Do you know what breaks a parent's heart more than anything else... ‼️‼️

HOLD TEAMMATES ACCOUNTABLE #CultureWins

If you can't execute in practice you won't execute on game day. If you're not confident in practice you won't be confident on game day. If you're not focused in practice you won't be focused on game day. The habits you cultivate in practice will show up on game day.

4pm on Thursday August 28th

My number one strategy for oppositional/defiant students who like to argue. #teachers #classroommanagement #teacher #TeachingTips #BehaviorManagement #ClassroomStrategies

This...

Steve Kerr said, "You gain more respect as a leader when you admit you don’t know everything." "When you let somebody else make a decision it makes you more powerful." It takes humility to lead. It means valuing others' insights. @AndrewBrownhil

Dan Hurley said, "My players will accept the hard coaching from me because they know how much we love them." Relationships are foundational to leading and coaching. • It means trust. • It means caring. • It means communication. 🎥@thewinningdiff1

Dan Hurley was asked, "What does a championship culture look like?" He said, "Everyone thinks the same things, behaves the same way, and we're all striving for the same things. That's what culture means." Dan then said, "My job is to make sure everyone in this building is not giving me what they have left, it's to give me everything that they got." Your culture is what you accept. It's a reflection of your leadership and what you're willing to tolerate. It means: • Drive the ship. • Lead by example. • Hold people accountable. 5 Silent Culture Killers That Stop You From a Championship Culture: 1. When you let toxic people stay - Toxic people poison the work environment. They lower morale, spread negativity, and hinder productivity. Remove them is crucial to maintain a healthy culture and protecting your team. It is an example of how you slowly poison the culture from the inside-out. 2. When you don't communicate or give feedback - Poor communication leads to misunderstandings and confusion. Without feedback (good or bad), people don't know if they're meeting expectations. Open, honest dialogue builds trust and alignment. It means consistent, clear communication sending and listening. 3. When you haven't set clear expectations - Vague expectations lead to confusion and inconsistency. People need to know what's expected to perform well. Clear expectations guide behavior and improve outcomes. Define roles and goals to ensure everyone is on the same page. 4. When don’t hold people accountable - It means demanding, but not demeaning. Lack of accountability weakens standards and erodes trust. People will be complacent, selfish, and unproductive if they don't see you holding people accountable. It creates responsibility, ownership, and commitment in the team. 5. When you don't recognize and celebrate good work - Failing to recognize and celebrate achievements diminishes hope and even energy. People want to be celebrated and appreciated for positive achievements. Celebrating successes reinforces the positive behavior you're looking for.

Dabo Swinney said, "Our strength coach always says 'They don’t put championship rings on smooth hands.'" There are no shortcuts, you have to show up and do the work. • It takes sacrifice. • It takes resilience. • It takes hard work. 🎥@thewinningdiff1 twitter.com/thewinningdiff1/…

In 1996, Tom Brady was the 3rd-string QB at Michigan. He was worrying about his playing time, complaining about his lack of reps, and even considered transferring back home to Cal. His coach, Lloyd Carr, told him, "Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what the other players on our team are doing. All you do is focus on the starter, the second guy...don't worry about that. I want you at this program and if you're going to be the best, you got to beat out the best." Tom Brady took the advice to heart and decided to start meeting with Greg Hardin, a sports psychologist, to work on his mindset. Greg told him, “We got to start building this knowledge and we got to create a strategy and a plan (for your mindset).” • He started to change his attitude. • He started to focus on what he could control. • He started to focus even more on how to grow and improve. Greg told Tom, “Just go in there and focus with the two (opportunities) that you got and make them as perfect as you possibly (can).” So that's what Brady did. Tom said, “Through this new attitude, through this new shift that Greg had said to me, you focused on what you can control. Focus on what you're getting, not what anyone else is getting. Whenever you get an opportunity, you take advantage of it, treat it like it's the Super Bowl. You treat it like it's game day, go out there and treat practice like no one else does. I did that every single day.” It wasn't a straight shot to stardom, but slowly he started to improve. Players and coaches started to notice how good those two reps were, and they began to trust him more. His 2 reps turned into 4 and then 8. The next year, Brady had improved so much that he was competing for the starting job which was unthinkable the year before. He wouldn't win the starting job, but he would bring that competitive mindset every day to practice. He said, "I'm going to treat practice like a game and I'm going to gain the respect (of) my teammates every day through my work ethic. I'm going to work hard in the weight room. I'm going to work hard in the film room. I'm going to work hard to be a good student.” Brady would compete for the starting job for the next two years with Drew Henson, but that mindset shift changed everything for him. That mindset is what he then brought to the NFL. Takeaway 1: Focus on What You Can Control It means focusing on your own actions, words, and emotions. You have to eliminate distractions and clutter because there will always be external outcomes or others' opinions that you can't control. Tom might have had only two reps at practice, but he sure made those two reps were executed to perfection. That mindset fostered self-improvement over external validation. Takeaway 2: Prepare and Practice to Your Fullest Tom's opportunities and improvements came because he worked hard, practiced hard, and was prepared. His enthusiasm and energy was contagious to his teammates and coaches. It highlights the importance of tenacity and determination in pursuing your goals, even when the odds seem stacked against you. “We're not victims of this life. We wake up every day with choices to make and you get a choice every day.” - Tom Brady - - - Follow @coachajkings for more posts like this!

"The disease that creeps into your program is called entitlement. If you can stomp it out with leadership, you can stay hungry. We have a saying around our place: we eat off the floor. If you're willing to eat off the floor, you can be special."

And it's a wrap! I can't say thank you enough to our hard-working student athletes, our seniors that graduated, our committed coaching staff, our AWESOME Athletic Department, and our parents and families. We appreciate you from our family to yours. Happy New Years! @scn_athletics

I love this!!!

