Stay with me here–Pass it on post!
Recently I received a few messages and calls from former students. They wanted to thank me for lessons I taught and influence I had on their lives when they were in my classroom.
Each of these kids had difficulties in their young lives and at those times I took notice and tried to do my best for them.
I cannot put into words that feeling of coming from the bottom to the top. I feel it and can think of more than one instance this year when I coached an athlete in a grueling match and they came through and won due to their hard work and my belief in them. It is a dramatic moment in sports of football, tennis and racquetball I have coached, but in life it takes longer.
Years go by and one day an athlete you coached realizes, “Hey that man or woman took an interest in me and I owe them! “
When coaches get these calls and messages it makes their day.
When it happens to me, it is euphoric and it keeps me coaching and working! I try to pass it on!
Each year after I graduated from college I went back to my college football coach to visit. If you paid the price with him, you were in. He only coached nine years but the lives he affected were well over a million by my estimation. First, anyone who played at our non-scholarship school loved football. Most of us went on to coach in public or private schools, colleges, and a few even to the NFL. I coached Varsity football four years, JV football three years, Freshmen football four years, and 8th grade football five years. I coached varsity tennis five years. And of course I have coached racquetball for over fifty years. That is at least 3000 young lives I have had the honor or coaching. Now, multiply that by the guys who played for this man for 9 years who went on to stellar careers. Take 3000 and multiply that by 40 guys per year for 9 years. That is over a half million people and now in the next generation how many of them are coaching? Pass it on!
Our coach was a tough taskmaster and expected nothing but the best from us. Our practices were tough but over the course of four years we became better than we ever thought we’d be and he got the most out of us. That experience carried me way beyond football and into the teaching/coaching profession and racquetball competition and into life!
My students from the classroom and my athletes I coached still look me up. They thank me and I tell them to pass it on! I was lucky to have great high school and College Coaches and great teachers and great parents. Pass it on!