Measuring Success

 

SUCCESS – the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted

 

August 23, 2013 every high school coach, player, fan, and supporter woke up that morning undefeated and dreams of playing on Championship weekend in Bowling Green. But in reality many players can only dream of playing for a championship. Currently at the half way point of this season we have 25 teams that have not won a game this season. There are another 19 teams across the state that has only won 1 game this season. Now many of those schools there is still hope as district play has not started for a majority of them.

 

So society tells us we should measure success by championships, the number of bright shining trophies that sit in the hall way of our high schools. When you look at certain schools such as Trinity, Highlands, Mayfield, and Beechwood to name a few they have set the gold standard among Kentucky High Schools.

 

Do they lack of state championships discredit a program’s success? For example you have a team that has won 7 straight districts titles and has appeared in a regional final 7 straight years and one semi-final during this same time period. How successful has this team been? From where many programs currently are they would like to have the success of this program. But when you look at it from the top tier programs in their class some ignore the success.

 

What about a program that has been 5-45 over the last 5 seasons, and no history of success in the school’s history, how does this program measure success? Can you say that this program has been successful? How should the coach and administration measure success of this program?

 

When you reflect back on the definition I provide for success I believe all teams can be deemed successful.

Something Desired – many will confuse desire as a desire to win a championship. Yes as someone who has played and coached they game my desire was too win one. Well what about the desire to play the game on Friday nights? That is what many young men desire just to play the game.

 

Something Planned – Have you ever watch a team execute the perfect game plan during a game and still come up short on the scoreboard? Or what about just the executing a play that led to the only score in a blow out game. I have watched many games over the years and see an out manned football team be the first to score against a heavy favorite and end up losing heavily. But that one play that was executed properly was something they can use to measure a level of success.

 

Something Attempted – For me this is the most important for the 49 teams that I have mentioned above. The fact that they continue to go out and put forth the effort to play on Friday nights with the Pride. The fact that they spend hours of prep work preparing to play with hopes and dreams of victory.

 

So for me those schools that continue to field teams and lineup Friday after Friday attempting to gain a victory for the themselves, coaches, and supporters should be deemed successful.

 

So this Friday night across this great state yes we will have defined on a score board winners and losers. But sometimes the losers may be the most successful.

 

Share with us some of your ideas as it is related to success.

Great article coach. I hear it all time on here, "what has that program done", "why do you think they are successful". Unfortunately, many only consider State Championships as a sign of success. There are many successful programs around the state, and many of them do not routinely win State Championships due to other great programs in their class, or due to them just not catching a break.

 

A team winning 7 straight District Championships, or 4 straight Regional Championships is a great program.

 

And then we have the teams that struggle, their measure of success may be totally different then what most people would define as success. Maybe they consider it a success to get over 50 players on the team. Or, to win a quarter (try to score more points then the opponent in one quarter) knowing they will lose the game. Maybe it is a success to win one game in a year.

For a coach: Influencing one or many young people to be better than when they came.

For a player: To do the best you can do as an individual.

As a team: To work together toward a goal.

Success is measured by what you put in and being able to say "I did the best I could at this moment".

For a coach: Influencing one or many young people to be better than when they came.

For a player: To do the best you can do as an individual.

As a team: To work together toward a goal.

Success is measured by what you put in and being able to say "I did the best I could at this moment".

 

Nailed it. Well done.

For a coach: Influencing one or many young people to be better than when they came.

For a player: To do the best you can do as an individual.

As a team: To work together toward a goal.

Success is measured by what you put in and being able to say "I did the best I could at this moment".

 

Perfect answer.

 

May I add...

 

As a parent: To enjoy seeing my kid enjoy doing something they love and encourage them to do their best without unsolicited interference from me

Perfect answer.

 

May I add...

 

As a parent: To enjoy seeing my kid enjoy doing something they love and encourage them to do their best without unsolicited interference from me

 

To me success is reaching your potential that may be 5 wins, that may be 2, 12, 15, etc.... did you as coaches do the best with what you had, did you as a player do the best with your talent. Now measuring is another thing...its honestly impossible. But there is that moment, each year when you have adversity that either beats you, or you overcome and win...its that moment that the LEVEL of your succes is measured.