Today is Thursday, August 18th, 2005; Karen's Korner #614
The headlines in our yesterday's Des Moines Register sports section read "Goodchild Maker of Men". The story told about the Register's football coach of the year: Koy Goodchild who coaches the West Bend-Mallard team. He and his teams are the recipients of four state titles and have reached the state playoffs 16 times. In his career of 24 years, Goodchild has a 217 - 37 record.
Talent and the right size bodybuilds in a small school like this one, doesn't always show up each year. The story said the coach goes with a "work-with-what you have attitude". Goodchild was quoted as saying, "We're trying to make better players, instead of making better plays."
The team doesn't have the latest Nautilius machines nor the biggst coaching staff in the state of Iowa. He has a list of things he expects out of himself, his coaching squad, and the players annually: he writes weekly newsletters for his players filled with, among other things, inspirational quotes; players have to set individual goals for themselves, both on the field and in the classroom; players are to get themselves into good physical condiction.
One thing from the story on Goodchild's list of expectations that caught my eye: players are told to dish out ten compliments to teammates in every practice session. And those positive comments aren't left to chance either. Unknown to the team, coaches select one player each session and watch for his comments to his fellow team members. "If the athlete passes the test, the team hits the showers after the practice. If he fails, the team -- the whole team -- runs," the story said.
Goodchild said, "We're trying to feed them good things." The whole team only ran extra about two times last season!
Wow! Maybe among other things, those positive comments flying back and forth on the practice field translates into good words at Friday night's football games! And the players turn into a team..........a force that their opponents have a hard time reckoning with!!
I wonder how many "teams" I am one? My biological family; our neighborhood family; family of friends or volunteers with whom I serve; church family; Sunday School class? I think I have a lot of them. Today might be a good day for me to hand out a bunch of positive comments, so my differents "teams" can win more games.
And I don't think I should be shy about handing out good comments to God and to myself either. Because as the Coach of the West Bend-Mallard knows, if you want to have a winning team you have to "feed them good things".
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