Pitchin' with Pritch: It’s not good money, but it’s a good investment

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I sometimes wonder if I knew back in the 60s what I know now from being a head coach for 29 years, an assistant for four years and an athletic director for 25 years or so, if I would do it all over again. There were a lot of things I had no clue about starting out. 

Some would say there were a lot of things I had no clue about when I retired and they would probably be correct. I knew one thing for sure, and that’s if I stayed in high school coaching, I wasn’t going to get rich. 

For the time most good coaches put in, the hourly rate of pay is far below minimum wage. I didn’t do it for the money. I did it because I had high school coaches I thought a lot of and liked how they worked with players and tried to make us better than when we started. 

When I got to college and played some football, I saw things that were positive and things that if I coached I would never want to treat people in the way things were done at that time. 

I am glad I chose to teach and coach. I took a couple of times in my career and recharged my batteries but I was always happy when I got back into coaching. 

I came across an article awhile back and I am using some of the material that I have adjusted a little to explain why I would do it all over again and what I was trying to accomplish during the years I coached.

1. We wanted our players to work hard enough to get tired enough to want to quit but wouldn’t.

2. We wanted our players to learn to be disciplined, focused and dedicated.

3. We wanted our players to work with others and to be good teammates, gracious in defeat and humble in success.

4. We wanted our players to be able to make personal and team goals and accomplish the goals.

5. We wanted our players to respect, not only themselves, but the officials, coaches and other players.

6. We wanted our players to learn that it takes hours and hours, and sometimes years and years of hard work and practice to create a champion and that success does not show up on your doorstep overnight.

7. We wanted our players to be proud of their small achievements, and to work towards long term goals.

8. We wanted our players to accomplish something big before they got a trophy.

9. There are many more things we wanted to accomplish, hopefully our approach will provide our players with the work ethic that will serve them well throughout their lives and give them the opportunity to bless the lives of others. 

I think the time put in trying to accomplish these things has been in the most part a pretty good investment.

 

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