I found this interesting article written by Ron Dickerson a few years ago. Ron was the former football coach at Temple and the uncle of incoming Pitt freshman Dorin Dickerson. He discusses the influences in his development as a coach and the impact of coaching. Not just that, he briefly touches on the other things that a head coach needs to be able to do.
After three years, I finally realized that marketing the team wasn’t my job. The building of the weight room wasn’t my job, and the academic counseling wasn’t my job. I was there to coach football and to build a winning program, but now my time was running out and we weren’t winning. It didn’t look like I was going to get an extension on my contract and I needed more time. The discouraging part was that the thing I did so well — coaching — wasn’t all that was needed to get the job done. The true test of leadership was the adaptability and flexibility I had to have, and the challenge was leaving my comfort zone — an area in which I had been operating effectively for years.
We knew we were doing things right because we had more players playing in the NFL than under any other former Temple head coach. We had such players as Stacy Mack, Houston Texans; Alshermond Singleton, Dallas Cowboys; Larry Chester, Miami Dolphins; Tre’ Johnson, Cleveland Browns; Lance Johnstone, Minnesota Vikings; Henry Burris, Chicago Bears; and Mathias Nkwenti, Pittsburgh Steelers.
But, if there’s one thing I have learned in more than 30 years of involvement in football and sports coaching it’s this: True success is based on more than wins. As I consider my definition of success, I remember that ultimately my success, and the success of the coaches with whom I worked was not solely judged on the number of wins we had, but on the quality of relationships we developed over the years with our athletes. I believe we never compromised our commitment to excellence. At all times, our focus was on doing things properly. Every play. Every practice. Every meeting. Every situation. Every TIME.
It’s worth reading the whole thing.
