Coaching Rewards

Coaching is an interesting position and career choice.  When you coach younger athletes you get a lot of feedback and rewards as you see them develop and improve. Coaching at a higher level is sometimes a tougher situation.  A coach will pour all their passion and energy into the team for the hope of developing players to reach the next level, or become great members of society.  Of course coaches also do it for the rush you feel when you win. Unless you're Russ Rose of Penn State or Doug Reimer of UBC, the last few years have ended on a loss.  Only one team gets to win it all, so the rest are battling to improve with the hope of being the one to up end their run of championships. So for elite coaches their personal rewards must be more than wins or they will go crazy.

One year I was coaching provincial team, we had a good summer but as the head coach sometimes you had to push the athletes for them to achieve their levels. At the end of the summer when we arrived back at the airport I noticed that some of the players were giving the assistant coaches some fun gag gifts. It bothered me that they had a relationship with the players that they would give them gifts.  In hind sight, we had lost a match  I felt we could’ve won so it was probably a good thing  that I didn't get anything. At the time though I was pretty down.  It wasn't until a few years later when I was invited to one of the players weddings that  I realized that it wasn't about the gift, it was about the level of respect the athletes had for me.  Being invited to the wedding was the best gift I could ever get.  The athlete still was in contact with me and wanted me to be there on their special day. She said it was important for her that I was there.

So coaching rewards often come later. Coach Wooden was once asked if he felt that a certain team was the best he had ever coached.  His answer was “Ask me in ten years.  Then we will know how these young men turned out.”

This past weekend I was on a recruiting trip to Alberta to watch some of their top teams compete and was able to connect with a bunch of Alumni.  If you Consider that our team is only in our 7^th year of existence we have quite a lot of Bobcat women alumni that are coaching volleyball.  I think this is one of the biggest type of reward for any coach.  It is a big pat on the back for our coaching staff and the other coaches who helped build the alumni’s love of volleyball. In order for a player to reach the university level they had to have some quality people invest in their lives as well so we can't take all the credit.

The two most obvious alumni are Becky Young and Ashley Creighton, as they are assistant coaching with us at BU.  Sara Grona is coming on to help the university team this week during our potential strike.  Erin Henning is the head coach of Grande Prairie Comp High School and assistant coaching at Grande Prairie College in the ACAC.  Nicole Ban, who has just returned from playing pro in Norway is assistant coaching at Grant MacEwan University in the ACAC.  Joely Hanke is head coach of Ponoka Comp High School in central Alberta, Ashley Melnyk is head coach of Vegreville Comp High School in central Alberta. Nicole Clemons is assistant coaching at Neelin High School.  Kelly DeRoo is coaching at Vincent Massey in Brandon.

When I realized how many former athletes are still involved in the sport I was a bit overwhelmed.  I think this is the one biggest thank you any coach can get. I am still in contact with all of these former players and help them out when I can, and they help us out when they can.  They are our biggest supporters and recruiters, without them our jobs would be a lot tougher. 

When I was interviewed for this position I was asked "what do you hope to achieve?" My answer was a national championship and a team full of coaches. It looks like I have accomplished some of that... now that darn national championship