Who is your inspiration to try that much harder?

There may come a time in your career that your "Philosophy" will be asked for, most often during the interview process. The following has worked for me. Of course, like a good coach, I got it from another coach, years ago, and I do not remember who - just like you will not remember where you got it. I hope it helps:

Philosophy

The purpose of secondary education is to prepare students to assume a role in the community at large which will promote the general good of the community while allowing the student to pursue the realization of individual career goals. I believe that true success in life is achieved in the pursuit of a worthy ideal that exists for the benefit of others and not at their expense.

The high school football program offers a unique opportunity for the instruction and implementation of this philosophy. Team members, each in pursuit of his individual player goals, are molded into a team that pursues a higher team goal that can only be accomplished through cooperative efforts. No one individual player or coach wins a football game. Success is accomplished through the combined efforts of the coaching staff, the players, the student body, and the community. Just as the altruistic goals of society cannot be realized by individuals, neither can team goals be achieved by individual players.

The football program exists first of all for the players themselves. The program allows athletes to express themselves in a unique way not inherent in the traditional classroom. If it were not for them, there would be no program. The successful coach understands that he is directly dependent upon the players, assistant coaches, school and community. Coaching is the process of guiding players and staff through an instructional program that will develop individual and team talents to an extent that will allow them to compete successfully on the playing field.

This instruction must begin with the fundamentals of the game. It is only through a master of the basic fundamental aspects of the game that players develop the skills necessary to perform at ever higher levels of achievement. A brief summary of said fundamentals would include: strength training, conditioning, stance, start, blocking tackling, offensive assignments, and defensive keys.

While the football program does exist for the players, it does allow us, as educators, an opportunity to provide much needed instruction in the affective domain of educational philosophy. The role of athletics in the educational setting is to broaden and reinforce the overall instructional goals of the school district. It allows us to bridge the gap between the academic atmosphere of the classroom and true-to-life situations of the real world. The future economic, social, and political lives facing high school students today are run by committee. The football team is a committee in the pursuit of a goal that can only be achieved through the dedication, efforts, and commitment of its members.

A successful sports program at the professional or collegiate level translates into a positive image for the city or university that the program represents. Be it right or wrong, this is more often than not true at the secondary level as well. A gathering of the community’s citizens to view the weekly football game is the largest audience the school regularly has to showcase parts of its overall educational program. The football team, the band, the cheerleaders, student body, parents, patrons and fans gather to participate in the educational process. Successful programs require participation, involvement, and support from diverse segments of the general community. The successful coach is one who has the ability to coordinate the efforts of various professional and community organizations in a positive way. It becomes a mutually reinforcing and rewarding situation.