Another wild ride with my boys. @RHSTrojanFB Team 113 was not expected by most to win another Idaho 5A State Title but they were one of the most intelligent and coachable groups I have coached. Proud to be a Trojan!

Stand for Truth. The world has enough men without chests.

So proud of Vince. This is one of the best we have had @rigbyfbl!

As a leader, you cannot let things slide. Nobody likes conflict but if you think things will just go away because you ignore them you are destined for a fall.

This teacher-turned-cognitive scientist shared a disturbing reality that left the room stunned. “Our kids are LESS cognitively capable than we were at their age.” Every previous generation outperformed its parents since we began recording in the late 1800s. So, what happened? Screens. Dr. Jared Horvath explained: “Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform us on basically every cognitive measure we have, from basic attention to memory, to literacy, to numeracy, to executive functioning, to EVEN GENERAL IQ, even though they go to more school than we did.” “So why? … The answer appears to be the tools we are using within schools to drive that learning (screens).” “If you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly, to the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation LESS than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school. And that’s across 80 countries.” But screens aren’t just decimating learning and making new generations less intelligent than the ones before them.

Excellence is the Standard. And yes, this might not be for you. But… “Those who stay will be champions.” - Bo Schembechler

This is a sobering truth. Use your time in this earth wisely.

At Rigby, we embrace the warrior ethos. That is our mindset. There is no way around this. Nonnegotiable.

“The wisdom the Book of Job offers is that the right response to suffering is to earnestly bring your pain before the Lord and trust in his character. And above all, to trust that he knows what he’s doing and is still a loving father.” They will be done.

Sean McVay asks himself regularly… “Would I want to be coached by me?” The LA Rams coach holds the mirror up in front of himself and questions his practices and processes. He questions his behaviours and actions. “Would I want to be coached by me?” Would I want to experience what I deliver daily? Would I want to be around me? Would I want to engage in my session design? Would I want to approach me and have an honest conversation? Would I look to me as someone who is highly competent? “Would I want to be coached by me?” A question that goes beyond sport…would I want to be married to me? Would I want to be in a team at work with me? It’s a question that immerses you in a meta-state aimed to build self-awareness - thinking about your behaviours in a given context. Rising above yourself to look at yourself. Taking the helicopter view of what others might experience from you. Self-awareness Meta-states “Would I want to be coached by me?”

When theology was rightly esteemed as the Queen of the Sciences, the university understood itself as something more than a credentialing factory. It was a place ordered toward truth as a whole. Because God was understood as the highest object of knowledge, EVERYTHING else (philosophy, mathematics, the natural sciences, the arts) found their proper place and proportion. Beauty followed naturally. Campuses were designed to lift the soul as well as instruct the mind. Beautiful harmony in architecture, careful attention to scale and materials, buildings meant to endure, to invite contemplation, and to signal that what happened there mattered eternally, not just economically. Once God was removed that ordering collapsed. Universities did not become neutral; they became disordered and ugly. Knowledge fragmented, utility replaced wisdom, and efficiency replaced beauty. Architecture followed the philosophy. Concrete boxes, brutalist slabs, and purely functional spaces reflect an implicit claim: education is about output, not formation; about use, not meaning. Ugly buildings are not an accident. They are an honest and depressing admission of a diminished vision of the human person. But now we are in a recovery and Thomas Aquinas College in California is leading the way.

What an awesome responsibility and a sacred trust.

An authentic leader sets the standard not with hype but with truth. A vision based in truth inspires a belief in Daring Greatly. A team made up of men who dare to be great, who are sharpened by the process, and who play for each other…are hard to beat. #ExcellenceIsTheStandard

This is the best plan so far. It’s time for the movers and shakers to get to work.

Was a pleasure to meet you and Coach Stalker. @rigbyfbl #GoVandals

Timeless>Relevant

Unconquerable

This…👇

One of the best accounts I follow on Substack.

Agreed, but if you can’t get to the Amalfi Coast, you can still make some Limoncello at home and pretend you are in Italy with every sip. 🍋

Public education has not produced an educated public.