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There is no I in team. There seems to be an abundant amount of pressure on high school coaches and expectations of presenting a winning team each year. My son came home from practice the other day and he was extremely frustrated because the coaching staff walked off the field at the end of practice, rather than conducting their normal routine of talking to the players, pumping them up for their next game and gathering in a huddle with chant. As the team approached their coaches in the locker room, looking on in disbelief and full of disappointment, the coaches proceeded to tell the team that negative feedback from the community, placing blame on the coaching staff for a losing team year after year, leaves the coaches to feel disrespected and not considered for the efforts they do put forth to create a ball team.

I view the coaching staffs' action as a reminder to the team of how many players react this way towards a coach they no longer want to play for. Players are notorious for giving up after committing their time to participate as a team player. Sometimes the best players walk away from a sport because of indifferent feelings towards a coach. This, too often, can leave a coach to only make the best with the players left to represent a team. At the end of the season, the community tends to forget how many players walked away from the team or perhaps that some players remained ineligible throughout the season. The coach continued on with the season, kept his commitment, but, only to be given the label as a coach who produces a losing team.

It takes the entire squad, not just the coach, to produce a strong team. The coach is one, the team is many and the plays that are taught, instructed and performed become the final product of the players. Sometimes the best players might be hurt or ineligible to play. This leaves the coach picking up slack by bringing forth players that normally wouldn't play these positions, perhaps maybe not even see any playing time at all. You can't blame the coach for efforts made, you can't blame the coaching staff for lack of talent or for ineligible players. The coach has made a commitment to lead the team and to put forth his or her time and effort into practicing and encouraging the team to make their best effort to shine as a winning team. The players who commit to participating must also make extreme efforts and make themselves available and be prepared to follow through with their commitment to the team.

The players can produce a winning team and should be able to make adjustments to a coaches instructions. A coach can act as a drill sergeant, run the best plays and build a winning team in hindsight, but, the end result is how the players put into action what they are taught and the commitment they show towards the team. It is the players that bring forth a winning team and being backed by the coach is the beginning step to producing anything. Players can give up more easily than a coach, yet, a coach must take the brunt of the negativity for the losing team. A coach can't make the team, he or she can't determine a player's mind and whether or not that player's mind is in the game, a coach can only make a team progress as far as the players are willing to progress themselves.

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