Sports news outlets are reporting that Tommy Bowden, head coach of Clemson, has stepped down.
A blogger I read asked, “Can Christian Coaches Cut It?”
I immediately thought of my dad. A coach who followed Christ and definitely cut it.
I wrote these thoughts on the blog:
My father finished his junior college basketball coaching career with a .750+ winning average. He was a generous man to his players in a world where scholarship dollars aren’t available. As I watched him, I observed something very powerful. Players perform out of fear or out of vision. The players under my dad knew what was at stake and worked hard. He had an uncanny way of motivating them to see the big picture and perform.
Other coaches seem to motivate out of fear. They get players to perform because something bad will happen if they don’t. They may work hard on the field or court, but there won’t be much of a team.
I believe a coach who follows Christ and chooses to cast a compelling vision for his/her team can be a champion.
There is so much more to coaching and winning NCAA football games than this simple equation. Recruiting. Good assistant coaches. Injuries. Scouting reports (or lack thereof). Sports medicine. The list goes on and on. Mark Richt said that being a coach of an NCAA team may be more like being a CEO than a coach.
I bet Bowden gets a job as a coordinator somewhere and another team grows off the charts. Perhaps he’s a better coach than he is CEO.
Dad died in 2003. I’ve been missing him a lot. The Dodgers, his favorite baseball team, are struggling. The Red Sox, by whom he was drafted in 1948, are facing elimination, too. One of the great things about my dad that I miss is that he “coached” me, too. He applied a lot of the lessons he learned over 40 years on the field/court to how he motivated me. And how he kicked my butt.
I hope I can pull on some of those lessons in the coming days.
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