The Reason We Coach

The Reason We Coach

(Jamie’s Story)

Coaching is a great profession. There are a lot of reasons for someone to want to pursue a career in teaching and coaching. I truly feel that most of the time, people do it so that they can still be a part of competition, so that they can relive those feelings of when they were “in the fire” and were a part of something that was bigger than themselves. Contrary to what some people think, money is certainly not the reason. For the amount of time put in, coaches make very little on an hourly scale. The overwhelming reason that should drive coaches, and in most cases, does drive coaches, is the chance to be a part of kid’s lives; a chance to make a difference for a short time, and to feel that they can pass on guidance and direction to young men and women. And every once in a while, there comes along a kid that defies the odds, and for a brief moment, does things that make a coach thankful they are in the profession that they are in. This year was one of those times for me. The kid’s name is Jamie.

A little background on Jamie: first, he is not a great athlete. He came to us 4 years ago about 5 feet 2 inches tall, pudgy, and not very fast or aggressive. When he participated in his first max (weight lifting evaluation) he benched less than 100 pounds and squatted just a tad over 100 lbs. His 40 dash time was over 7 seconds, and we as coaches would not have given him a chance of ever stepping on the field for us. But he was there every day. He did all he could do, the best he could, and always had a great attitude about what he was doing. He was encouraging to those around him, and he listened to what his coaches were trying to teach him. He was a very good student in school, and he always did what was expected of him. For Jamie, being a part of the team was all well and good with him.

Time passed, and he got a little stronger. Now Jamie was not setting the world on fire, but he was still there every day, still doing what was asked of him, and I really believe he knew in his mind that if he kept on working that, eventually, the circumstances would be such that he might have a chance to get on the field in some capacity as a special teams player or in a “mop up” situation at the end of a game. During his freshmen and sophomore years, he got in just a little in the B-Team games, and some thought that would be about all he would ever play.

It was now the summer before his junior year, and there he was; still at summer workouts, still in the weight room, still doing all he could to try and make himself better, to give himself a chance to participate in a role for his team. You see, the team was what was important to him; he wanted our team to be successful, and if that was at his expense, then so be it. He even played in the B-Team games as a junior in order to get the extra work to maybe have a chance when he was a senior to play and contribute. He did well enough to be on our extra point team for the varsity on Friday night’s, and believed what the coaches said when they told the players that their role was important; we might have to kick a field goal or extra point to win a game. (As we had to do in the final 3 seconds to win our first game of the year at Alabama Christian after a 0-2 start to the year.) He got to play alittle in a couple more games against Bullock County and Elmore County, and then the year was over.

Off-season workouts started around mid- November, and as is our custom, we told the seniors that they all would have a chance to compete for a starting position. Jamie worked hard, and by the end of July 2009, Jamie had finally done all he could do to get himself physically ready to compete for playing time. He was now benching over 200 lbs. (not great in some people’s eyes, but along way from the 90 lbs. he started out at) and was squatting well over 300 lbs. His forty time came down to the high 5 second range (remember he started out over 7 seconds.) It was time to start fall practice. Jamie played a position on the offensive line that another senior (and another great kid, by the way) also played. For 2 weeks, they competed for the chance to start. Now if Jamie happened to win the job, the other kid had enough ability and experience to play another position for us. What our job as coaches is though, is to put our kids in the best position for our team to be successful, whether that be in a new position, or whether we use younger kids after giving our older kids a chance. After 2 weeks, it became clear. The other kid had won out.

I dreaded the next Monday when I would call Jamie in and tell him. You see, while the other kid would have probably been able to play another position for us, Jamie couldn’t. This was the only position he could play. I searched for words to be able to tell him. I called him in and started to explain to Jamie my reasoning for making the other kid the starter. Jamie listened carefully, and at the end of my explanation said: “Coach, I know Brady won the job. It will be best for our team. Thanks for giving me a chance.” Right then I was reminded of what a good person he was. He could have pouted, said that it wasn’t fair, that he wasn’t given a fair shot, etc. He could have given up, quit working at practice, or been a bad influence on the other players. But he didn’t. He kept showing up every day, kept going to practice, kept doing all he could. He went back to the extra point team and went back to scout team offense to help our first team defense get ready each week. He learned all his assignments each week, because he was the back-up behind Brady at guard. Each Friday night, right before we go on the field to play, the team gathers to say the Lord’s Prayer. Jamie led us each Friday night.

