Bellarmine played a team stacked with incredible talent--a team that ought to have stomped all over us...only that's exactly what they thought they would do. What is it to approach a situation that in every action omits the possibility of 'what if'.... Not the prediction and compensation of 'what ifs' explicitly, but just the awareness of those variables.
We held Oak Grove to 6 points in the first quarter...a situation they had never faced. A coach that was absolutely flipping out on his players--a coach shouting (with his behavior), "... you are failing ... you are nothing ... you are losers ...." And then, perhaps far worse, the quiet scorn.
We exchanged observations. He should put his 2nd, 3rd string in. He needs to calm it down. They are running into a wall of something new--different...no...his team is just facing the unexpected--that which was not predicted.
A coach, a mentor, a teacher should first and foremost educate and in a very close second--protect. That sense of speaking to some others mind, being, consciousness... or in the case of teenagers, "I'm with you ... right here ... and I am staying here through all of it." This is crucial for coaches to exude. Watching this game, the coach psychologically collapsed. First giving up on himself which resulted in transferring that self-loathing to his team. Not conscious...but ugly, ugly, ugly.
If you are not able to educate...then you protect...if you are not able to protect--you educate. It's very simple. Those concepts go hand in hand. The other piece of this is grounding. The circumstances of this game had components that excite the senses further--the SJSU gym, the crowds, the title should one win. A coach who is acutely aware of how those variables can become a lethal poison will first and foremost ground his team. "We may be better than them--but this isn't our house--don't underestimate how much one's heart plays a role in competing for a title--the music in the gym may sound like a requiem." Did the coach attune himself to this? Did he allow the possibility? Or did he take it for granted? Unknown. But the result screams out that it wasn't even a consideration.
What does that say--that dropping of the full context? That lack of protecting and an unwillingness to adjust and educate? What does it say about the leader? Oak Grove lost on coaching...took so much for granted...and he didn't appear at any point to acknowledge some depth in himself--some confidence that he could in fact come out victorious. You can see that in someones face, in their reaction or lack of. You can see it how they process information, the questions they do or do not ask. You the observer can see it so clearly...only it's the other who needs to see it. Again, the most powerful (and useful) weapon in the world is the mirror.
Where is the more valuable lesson? As a coach, as a person, there are those "a-ha" moments when everything gels--when the execution is phenomenal. You build those moments into a strategy, develop it and continue to expand it. But at a foundational level, before any "a-ha", success is expected. Subsumed in that expectation, is the full awareness of all the things that will help and hurt you. I am not shocked by wins...this is what one has been striving toward. Every act, every thought is directed toward achieving the goal. With each step are small wins and losses, but the expectation is still--always--that one achieves the goal. Analyzing failures lends itself to greater success (all in perspective and how willing one is to take a look at the facts). A simple idea that most take very much for granted. That concretely is the philosophical difference, i.e., do you know how you arrived at your conclusions or do you collapse when you are challenged? Have you actually reasoned through to your arrival point--or have you banked on one thing--borrowed, replicated, taken the intellectual shortcuts...and when you are faced with an argument you find you have no answer? The Oak Grove coach didn't have an answer. A clear illustration of one dimensional thinking and conscious blindness.
He took a great deal for granted--the first fundamental error? Secondarily, a lack of being fully educated himself? And then, perhaps the most profound error, not protecting his team ... and ultimately himself? What does that say about a coach? Many things. For this particular event--a huge disappointment. In the scheme of life, quite simply, he is human. The important question is then, "Did you learn from it? What will you do differently next time?"
To quote a friend, "A bank account filled with assumptions and obviously we're not talking about a gold standard as backing." Sums up the performance yesterday.