Coaching In The COVID-19 Crisis April 14, 2020 |
“How am I going to get through this?” Like so many others, that was the recurring question entering my mind in the first week of the COVID 19 Quarantine. During this unprecedented time, I was struggling to get a handle on this new temporary reality of what had just happened. My primary job, a middle school Physical Education Teacher, is a vocation for which I am extremely passionate. My other position, which many would probably suggest I am even more passionate about, is the Needham High School Boys’ Volleyball Coach; our season was just about to begin Monday, March 16th. This year we have a group of seniors unlike many we have ever had in the past; this unit possesses a unique combination of excellent athleticism, extraordinary volleyball skill, and high-level character. Sometimes, it is hard to explain or pinpoint the exact dynamic or “thing” that a group possesses, but this class also has that “IT” factor that, as a coach, you know is special and does not come around very often during one’s coaching career. Just as we were beginning to begin our season’s journey, we were also beginning to deal with the Covid 19 Pandemic that was swiftly sweeping through our country. This pandemic had already inflicted thousands of deaths on residents of other countries. Like so many others in this country, anxiety built as I worried about my loved ones and went into self-quarantine, alone with all of these worries. However, what really worried me was being alone in the solitude of my own mind, no longer able to utilize my own daily activities of teaching and coaching as a distraction. The only positive aspect about that first week of solitude was that, day by day, my mindset slowly shifted from “How am I going to get through this?” to “What am I going to do to get through this?” At the end of the first week of quarantine, David Goggins, former Navy seal and one of my favorite motivational speakers, was streaming an at-home workout. Prior to the workout, Goggins said, “If you have a gift or something you are really good at,” now is the time to use it. During the grueling workout, this statement sent me through an introspective journey of searching for what my gift was. Throughout the quarantine process, I had thought that, of all of the skills that I had developed, one that brought me the most gratification was an aptitude for motivating, coaching, connecting with high-school athletes. During this period of COVID 19 self-isolation, I at first sulked and felt that, along with my other freedoms, the opportunities to teach and coach had all been taken from me. What had really happened, however, is that, like so many other people, my mindset and approach to dealing with the isolation from those athletes with whom I worked was incorrect. Rather than thinking of all that I couldn’t do, I instead should have been thinking of all of the ways I perhaps could help others. With technology and an abundance of leadership and motivational materials available on podcasts, books, articles, and videos, there is no excuse for us as coaches and leaders not to be constantly reaching out to our players. At the end of the workout, I asked myself what I had done for these players in my program, especially my seniors. While I had been in communication with them sparingly during the first week, the short answer to the question of what I had done for them was, “Not enough!” Our players need us now more than any other time in their lives. Many of them have poured their heart and soul into our programs, have established their identity within their high school as players in our programs, and have worked tirelessly to prepare themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally for their spring season. Dreams and visions of their senior spring and for many, their last chance to play organized sports, have slowly been ripped away from them. When the initial announcement happened that the high school spring sports season had been delayed two weeks, there was a feeling of slight disappointment, but we clung to the hope that we would be seeing one another soon enough. Then we were told that we would be back on April 7th. Again, missing the first three weeks of the season was less than ideal, but still very much left our athletes with much of their senior season. Most recently, however, Governor Baker has informed us that school will not be back in session until May 4th and the MIAA is in discussion about potentially not holding a statewide tournament. Our athletes’ spring is slowly being pulled away from them, week by week, as a vicious and ugly pandemic quickly sweeps across the country. High school of spring senior year is the culmination of what many of our student-athletes have been building towards, both athletically and socially. The opportunities to celebrate college acceptances, to attend proms, to play sports with classmates they have grown with, to chase banners they saw others before them chase, to carve out their own legacy in our programs just as those before them did, are slowly slipping away. The parties, games, proms, and senior barbecues have been replaced by a mandate to stay at home in an effort to stop this invisible disease from taking more lives. No one has a roadmap or playbook on how to deal with this. But what we can all we can do as coaches during this time is exactly what we ask from our athletes during the season: that we give them our best effort. While it is extremely important to learn how to navigate our own well-being during this time of emotional distress and danger, we also must attend to the well-being of our athletes during this time. As coaches, we need to inspire hope and action, we need to provide them with reasons to get out of bed, and we need to provide them with inspiration. But most importantly, we need to constantly remind our players that care about them and are here for them during what are most likely to be some of the most challenging days they will ever have to live through. We need to reveal a vulnerability that we may not have the chance to show during a season and tell our players how this pandemic is affecting us as well. For me, the benefits of the constant communication and communicating positivity have been symbiotic for both the players and me. For many of us as coaches, our natural gift is our ability to motivate, to create, to inspire and to connect with our students. Now, more than ever, we must find ways to do that with our players. COVID 19 has already taken so much from our athletes. Don’t let it take away their coach. So coaches, pick up your phone, shoot an email, find a podcast, give them a daily workout to complete, and use our gifts to motivate and inspire our athletes! Give them the reassurance that they are doing what is right by staying socially distant. Tell them how much you care for them and do not let them let COVID 19 strip away their purpose and identity they have worked so hard to build. Place expectations upon them, just as you would during a normal season. At an extremely dangerous time for our country, both in terms of physical health and mental health, this is the time the leadership of a coach is most vital to his or her team. It’s almost unfathomable to believe that high school spring tryouts should have begun a month ago. As we approach almost a month of self-quarantining and social isolation, this new time is becoming more and more burdensome. I have noticed many of my friends and athletes I coach lose their vigor and zest to attack each day. The workouts my team was sharing during the beginning of this crisis sometimes aren’t coming as often. The discussion in leadership council zoom meetings might not be what it was during the second week of quarantine. I notice myself having days where my own self-motivation and discipline are sometimes waning. However, we, as coaches and leaders must fight through this and continue to do what exactly we got into coaching for: to teach kids lifelong lessons through our sport. While COVID 19 continues to take blessings away from us, we must not let it take away our gift. My personal journey as a coach and a person throughout this time of self-isolation has by no means been perfect. Many days, I find myself using self-talk, communicating to myself those same messages that I try to give to my athletes. This has been a journey of trying first to navigate personally through this and then trying to find ways to connect with my players. This horrible virus tries to strip our freedoms and our ability to connect with each other. As we endure, instead of one quick mortal stab wound, a million cuts that can destroy our collective spirit, as coaches and educators, we must remember that that the key question must shift from “How am I going I get through this?” to “How am I going to get US through this?” Because, in the end, we are all in this together.-
Coach Dave Powell Jr. |