Hey Coach, Are You a Positive Role Model?

Nobody is perfect. We all slip up as coaches and athletes. We say something we don’t mean, that crosses a line, or we allow our demons to sneak through in front of others.

Coaches and athletes are not saints, that’s for sure. I don’t think anyone expects them to be; but a coach, should be a positive role model.

It’s funny how starting a sports website has started to give me inside information I sometimes don’t want. I’ve been heavily involved in our local sporting community for years, but now, when, or if there is dirt to be had, or if someone is angry, it ends up in my inbox. That’s perfectly fine, in fact, I enjoy it. It keeps me thinking, and as a coach myself, assessing what is right or wrong.

You’ve likely read from me before that I don’t like swearing in sports. As a coach, particularly with youth, I don’t think it’s appropriate. Have I slipped before? You bet, but I don’t curse everytime I enter a dressing room, or when I’m instructing at practice, because I believe it takes away from my respectability, and sends the message that athletes and coaches are supposed to be vile people simply because of the sport they’re in.

But I hear it all the time. Coaches who throw around the F-word like it’s a secret play, or a skill players should learn.

Then there was the coach I saw standing out with his players while they warmed up, and two young (I’ll guess under 10-years-old) helpers at his side, with a spitter in his hand. You could see the chewing tobacco oozing out of his mouth, and you could see the young athletes looking up to this coach, soaking in his every move.

Or the email I received about a coaching staff that likes to rush out of the arena after a game, and sometimes between periods, to smoke a joint, only to return to speak to their athletes minutes later, undoubtedly smelling of marijuana, undoubtedly sending a clear message to the youth that surround them, and look up to them for guidance.

Coaches are in positions of power, and that position needs to be respected. They are looked up to, and mimicked by young athletes. What message do you want to send? Is it one of profanity, drug use, and poor health? Have you ever seen an athlete heralded positively for these attributes? Are these transferrable skills that will lead them to success in the working world?

It’s funny what some people find acceptable, and how in tune they are with the influence their actions can have on others. I recently read an article about New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. In the article, Sanchez is sipping a cup of coffee at a morning practice, when he spots some high school kids peeping in on the workout. Sanchez immediately pitched the cup of coffee because he was afraid that if the young teens saw him, a person they looked up to, drinking coffee, that they would feel they “had to drink coffee.”

I’ve never thought about drinking a cup of coffee, and it makes me wonder what things I don’t think are important, but can still have an influence on people, particularly on the people I coach.

On my team’s, I typically tell my athletes that I want them to be good people first, and good athletes second. To achieve that standard to the fullest, I have to be their example.

I know I’ll never be a perfect role model, but I can still be a positive one. Tony Dungy, a legendary NFL coach, believed in hiring coaches who would be leaders, behaved ethically, were teachers, and would lead by example. In essence, that’s what a coach is, or at least should be.

So what are you teaching? Where are you leading your athletes? And what example are you giving them? Hey coach, are you a positive role model?

Let the games begin.