Our season ended at 4-6, a big disappointment to everyone, myself chief among them. But every season should not be measured in wins and losses. In each season, there are individual triumphs that go un-noticed; triumphs of the spirit and determination that carry on in life long after the score of an individual game is forgotten. In our seventh game of the year against Dale County, Brady suffered a severe concussion in the 4th quarter. It was the first of 3 straight region games that we had to win in order for us to make the playoffs. Lose 1 of the games, and we would be eliminated. As soon as Brady went down, (he was unconscious lying on the field) Jamie threw his helmet on and started to run on the field. One of our coaches, Ronnie Sansom, told him “Jamie, wait just a minute until they get Brady off the field.” (I’m not making fun of the situation; it was just funny at the time of how Jamie was doing exactly what we preach: always be ready at any moment. You may be one play away from having to play every down. You see some players take that as “coach talk”; Jamie knew it was the truth.) So we finished the game, scoring a touchdown on that drive late in the game to secure the win, and Jamie made a couple of blocks to help us move the ball. It was only about 3 minutes of clock time, but for Jamie is was 3 minutes he had worked 4 years for.

That weekend we met as coaches, and as usual, started talking about who would be in the “rotation” that week at the different positions. These were the kids who would get the majority of the repetitions with the first team that week. It came up in the coaches meeting to maybe move our center to guard and put our back-up center in, or move our tight end to tackle and move a tackle to guard. But we didn’t. Jamie would play guard and he would start. We were playing Abbeville that Friday night, the team that was leading our region. We would still be in the must win situation, but we felt Jamie would be okay.

And he was. There were times his man beat him, but for the most part, Jamie held his own. We didn’t win that game, but it certainly was not because Jamie was playing. We made some mistakes that hurt us, and Abbeville was a much more athletic team than we were.

The next week, Brady was cleared to try and play, and he wanted to since it was the last game the seniors would play at home in their careers. Brady started the game (it is sort of an unwritten rule with us that starters that are replaced because of injury don’t lose their starting position once they return) but Jamie played the rest of the game. He did fine, just like he did the week before and we won the game. The seniors stayed on the field a little while after the game, taking pictures and spending a last few minutes with their fellow teammates for the last time on their home field. And although they did not meet a lot of their goals, they did win the last game they would play at home. That was one of the things we had stressed all week at practice.

The next Monday, Brady came to me and told me that the headaches and symptoms of his concussion had not gone away. It was very hard for him because that Friday night we would be playing Andalusia. They are, or course, our biggest rivals, and all of the seniors wanted to go out with a win over them. So once again, Jamie would be the starter. I really believe he (as well as all our players) did all they could to win the game, but it was not to be. We ended up losing the game, even though our players showed a tremendous amount of heart in the 2nd half in coming back to make a really close game out of one that seemed to be over at halftime.

When a year is over, I go back over in my mind a lot of things that happened during the year. Some have to do with actual games, and some have to do with conversations or interactions that have occurred during the year. One such thing I went back to was a conversation I had with Jamie’s parents one day before the season had even started. They are really good people, and never once did they ever say anything to me about Jamie’s playing time or anything like that. They only thing that ever came close to that was a time Jamie’s dad had said, “I just hope that Jamie will work hard enough to maybe one day get in there and do something.” (That is not a direct quote, but close enough.) I told them both, “Jamie is doing all he can do. He is a fine young man, and the things he is going through will make him a better person in the long run. He will be successful in whatever he does because of the character he has. You will not have to worry about him in the future, because he has already achieved more than a lot of people ever thought he would.” They said they knew that and that they were very proud of him, whether he ever played or not. It turned out that Jamie was able to give them a little bit more to be proud of.

Four years had come down to 3 games and 3 minutes. Jamie was ready when we needed him. He did all he could, the best he could. That is all we can ask for. I’m very proud of him.

As sure as I am of the pride Jamie’s parents feel when they think of him, I’m just as sure of the pride other parents feel about their kids. I try and take something from each year that a kid has done or overcome and lock it away in my mind, to draw back on later. The courage Lance Robbins showed this year coming back from his severe knee injury. A lot of people don’t know, because Lance didn’t carry on, that he played a lot of the year in pain. There were times I would go up to him when it would be just me and him, and ask him if his knee was bothering him. He would say something like, “not too bad”, but I knew he was hurting.

The night we lost to Pike County in overtime, I can still see Richard Davis standing by himself, a few feet away from the locker room door. (We were standing outside, waiting for someone to come and unlock it.) I walked over to him and put my arms around him. He was physically and mentally spent because of the game. A lot of people don’t know it, but Richard got hurt the first time he ran the ball that night. He had a very deep bruise in his lower back, right above his hip that took about 2 weeks to heal. But you would not have known it, because he was a warrior, and was going to do whatever it took to give his team a chance. He cried that night and all I could do was tell him how proud I was of him for the way he played.

Tyler Harrison, Drew Wilson, Quadir Kincaid, Cantrell Tyson, Suave Bradley, Al McGraw, Dylan Cook, Drew Smith, Drew Bowers, Erin Meade: all seniors and all with stories about how they did something at some time that made them grow up just a little, or push themselves just a little farther than they thought they could go. We as coaches sometimes get told how much of an influence we have on players. The truth is those kids inspire us a lot more than we ever do them.

And that is why we coach.