? John Wooden was one of the most successful coaches in any sport. “The Wizard of Westwood” led the UCLA Bruins to 10 national championships in a 12-year span. One of Coach Wooden’s most well-known quotes is, “Make each day your masterpiece.” A website dedicated to his legacy says, “To Coach, making each day your masterpiece means focusing on what you are doing right now to the best of your ability. It is about recognizing that nothing can be done about what happened yesterday, and that you can only affect what will happen tomorrow by what you do today.” Apply this wisdom to where you are at all times. Instead of dwelling on a bad call or bad moment, or obsessing over what went wrong yesterday or in the last game, try to keep your mind focused on where you are now and focus on the positive things around you. Learn from and let go of the past, and if you can apply this in small doses throughout your day and foc...

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” - John Wooden Did you do your best? That is the most important measurement of success. John Wooden is one of the most successful coaches in the history of college basketball. “The Wizard of Westwood” led the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team to 10 national championships in 12 years, including 7 straight from 1967-9173. Coach Wooden began his career as a high school teacher and coach a t Dayton High School in Kentucky in 1932, and even back then, Coach Wooden dealt with parent issues.  In the book They Call me Coach, he wrote that he was concerned for his students because many parents judged teachers by the grades their children received in class. In his words, “ If the grades were good, the teacher was good, and if the grades were poor, it was the teacher’s fault." Because of this, Coach Wooden, way back in the 1930s, created h...

Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden once wrote, “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” You can talk a good game, but do you walk the walk? We can spend all our time and energy worrying about what others think of us, but never forget that character comes before reputation. Character is the foundation and frame of our house, and our reputation is the finished product people can see from the street. The stronger your foundation, the stronger you are. After the birth of Jesus, John the Baptist began preaching in the wilderness of Judea. After Jesus, John is probably the most important person in the Gospels. John was the Israelites' first prophetic voice in over 400 years, so he was the link between the Old and the New Testament. His message was to, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 3:2),” he was called The Baptist because he baptized people who...

According to a National Alliance for Youth Sports study, about 70% of kids stop playing sports by age 13. Just over 7% of athletes play sports in college, and only 1.8% of men and women play Division 1 sports. That means only 1 out of 13 high school athletes will play in college, and only 1 out of every 57 will play at the Division 1 level. Narrow is the gate that leads to success, and even more narrow is the gate to continued success. My keys to success are work hard and have fun. Hopefully, your athletic journey is long and enjoyable. The harder you work and the more fun you have, the longer and more successful your career will be. We are the results of our decisions. Good decisions lead to good results, and bad decisions lead to bad results. Wisdom is doing today what your future self will thank you for, so create the life and career you want with each decision you make. While life is a series of choices and decisions, no decision is more important than the one Jesus talks about in ...

I walked into the coach's office, and one of the football coaches was sitting at his desk with his head down. I ask him what was wrong, and he said that the 'Big Game Flu' was running through his team. I asked him what the 'Big Game Flu' was, and he said that some seasons, when his team was having an average or below-average season without a lot of leadership and lacking in grit, many of his players would end up hurt when they would play the top teams in their district, only to be healthy the next week against a weaker opponent. Their coaching staff, noticing this trend happening the week of the big game, started calling this phenomenon the 'Big Game Flu.' He said that the 'Big Game Flu' doesn't run through their team every year. The years where they have strong leadership, when their athletes are mentally tough and have grit, and when he has athletes who truly love to play the game and play with and for each other, the big game weeks are the bes...

- Did you have fun? - Did you do your best? - Did you get better? After every game, one girl on my u9 soccer team asks me the same question, "Coach, did we win?" I ask her and the team the three questions above. They always say yes, and I always say, "Then you won!" They then put their hands up and cheer. This u9 soccer team hasn't lost a game yet in their rec league, so I haven't lied to them. But even if they did lose according to the score, if they can answer yes to those three questions, then they are winners. I used to be too competitive for u9 rec soccer. Having daughters has softened me a lot, but I am still competitive. I stress and worry more than I should about wins and losses, but this is something that I am trying to work on. One way that I have tried to improve in this area is by redefining success. That is where those three questions come from. I know that these girls won't go through life undefeated, and losing is good for everybody. You l...

In a recent meeting with our principal, he shared the three rules that legendary football coach, Lou Holtz, lives by. The three rules are simple, but when applied right, they can be life-changing.  The three rules are: 1 - Can I trust you? 2 - Are you committed to excellence? 3 - Do you care about me? COVID-19 has completely shaken up our world.  In education, it has been tough to provide grace and accountability for our students.  There has been a lot of unknowns, and I think a lot of us educators and coaches want to know if we are doing the right thing if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing and if we are doing enough .   He shared these three questions to put us and our minds at ease.  He told us all that he trusts us and the work that we do and that he trusts us as people as well.  He said that it is evident that we are committed to excellence by the way that we have taken on this challenge of educating our students online....

