Losing is easy. Winning is hard. Life is a competitive game. If you win, someone else loses. If you get accepted into Law School, someone else doesn’t. Someone else doesn’t if you get the part in the school play. And this will happen for your entire life. So just accept it.
Coach Coale strongly suggested surrounding yourself with the right people when building a championship program. In athletics, this is your staff and your players. With your coaching and support staff Coale says,
You have got to have people on your staff who believe in the way you see the game.
They believe in character, competence, and balance. And you must be aligned. It is not just a collection of people.
Coale then says, “You must re-recruit the current players. Often, coaches begin looking to replace what is already in place. Let me get my players. Then we will start to win. Every elite coach I have spoken with says this is not how to build a program. Adopt the current players and begin to develop your team. If they fall outside the type of player you want, we can move on from them. Every program is not for everyone.
Coale had several things in mind when recruiting the type of player that fit her system. Early in her head coaching career, she described herself as passionate and fiery—players who were not in step with being both did not fit. But Coach wanted to recruit players who loved playing, practicing, lifting, and traveling and a group that loved each other. Joy and confidence were two words she repeatedly mentioned during our talk. Collect these types, and you can win championships.
One thing Coach Coale said that summed up her development was she began to look at her team not as players but as people. People, not players. And once you assembled the right people, staff, and players, championship opportunities were real.
So, do you want to win? Of course, you do. Who doesn’t? Remember, life is a competitive game. Therefore, get the right fit, the right people. Get them all aligned—a shared vision. Then every day, in every way, we get better and better. That’s the process. That is a championship program.
LG!