Being a Head Coach is HARD Work. I have talked to MANY coaches over my long career. Here are 9 Things Coaches Want Parents to Understand. 1: We CARE about your Child Even if your child doesn’t get much varsity playing time, we care about them. Nothing is ever personal. We love your child. Everyone has a Role. They are all different. But they are all important. Help us celebrate their role. 2: TIME There are only two people who understand the time commitment of a coach. The Coach and their Spouse. We are always “on,” constantly thinking about our team. We sacrifice our Family time to be with your child. We don’t need a pat on the back. Just respect this fact. 3: We LOVE this job. But it is a hard job. Please don’t steal our Joy. Our Passion. Our Commitment. We are losing too many coaches. Help Support us. 4: Coaches want to WIN more than you do. We are very competitive. We put our heart and soul into this job. We are not perfect. Either are you. No one is. Strategy or X’s and O’s matter much less than you think. We are at practice every day. Trust what we see and do. 5: Everything is EARNED. You get what you earn. Don’t blame the coach. Encourage your child to be committed. It is your child’s job to get in the weight room, shoot in the driveway, go to the gym or field, etc. Encourage them to do this. You get what you earn. 6: Trust the PROCESS Team Sports are the ultimate lab setting for life. There will be bumps in the road. It is guaranteed. It is part of the process. Accept this fact. Trust the Process. The life lessons learned will last a lifetime. 7: Winning is HARD Other teams want to win too. Other teams put time in too. Other teams compete too. The season is a grind, and the process is more important than the prize. Learning how to win…and how to lose…is an important part of this process. 8: Your child GETS it. Your child understands. They are at every practice. They know their strengths. They know their weaknesses. They know their role. Don’t feed their youthful insecurities by questioning the coach. This will hurt their experience and the team. 9: Finally, and Most Importantly, this is your child’s experience, not yours. This is important. Let them enjoy the experience with your support. Don’t judge them. Don’t be critical. Just be there. Tell them you LOVE watching them play. Be a fan of the TEAM. ----- Follow me @gregberge for Actionable Ideas on Coaching, Leadership, Culture, and Teams. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter, Great Teams - Better Leaders 123. Link is in my profile.

After the 2018 NCAA Tournament, Virginia coach Tony Bennett was lost. His team collapsed in one of the biggest upsets of all time, losing as a 1-seed to 16-seed UMBC. He debated all offseason how he would address the loss and the team. His first words in 2019 would set the tone for their memorable season. Tony Bennett debated how he would talk to his team, but his wife had an idea. She had attended a series of TED Talks in Charlottesville in 2014 and one talk stuck with her. It was about storytelling and adversity, it was called How the Story Transforms the Teller. And this is how a TED Talk motivated the Virginia basketball team to become national champions. Tony Bennett watched the TED Talk and took so many powerful lessons, but most of all, he learned the power of adversity and the stories that we tell ourselves. At the bottom, there is a link to the video of the TED Talk, and I included some great quotes throughout. After watching the talk, Tony Bennett had an idea. On the first practice in October, instead of getting out on the court, he had his team watch this 17-minute TED Talk. In the TED Talk, the speaker Donald Davis says, “You’re not telling the story to change what happened. You’re telling the story to change you.” And that is what the Cavaliers did. They told their story. It allowed them to accept what happened in 2018 and move on from how they felt. Kyle Guy, starting shooting guard, talked about how much the loss hurt him and even how they needed a police escort after the game because they received death threats. He said, “For me, it's never forgetting it, but definitely trying to move past it to where I'm not hanging my head on it.” Assistant Coach Jason Williford told his story about how he didn’t shave or leave the house for three days. Finally after 3 days and talking to his wife, he knew it was time to get up and rewrite Virginia's story in 2019. Virginia, with a few lucky bounces and calls, would go on to win the 2019 national championship. As part of his own story, Tony Bennett said at the game, “If you learn to use adversity right, it will buy you a ticket to a place you can’t go to any other way. I think (last year’s loss to UMBC) bought us a ticket to a national championship.” Takeaway 1: Growth only happens when you accept your past and then learn from your mistakes, adversity, and "failures". Challenges will happen. Mistakes will happen. It is your choice how you respond and learn from those events. Choose to respond and not react. Buddha once said that life is suffering and there will always be pain. By accepting it and moving forward, you take ownership on what you can control. You begin to think “Why not me?” instead of “Why me?” Takeaway 2: The most dangerous stories you make up are the ones that diminish your worthiness. You tell yourself stories every day. Those stories will determine your attitude, mindset, and habits moving forward. It will drive your perceptions of reality and start to form your confidence beliefs and self-limiting beliefs. In Donald Davis’ TED Talk, he emphasizes the power that one story can have on your perception of reality. Choose to re-frame your stories and overcome those self-limiting beliefs because that's how you move you forward. "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." - Napoleon Hill - - - Follow @coachajkings for more content like this!

Ray Gooden’s medical expenses gofund.me/c906a898

We have a duty as the leaders to always lead! You do not have the option to sit back . That is not leadership. Everyday you step into the office the leader sets the standard for the day. Over time that standard becomes your culture. We all get those days when it is hard. Rise up

It’s possible to turn around a school in a relatively short amount of time. I’ve seen this recipe work, in more or less this order: 1. Ban phones 2. Concentrate admin efforts on behavior 3. Standardize routines and procedures 4. Build a culture of academics 5. Teach bell to bell

UPDATE! We need to reschedule next week's open gym/conditioning. Enjoy the week off, go watch some college volleyball in the area & we'll see you on Feb. 22nd! Tryout Schedule is also posted. Spread the word! We need as many freshman and/or sophomores to come out! @SCNAthletics