Here is a question I definitely have no answer for.  After 50 years of coaching I want to discover this;  œHow much winning is enough?  It is such a puzzle that I have heard veteran coaches say, œDont win too much.  I see, so does that mean be a little bit above average or win more that you lose?  Dont have people expect too much.  Not the answer I am looking for.

That sounds like mediocrity to me.  It is risky business to stick your head our of the crowd.  Ask the great leaders of our time.  Oh, I forgot.  They all got assassinated.  The Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and all those I have left out.  Nelson Mandela wasnt assassinated.  They just put him in prison for a hundred years.

What has Urban Meyer, the highly successful Univ. of Florida football coach think he needs to retire at the peak of his career?  What has coaches retire before they are really want to?  I have some ideas about this but no answers.  Lets see what you think.

Could it be that coaches have forgotten what their number one, above anything else, job is?  Or, do you think that they have never had the tools to get their primary job done and have had only the œby the seat of their pants method with which to learn.  Also, there is an assumption that because a person played a sport, they know how to coach it.  I assure you they do not.

Okay, okay.  So, you have figured out the Head Coachs No. 1 job, or not?  If you are thinking winning seasons or championships your thinking is conventional.  Of course you want those things.  The ESPN world we live in trained you from childhood to think that.

You are always going to compete to win.  That is the purpose for having a competition.  But, is that all there is?  There are 50 states in the Union and only a handful of high school teams in each state will win the ultimate championship available.  Are the hundreds of team who didnt win, failures?  The same thing with NCAA championships or conference championships, etc.  What is enough?

Sorry, I digress.  The No. 1 job, the primary product of any athletic  program are the athletes who perform in it.  What kind of citizens are produced?  What are their values.  What part of their successes down the road would they attribute to their athletic experience?

Successful business men who have a strong athletic background, talk all the time about how much they use what they learned from their athletic experience.  What if coaches REALLY delivered on their primary responsibility?

Young people are naturally focused on themselves.  What if they were really getting what they needed?  What is they could learn to work with other at an amazing level when they lose as well as when they win?

Figuring out who you are in the competition, when the heat is on, when adversity is sitting on your chest is an amazing gift.  The win is determined after the competition is over.  They have already unwrapped the gift.

One last thought”Be a better human being.  Honor 911 with the dignity all participants deserve.

Look for Coach Todd latest book, œThe Art of Losing at your on-line bookstores this fall.  You can find that information at www.toddcoaching.com