Building Greatness-Leadership & Softball

My personal best leadership experience resulted from coaching the Southington Lighting U14 travel softball team.  The head coach of the team, a parent, brought me on as an assistant coach with the hope that I could help lead them to a championship.  I decided to help this team because they were based in my hometown.  I believed that because I played Division I softball and that is what most of them aspired to, I would be able to help them.  They had been together as a team for 6 years and had never won a tournament.

Even though I was the assistant coach, I basically controlled everything, from running practices to coaching first base.  I changed everything, from their pre-game routine to how they wore their uniforms.  However, because the team had been together for so long, my joining the coach staff came with some resistance.  It was important to keep my other coaches as involved as possible.  Although they knew it was time to “let go of their daughters,” they had to adjust to our new plan of attack.  At first, the players did not understand why I was making the changes I was making.  They were used to doing things a certain way but I knew in order to be successful, things had to change.  It was clear from the moment I started with the team that the majority of the players were complacent and did not believe they could win.  They were used to their fathers coaching them and getting away with everything. 

Challenging them was the first step.  Creating an environment that was positive, motivating, and challenging made them become very invested in what we were doing.  Everyday we did some sort of challenge that everyone had to succeed at before practice could end.   We implemented new techniques, set the bar higher, and ultimately doing all the “little things” paid off.  I was convinced they could be successful, but they all had to realize how important they were as individuals and as teammates.  We did some team building exercises so everyone could understand they had a role and all roles were equally important.  It was also important to gain the trust of my other coaches.  So, I constantly asked them for feedback and ideas.  If the girls were going to act as a cohesive unit, the coaches had to be united as well.  We used the phrases, “attention to detail,” “little things matter” and “on the hop.”  If we were going to lose a game, it was not going to be because we were out hustled or because we did not try.  Trying to get everyone on the same page was no easy feat.  Getting twelve fourteen-year-olds, one head coach, parents, and two assistant coaches functioning as one unit was something foreign to them.

Our ultimate goal was to win a tournament and as the girls said “get shinny trophies.”  Eventually, our efforts paid off.  We were in our last tournament in August 2010 and it was now or never for the season.  When we played our seeding games on Saturday, we looked composed and energetic.  We went into Sunday’s games as the number one seed.  In the championship game, we were down in the seventh and last inning by 2 runs.  Before they went to bat, I asked them how badly did they want to win.  “We want it bad coach,” they replied.  I said, “Well, in life, when you want something bad, you have to go and get it and give it 100%.  You don’t stop just because things are not going your way.”  We came back and we won.  As we celebrated our victory with big trophies and a pizza party, we talked about how we had grown so much more over the season.  As the players slowly left the celebration, a parent came up to me and said, “Coach, I’ve never seen my daughter so confident in her life.  Thank you.”  The end product was a win, but what they took from that season was so much more.

Although when I started with the team our immediate goal was to win a tournament, I knew I wanted more than that.  I wanted to create a winning culture and have 12 young women function as one by creating goals and working hard.  I wanted the girls to realize that with hard work, they could do anything and giving 100% was the only option.  I told them that just as they would not leave a question blank on their homework, they should not come to practice and check out after the first half.  Details, accountability, staying positive and hard work would lead to success.

If I wanted the girls to buy into my philosophy, I had to set a good example for them.  If they were responsible for getting to practice on time, I had to be early.  If they had to tuck in their shirts, so did I.  If they had to keep their cool, so did I.  We all had our roles and we were accountable to each other.  That is why we won.