Can't Be Afraid All Your Life

“You can’t be afraid all your life”, my old foreman told me that once a long time ago when I was just starting out at the power company. He told me two other things I never will forget: “What comes around, goes around.” And “ what are they gonna do, take away my birthday?” Words of wisdom I was lucky enough to hear. What I learned at the company influenced a lot of the way I look at coaching. Sometimes you got to give your players a chance to do great things. Some players will surprise you at what they will do in a critical situation during a game. Sometimes you don’t put the stars out there. You put the kids in who really want to play. “You can’t be afraid all your life.” You give your best as a coach to your players, then hopefully they will give you their best” If you don’t, they won’t be out there giving their best. “What comes around, goes around” If you do what is right as a coach and remember that your job is more to make a team and make good players, rather than to just pick a team, and just pick good players, then you’re doing all right. You need to focus on coaching and teaching the game, not on building a trophy collection. Players are what matters, not plastic or tin. At the pro, college and varsity high school level the competition becomes more serious and only the top players may see the most action, but for minor and club teams you have a chance to develop each player willing to work at improving their skills. It’s my way of looking at things. Some people may not agree and may not like it. “What are they gonna do, take away my birthday”