Coach 360

Servant leadership means serving first. A servant leader understands that he or she must serve others to find success in life. A servant leader also becomes closer to his or her team through their service to their teammates and the wider community. When a team serves together, it brings them closer together. In this episode, Coach Tony Benedetto gives us advice for how coaches can build servant le...

Sports teach us many lessons that will be useful for the rest of our lives. We are trying to reach students through athletics to teach them the skills and values that will help them find success beyond the game. Sports people have a lot of wisdom to share from their time on the field or court. So in this episode, we are speaking with Jeff Traylor, Head Football Coach at the University of Texas at...

Life is not all about sports, but sports is all about life. The things that our student-athletes learn in practice and during games will help them well beyond the field, so long as we are intentional about passing on the most important lessons. For example, one of the core values we can teach our athletes is that regardless of what life throws at us or how many setbacks we encounter, it is always...

We have an influence on our student-athletes' lives. Our words to them matter, so we have to be careful what we say to these young people. They are dealing with middle and high school, the two places where everyone's self-identity is tested over and over again. Our athletes will become what they think they are, so we have to be sure that our words convey their worth, both as members of the team an...

There are a lot of reasons for finishing strong, such as showing your integrity by finishing through instead of at the line and pushing yourself to your limits so you can reach your goals. But perhaps one of the most important reasons to finish strong is this: Your finish line today will be your starting line tomorrow. In this episode, Mackey explains why and how to finish strong in everything tha...

Most young people look at respect as something you earn, not something that is given to you. But this thinking is completely backward. We should respect others because of who WE are, not who they are. Respect is at the core of creating a team and school culture where it's not only okay, but expected that student-athletes will stand up and say "this is not right" with regards to sexual harassment. ...

Ownership is one of the keys to making sure our athletes stay in the game. In other words, if we want to keep them from quitting, and if we want them to play to their highest level, we've got to help them feel that they have a stake in our athletic program. When our athletes have ownership, they have passion, and with that passion, they will find success in sports and in life. In this episode, Coa...

Your health limits how far you can go in life. When you're in poor health, it limits what you can do and the impact that you can have on others. That's not to say that illness or obesity will always prevent people from reaching their dreams or influencing their community. But it is true that the healthier you are, the further and faster you can go. Health isn't about just one thing, but to get hea...

Anger is a powerful emotion. It can destroy so quickly and so completely. And sometimes, what it destroys cannot be rebuilt. Anger can destroy relationships and entire lives. But the thing is, anger is also useful if it's used in the right way. When the destructive nature of anger is kept in check, it can be used for positive change. Angry indignation at the suffering or unfair treatment of others...

The team belongs to the athletes as much as it does to the coaches, and the team is bigger than athletes or coaches. Everyone is working together in service of the team. And if there are people who aren't working in service to the team, people who aren't fulfilling their roles, then the team breaks down. But if everyone has a We over Me mentality, there's nothing the team cannot accomplish. In thi...

The only way to finish strong is to give your best to the cause or goal straight through (not to) the finish line. There will be real consequences for our world if this generation of coaches fails to finish strong. You are that generation, and you have a great responsibility to your athletes, your family, and future generations to prepare the leaders in your locker rooms for the world they will fa...

Having a 5-star talent is not as important as having a 5-star character. Talent cannot take you very far without a solid foundation of good character. Talent can also only take you as far as your character will allow. So in that sense, character is both a foundation and ceiling. This is just one of the things that makes character so important in our lives. In this episode, Mackey breaks down why c...

Culture is a mindset. When your mindset is that your team's culture matters and the values you talk about settle into your daily mindset as guiding principles, that mindset, that culture, becomes evident to your athletes so that they can share in it. When athletes see that the athletic program is important to their coaches, the program will become important to them, too. In this episode, Coach Bil...

Systemic racism is a topic too big for any one person to tackle. That's why a movement grew on social networking sites and turned into protests in the streets. The movement is people, black and white and everything in between, coming together to say "This is wrong and I will not remain silent." In this episode, Mackey addresses current events related to systemic racism and his perspective on why w...

Thomas Edison is credited with saying some version of the quote: "Opportunity is missed my most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work." In this episode, Mackey encourages us to look past the overalls to the opportunity underneath. Yes, there will be hard work involved. But if we do today's work today, we will reap the benefits of growth tomorrow. Key Takeaways: -If we w...

Our athletic programs aren't just here to let kids run around with a ball. The program exists to make our student-athletes better, to help them become the men and women who will lead our society in the future. That's why we can't just talk about our values and personal codes, we have to actually live it out so our athletes can see it clearly. In this episode, Coach Chris Fisher breaks down the phr...

We tend to think that if we practice long enough, hard enough, the thing we're doing will be easy. But the truth is, things don't get easier, we just get stronger. And the only way to get stronger is to fail. That's right. It is not our successes that help us improve so that the hard things seem easy, it is our failures that propel us to that place. In this episode, Mackey breaks down why the most...

Often we view complaints as negatives. After all, complaints tell us what is wrong with the world, and who wants to be reminded of that? But this thinking is backwards. Complaints don't just tell us what's wrong. Complaints offer an invitation to make wrong things right. In this episode, Mackey reminds us that life is based on how we see things and that we can choose to see complaints as invitatio...

Discipline and accountability go hand in hand. We must hold our athletes accountable for their actions both when they are with us and when they are away. Our athletes represent our athletic program, which is essentially our brand. They are representing us when they are in other teachers' classes and when they are out with their friends. We hold them accountable for their behavior regardless of whe...

We all need a little encouragement from time to time--encouragement to look out for our FAMILY, encouragement to help us through tough situations, and encouragement to remind us of what's most important in life. In this episode, Mackey serves up these three types of encouragement. He reminds us that every member of your family (whether that's blood relatives or sports fam) is important to making t...

Adversity reveals a lot about us. It reveals the level of our integrity, our humility, and our toughness. During times of adversity, business is not as usual. That's why we are called to show either the best of us or the worst of us, depending on if we default to serving others or serving ourselves. In this episode, Mackey discusses how adversity exposes our true character and how we can make time...

One of the greatest gifts we can give our athletes is helping them understand that they are playing for family. When they see their teammates as brothers and sisters, there is no limit to what they will do for each other. The greatest edge you can give your athletic program is a culture founded on family. In this episode, Coach Jeremy Reed discusses building a greater culture from the inside out....

We spend a lot of time thinking about being champions on the field, but what about being champions in the home? How do we become championship fathers? How do we teach the boys in our athletic programs and under our roofs to be championship fathers when they grow up?  In this episode, author, mentor, and friend, Carey Casey tells us that being a championship father starts with being present for you...

"Do what you can with all that you have wherever you are." Teddy Roosevelt Thinking about what you can't do or don't have is easy, but useless. Thinking about all the good you could do if you were in a different location is also useless. If you want to make a difference and have an impact, focus instead on what you CAN do with what you DO have, right where you are standing. Remember: Leaders alway...

Every person you meet is in one of three places: -Having a bad time -About to have a bad time -Recovering from a bad time It is guaranteed that you will have bad days and rough times. There may even be days when you struggle to get out of bed. Those rough times and the struggles you face can either anchor you down or be the catalyst that propels you forward. The choice is yours. Will you choose to...