Observations from a day in the bleachers

I spent the day on Saturday sitting in the bleachers at a high school wrestling tournament. It was a nice change of scenery for me. I wear many different hats in the wrestling community and it's not too often that I can be a spectator without any other responsibilities. I sat in the front row and enjoyed myself.

The best part of the day was being reminded how great high school athletics are. It's remarkable watching teenage athletes come together for a common cause bigger than themselves. They compete for each other and to represent their community. It's grassroots and it's pure. Parents, grandparents and other fans show their unwavering support for their team by proudly displaying their colors no matter how well their team does. They love the athletes and the athletes love each other. You don't see this at the collegiate or professional level. That's what I liked most about Saturday.

I have also come to appreciate athletes doing the best that they know how. I missed out on this simple form of greatness when I was an athlete because I was most concerned about what I needed to do on those Saturdays. Now that I'm removed from life as an athlete, I can those who are champions because of effort alone. There were wrestler who took first place who didn't "leave it all" on the mat that day, but I witnessed others who placed 8th who did. That's pretty inspiring. It forced me to check my perspective on what's most important. Doing your best to be your best is pretty awe-inspiring.

Another important component to high school sports is younger spectators aspiring to greatness, too. They follow their high school team around the state and watch their tangible heroes. They emulate their every move and dream about the day they will sport that team singlet and have the opportunity to represent their community and feel their support. One of the biggest heroes of my lifetime was a River Falls High School wrestler. I wanted to be like him in every way and the best part was he knew my name and asked me how I was doing at his tournaments. High school athletes have a great privilege to build into the lives of young athletes and this hero did for me.

As I appreciated the great moments transpiring all around me, I couldn't avoid other disturbing occurrences. I saw a lot of "negative coaching," arguing, complaining, yelling and poor examples of sportsmanship from coaches. It was a wake-up call for me as a coach. I sat in those stands and constantly re-evaluated my purpose as a coach and the role I have in the lives of athletes. I asked myself if I was making these same mistakes as a coach. It appeared that many of them didn't enjoy what they were doing and didn't even like their athletes at times. It was scary. And sad.

I took these actions to heart and remembered that I coach to help these high school athletes become great men and women of character, integrity and morality. Am I demonstrating how to do this? Am I speaking greatness into my athletes are offering empty praises with no vision for their future. I noticed the "good job" coach got tuned out as much as the negative coach. What does good job mean? What's good about the job is what the athlete need to know. It's my responsibility to make sure they know my thought process. Empty praise is nice and preferred to negative coaching, but it's difficult to change lives this way.

My final two observations went hand-in-hand. I want to encourage coaches to choose their battles wisely. There's no need to argue every call made by an official. Athletes need to know that their coach has their back and will stand up for them, however officials shouldn't face the verbal abuse that coaches willingly lash out. It's glaringly evident that we need more quality officials. They're going to be difficult to find in the future if part of their responsibility is to endure these harsh words from coaches. Coaches need to exercise self-control and demonstrate to their athletes how to treat others by treating officials kindly.

This Saturday I will be traveling to another wrestling tournament. It's a team tournament so the dynamics will be different than the individual tournament I recently attended. I plan to write about my observations of the event even though I might be at the water park watching my family more than in the arena watching wrestling.