By Mona Desai

Active Alex spoke with some Triangle area coaches to better understand what makes for a winning team.

Coaching Philosophies & Styles That Work
Learning a sport at an instructional, tactical and competitive level is, without a doubt, important, but the coaches Active Alex spoke to stressed the importance of teamwork skills and even life skills.

Coach Tyler Highfill, who coaches West Raleigh Baseball for 10U and 12U boys, as well as boys’ basketball and flag football teams in the area, has a coaching philosophy that emphasizes, above all, leadership. With his teams, he focuses on what he explains to be the four qualities of leadership - skill development, teamwork, sportsmanship and communication skills. Says Coach Highfill, “I like to push kids beyond where they are comfortable to motivate them to do their best. At practices, this means putting them in challenging situations so that the first time they see something tough is not at a game when everyone is watching.” And, while skill development and drilling is critical, Highfill’s focus on communication skills is worth taking note of. “I let them know it’s okay to be loud; it’s okay to talk to the guy beside you,” explains Coach Highfill. Communicating on the field promotes safety and encourages the players to perform the role of on-the-field leaders.

Holly Springs Golden Hawks Youth Wrestling Club Assistant Coach Jeff Draper has a coaching philosophy that extends way beyond the mat. He stresses that the club, which has just completed its second season, strives to help wrestlers cultivate a love for the sport through intense, consistent drilling and instruction. But Coach Draper stresses, “My true belief is that the kids are learning more lessons about life and personal responsibility than they are about the sport of wrestling. This includes their attentiveness in practice, their poise on the mat, their ability to conquer fear and stage fright, and their ability to be good winners and great losers.”

And, it’s not just important for a coach to have a distinctive style or philosophy; communicating the philosophy and representing it at every practice and game to parents and players is essential. Triangle area boys’ basketball coach Wes Moore of the 12U AAU Rimrockers team helps parents understand his coaching philosophy right from the start through email and in person. “I wrote up a coaching philosophy and emailed it out to families prior to the start of the club.”

Coach Moore’s philosophy emphasizes the value of teamwork. “To me, a winning team is one that takes a group of kids and teaches them that the value is bringing a collective whole together to be more than its individual parts. It’s teaching them how to compete. I’m not always going to give the ball to the best ball player on the team. I want the kids to learn that it takes all of them to work together as a whole.” And, parents of players on Coach Moore’s Rimrockers team have noticed that he is truly “walking the talk” when it comes to his coaching style. Says mom Mona Butler, whose 12 year-old son Matthew is on the team, “Coach Moore has always stressed the importance of fundamentals which is absolutely vital at this level of play. He also tries to use the game of basketball to better prepare his players for life after basketball."

Raleigh’s XL Soccer World’s Director of Youth Coaching, Graeme Burluraux, also strives to ensure all new families are familiar with the league’s coaching philosophy which is clearly posted to their website. XLSoccer World has a focus on learning and developing the game of soccer. The coaches at XL prepare players to treat games as practice and training opportunities. “We want kids to make good choices when they’re playing, so we focus on positioning and decision-making,” says Coach Burluraux. “We really want them to treat games as an opportunity to learn.”

Balancing a Player’s Desire to Win with Individual/Team Development
It’s only natural for players, and parents for that matter, to want to see a scoreboard that shows a win. But the coaches we spoke with had a lot to say on the topic of balancing development with competition.

Futbol Club of Cary (FC Cary) Coach Patrick O’Malley explains that this balancing act is indeed a fine line. “FC Cary posts no standings or scores for any of the games. This is done so that we can focus on the individual development and growth of the player.” Adds Coach O’Malley, “I let parents know about how the program works before the season starts. I have the players for two seasons, or 10 months. In my initial meeting, I tell parents to video tape the first game and the last game. At the end of the season I tell them to compare those two games and they’ll see exponential success in their child as well as the team. In the end, that is our mission.”

XL Soccer World’s Coach Burluraux also explains the importance of developing players that learn and play good soccer. “Our successes come from the way our coaches set up practices. We teach kids how to keep the ball and create chances to score. On a lot of other teams, you’ll see one or two of the fastest kids scoring all the points, but that’s not a team that’s going to win long-term. We want to teach the kids to make good choices play after play. The main thing is we want our kids to learn the right way and to learn good soccer.” That’s not to say they don’t produce winning teams in the traditional sense. Because of this focus on “good soccer” fundamentals from the start, XL Soccer World has players that travel and compete at Regionals and Nationals in their U9 and U10 groups. “They’ve come through the program for a few years and are very successful against other teams,” says Coach Burluraux.

Coach Highfill and Coach Draper also stress the importance of focusing on long-term goals and success versus short-term wins. Their long term coaching goal for their athletes is to ultimately acquire the skills needed to make their high school teams. Coach Moore says that a more immediate goal for his players is that they make their middle school basketball teams.

So, what is the ultimate recipe for a winning team? In a nutshell, it’s equal parts patience, practice, motivation and teamwork. Says Coach Moore, “Kids looking back on their time on a team will remember the experience, how they were treated by coaches and fellow players, and whether or not they got better. That’s what’s most important.”

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