Building a Successful Athletic Program - Part II

My column last week on building a successful athletic program garnered quite a bit of attention, and I gained some great feedback from readers. This week, I want go over some of those comments and re-emphasize some of the points I made while also trying to be a bit more clear in my explanations. I spoke mainly on select organizations and privates lessons. There are certainly other factors that come into play when building a successful program, but right now I feel that is the area we must focus on improving.

I am not promoting sports specialization

I saw an interesting post on Facebook after Clifton had lost their 3A state championship baseball game to Beckville in dramatic fashion over the weekend. All of the players on the Clifton starting lineup were multi-sport athletes. Simply put, at the small school level you must have all of your great athletes competing in as many sports as possible if you want to be successful.

For instance, if a few great athletes play volleyball, a couple others play basketball and then the others play softball, it’s going to be very difficult for a small-school program to be successful, in my opinion.

Whenever you do specialize, there is a chance that your son or daughter could experience the “burn-out” effect. Simply put, if you play a single sport over and over again, then there is a chance you could get tired of it.

It’s also important not to pressure kids into playing certain sports if they don’t have the passion to do so.

Select ball costs money

There is no question that playing select sports does cost money. Some are more expensive than others, and I do realize that is not an option for everyone in this community. That is where I believe certain individuals in the community are going to have to step up and take on that roll. Some day after I retire I would like to start a select baseball organization/academy locally, but that is some time away.

You don’t need the Houston Astros’ hitting coach giving lessons to your son - it just simply needs to be someone that has experience with the game and knows what they are doing. That could be a recent college graduate that played the game at the college level and realized what work ethic it took to reach a certain level.

Once again, it would be great to talk with your local high school coaches to see if they may have some advice in this area.

Drive/motivation

I brought this up last week, but want to touch on it again. I have always thought this was the

reason Yoe football was so successful, as kids want to follow in those footsteps and had the drive to do so.

That applies to whatever you’re doing, whether it be playing an instrument, throwing a ball or excelling in the classroom. With regards to being a successful student-athlete, I believe this weighs heavily on parents, teachers and coaches being positive motivators.

We have some excellent teachers in this school district and I know they want nothing more to see their students succeed.

Enhancing skills

At the end of the day, I believe the number one key to building our athletic program is to help develop those fine motor skills, which I believe we are lacking in a good crop of our sports.

I am a firm believer that success breeds success. To ultimately get to that point, we will have to change the status quo.

If you see the hard work and effort that was put in to get to a championship level, it raises the standards and expectations for the future crop of talent coming through the system. It will not be easy to get there, but it’s certainly achievable.