I…CAN Handle the Truth
After taking the season off from coaching football, I anxiously showed up to winter baseball workouts ready to roll. The reflections on relationships, especially with my son, afforded by a season-long retreat were rewarding, but the fall free-time lead to torturous amounts of boredom. I was a man without a team and a challenge. I was lost. I needed to be back on the field, even if it was the baseball field.
The week prior to workouts I attended a preseason meeting with our head baseball coach. In this meeting he gave me a book called Play Big by Dr. Tom Hanson. He wanted me to read the book to help me better understand and support his philosophy.
The book is set around a struggling player, desperately looking for a way out of a hitting slump. While the book hits a broad range of concepts that can enhance a player or coach’s mental approach to the game, a simple question had the greatest impact on me. Almost immediately the player is asked “why do you play the game?”
I turned this question around on myself? Why do I coach the game??
Why do I coach football? What an essential question. Many of the coaching interviews I sat through posed this same question. I had often been asked this question by reporters when I was a head football coach. Each time I came up with a cliché riddled response, aimed at satisfying the questioner enough to move to the next question.
But this time was different. This time I was asking myself. And this time I wanted the TRUTH.
Why DO I coach football?
I brainstormed and listed my initial thoughts.
-I do it for the kids (too broad…what does this even mean?)
-. I do it for myself (still too broad…what do I get from it?)
– I owe it to the game and my coaches (I truly believe without football I would have dropped out of high school)
-I like the game (I must confess, I am not a fan of the game of football when I am not directly involved, I watch some college football but virtually no NFL)
-The money (HA!…obviously this is not a major factor as a high school coach in most areas)
-I am a competitor (I like the challenge)
-It’s what I have always done (I hope it doesn’t boil down to this???)
-I like the camaraderie of the coaches and players (seems like a good reason)
-I ………………. (am I getting anywhere with this list????)
Well, it was a start, but I wasn’t convinced I had my answer. I had to dig deeper. I held circumstantial evidence. I needed a “smoking gun.” WHY DO I COACH FOOTBALL?!
Then it hit me. Ask for help! I immediately opened up a three-year email conversation that two of my former coaching colleagues and I have had since we parted ways from our last stop. Before I could hit send on the email asking them why they coach football, the light bulb went off in my head. I looked forward to hearing their answers, but the open communication among us guided my enlightenment.
Ultimately, there are three reasons I coach football.
1. Growth-Winston Churchill said “great victory comes through great adversity.” Football has built-in adversity. The challenges that come with this game allow me to set and reach for both personal and professional goals. Although there are times, I have come up short of these objectives, the long term experience has pushed me to greater heights.
2. Interaction-Working with others is a rewarding experience. The contrast in personalities and personal experiences of others provide life perspective. Seeing others’ successes and struggles, helps me make sense of my own.
3. Service-This game provides the opportunity to help others grow as well. John Wooden said “you should do something for someone else every day that you expect nothing in return for.” Coaching provides the opportunity to give to others daily in both small and large ways.
My friends have asked me if I regret or miss not coaching this past season. I do not regret it. The absence of football offered an opportunity to grow. However, I did miss it, every single day!
That’s the truth,
Coach Fields
About the Author:
Eddie Fields serves as an assistant athletic director, teacher and coach at Space Coast Jr./Sr. High School in Cocoa, FL. His coaching career has spanned 14 seasons at the high school and college levels in Indiana, North Carolina and Florida. Coach Fields can be reached by email at eddie_fields@yahoo.com