What Makes a Great Coach

By Justin Davie Wapsie Valley High School Track & Field & Cross Country Coach

What makes a great coach? The reality is when we judge coaches, we always come back to wins and success. To be fair, it’s the only tangible way to compare coaches when evaluating for a Hall of Fame, awards, and honors. Even Coach of the Year awards are usually rubber-stamped for the state champion coach, whether they did the best coaching job or not.

One thing I have learned in 20-plus years of coaching is that winning and success have many variables out of our control. Strength of schedule, injuries, classification, administrative support, your post-season draw, quality of your staff, parents getting in kids' heads, teenagers being inconsistent teenagers, parent/athlete buy-in, and many, many more things play a large role in success. Let's be honest, having talent is a common denominator good and great teams have. TALENT MATTERS!

So does this mean coaches have no control over winning and should make it about cupcakes, and rainbows, and throw competitiveness out the window? Absolutely NOT! The sign of a great coach is their ability to take their teams and athletes to their full potential. Lots of great coaching happens from state champions to winless teams and everywhere in between, and we miss it all the time.

A number of years ago our boys' track team sent our fewest events to state (3) and had one of our lower team finishes at districts (4th). I felt like a failure as a coach. Another coach called me over the weekend and congratulated me on our district performance and told me our boys killed it. My response: “What on earth are you talking about? We sucked!” 

He acknowledged my disappointment but reminded me we lacked distance runners, had below-average sprinters, and some average hurdlers and throwers. He reminded me the kids crushed their season PRs, competed their butts off for being a young team, and got 4th when we had no business getting 4th. I was looking strictly at the result compared to previous years and previous teams. It was the gut punch I needed. I was upset over something that wasn’t attainable when I should have been beaming with pride over our performance. What more could I ever ask for than their best which is what we got! I was blind to the fact we exceeded any realistic expectations for that team in that season. 

I want to win. I’m competitive, and I don’t like losing. I’m not saying a coach should ever think differently. Over the years though, I have learned to balance that with controlling what I can control and pushing my team to reach their full potential. If I focus on this, I have done my job as a coach, and there should be joy in that. If you see a coach guiding their teams to reach their potential TELL THEM. They need to hear it! Check out the next newsletter with tips to help athletes and teams reach their full potential.