This should sting a little ... Let's be part of the solution not part of the problem.
By Randy Traeger
Head Football Coach Mt Angel Oregon Kennedy High School
If you are a coach this might make you uncomfortable. I do not apologize for that discomfort.
So I am looking over the "Schedule of Speakers" for a popular football coaches clinic and I notice that of the 54 scheduled sessions, 51 of them are about "x's and o's" and only 3 of them are about developing the character and spirits of our players. Here we are, in the middle of a "youth character crisis" in our society, we coaches having the greatest redemptive moral reponsibility in the history of American culture, and we are talking about "boot packages off the counter trey".
We can do better than this.
As coaches and teachers, most of us have 50-100 attentive eyes staring back at us every day. We have a moral responsibility to use that attention for a greater good. To help these kids rebuild their moral characters. That should be job one, and our coaching clinics and professional development programs should reflect that.
We can either speak up about this, or like many take the easy way out. Rather than acting on our beliefs and convictions, we choose the action or non-action that will not "rock the boat" and cause the least amount of trouble. Rather than speaking up and intervening in a situation, we wash our hands of it and allow events to play themselves out without our own active input.
...
So I am looking over the "Schedule of Speakers" for a popular football coaches clinic and I notice that of the 54 scheduled sessions, 51 of them are about "x's and o's" and only 3 of them are about developing the character and spirits of our players. Here we are, in the middle of a "youth character crisis" in our society, we coaches having the greatest redemptive moral reponsibility in the history of American culture, and we are talking about "boot packages off the counter trey".
We can do better than this.
As coaches and teachers, most of us have 50-100 attentive eyes staring back at us every day. We have a moral responsibility to use that attention for a greater good. To help these kids rebuild their moral characters. That should be job one, and our coaching clinics and professional development programs should reflect that.
We can either speak up about this, or like many take the easy way out. Rather than acting on our beliefs and convictions, we choose the action or non-action that will not "rock the boat" and cause the least amount of trouble. Rather than speaking up and intervening in a situation, we wash our hands of it and allow events to play themselves out without our own active input.
...
Possible solutions:
1. February 5th Character Building Clinic in Cincinnati
2. Host a Character Building Clinic at your school and invite all area youth and middle school coaches.
3. Offer to speak at coaches clinics about character and/or virtue ...
Food for thought. God bless, Lou
More info on Feb 5th Clinic at the right side of page.
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