Cole Anthony is one of the top college basketball players.  An assistant UNC basketball coach said that Cole Anthony is one of the most focused people that he has ever been around.  He said that one of the things that makes Cole Anthony great is that everyday he makes it his goal to RELENTLESSLY work and try to be the best that he can be. Coach Wooden has a famous quote that said,  “ Success   is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”  “ Success   is never final; failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.” Work hard.  Stay focused.  Do your best and good things will happen.

Don't spend your time just being busy - spend it being FRUITFUL.  Make sure that you spend your time on stuff that actually benefits you and your life and not just staying busy. Be a person of purpose so that you can leave a legacy and so that you do not have to look back with regret for not doing different things with your time. We all have the same amount of time, and it is all the time that we need.  We spend our time just like we spend money - on what we want, on what we value, and on what we think is important -  and when we spend our money and our time - we can't get it back.  So make sure that you are spending your time on something that will bear good fruit in your lives. Take responsibility for how you are spending your time.  What you do is your choice, and when you control the fundamental aspects of your life, you can have the time, headspace and creativity to chase greatness.

Below is passage from legendary coach John Wooden titled “A Parent Talks to a Child Before the First Game.” This is your first game, my child. I hope you win.  I hope you win for your sake, not mine.  Because winning’s nice.  It’s a good feeling. Like the whole world is yours.  But, it passes, this feeling.  And what lasts is what you’ve learned. And what you learn about is life. That’s what sports is all about. Life. The whole thing is played but in an afternoon. The happiness of life.  The miseries.  The joys.  The heartbreaks. There’s no telling what’ll turn up. There’s no telling whether they’ll toss you out in the first five minutes or whether you’ll stay for the long haul. There’s no telling how you’ll do. You might be a hero or you might be absolutely nothing.  There’s just no telling. Too much depends on chance. On how the ball bounces. I’m not talking about the game, my child. I...

All credit of this article goes to  Pat Williams  and his book,  Coach Wooden .   He breaks down Coach Wooden’s seven-point creed that was given to him by his father when he graduated from elementary school.  Many attribute a large part of his success to this creed and his ability to live it out daily. The 4th creed is ‘Make Friendship a Fine Art.’  Below are quotes and passages from that 3 rd creed. - You can read about the 1 st creed, 'be true to yourself,'  here . - You can read about the 2 nd creed, ‘help others,’ here . - You can read about 3rd creed, 'Drink deeply from here .  Someone is not a good friend because he or she does good things for you all the time.  It’s friendship when you do good things for each other.  It’s showing concern and consideration … The first and most important step in friendship is being a friend. - John Wooden Friendship is like a good marriage – it’s based on common concern....

All credit of this article goes to  Pat Williams  and his book,  Coach Wooden .   He breaks down Coach Wooden’s seven-point creed that was given to him by his father when he graduated from elementary school.  Many attribute a large part of his success to this creed and his ability to live it out daily. The 3 rd creed is ‘Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.’  Below are quotes and passages from that 3 rd creed. - You can read about the 1 st creed, 'be true to yourself,'  here . - You can read about the 2 nd creed, ‘help others,’ here . Coach observed, “Poetry, biographies, and all the other great books will greatly enrich your life.  There are so many that are so good, and they will all be available to you.  The poetry Dad read to us when we were kids instilled a love of reading … Drink deeply from those great books of your own choosing and you will enrich yourself.” - Coach John Wooden The highes...

All credit of this article goes to  Pat Williams  and his book,  Coach Wooden .   He breaks down Coach Wooden’s seven-point creed that was given to him by his father when he graduated from elementary school.  Many attribute a large part of his success to this creed and his ability to live it out daily. The  2 nd  creed is ‘Help Other.’  Below are quotes and passages from that 2 nd chapter. - You can read about the 1st creed, 'be true to yourself,' here . One, make sure you always have better players than the team you play.  Two, make sure that your players put the team above themselves.  Three – and this is a very important point – always practice simplicity with constant repetition, and you will be successful.’ - Advice given to coach Dale Brown from Coach John Wooden If one cannot be used, it only means that one is useless.’ - Maya Angelou ‘Coach Wooden believes he was born to influence and serve young people....

All credit of this article goes to Pat Williams and his book, Coach Wooden .  He breaks down Coach Wooden’s seven-point creed that was given to him by his father when he graduated from elementary school.  Many attribute a large part of his success to this creed and his ability to live it out daily. The first creed is ‘Be True To Yourself.’  Below is quotes and passages from that first chapter. Key Points - Be the person you were born to be. - Be true to your highest values and principles, and you will never be false to anyone. - The secret to the magnetism of John Wooden’s personality is that he is always at peace with himself. Once when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known at the time as Lew Alcindor, sat at a restaurant with Coach Wooden heard someone a few tables away whisper loudly, “Look at that black freak!” Coach Wooden saw that his star player was wounded to tears by the comment.  “Lewis,” he said, “people hate what they don’t know – and what they...