I
don't know about you but the headlines that decry the loss of integrity, mistrust
of corporate and political leaders and the overall failing of a system that should
provide us security heading into our Golden Years, have left me shaken. I'm not
sure any number of Election Days can provide an adequate enough remedy.
The
growing numbers of stories that evince a disregard for the value of human life,
whether through terrorism or the acts of a psychotic couple, have created a major
cause for concern about our society, our civilization.
Even
in the comparatively trivial realm of sports, the multitude of incidents that
reveal mob rule as a way of solving disputes at youth league games or pro and
college athletes breaking rules or in trouble with the law, are symptomatic of
a breakdown of the sets of values that ought to produce leaders and role-models.
Instead
of advancing a culture of ethics and principle, our society seems to have incubated
a culture where the ends justify the means. Instead of celebrating life, we are
besieged with fear mongers who seek to destroy our faith in God and in mankind.
It
is time that we as a nation, as a community and as individuals begin to reverse
the tragic momentum. In every walk of life, down every pathway, it is vital that
we all do our parts to adhere to values and conduct that set the example for what
we as a nation stand for. We are all in a position to have impact. As parents,
students, professionals and workers we can make a difference.
Today,
we explore one avenue of lasting impact. Today we seek to fortify one of the walls
of strength in our communities that aids in reversing that tragic momentum of
which I spoke. Tonight, we honor the often times under appreciated, under recognized
but absolutely irreplaceable role of high school coach.
We
are gathered to celebrate the 4th Annual Frank McGuire Foundation awards Dinner.
We are gathered here to honor the memory of Frank McGuire, a man who adhered to
honorable and admirable principles and values. He set an example for what our
nation stands for and he had positive impact in his community.
We
are also here to celebrate six high school coaches who have emulated those virtues.
It is against this backdrop I believe that there is value in reminding us how
tightly wound into our social fabric is the equation of sports, education and
leadership. This equation is a formula that continues to impart knowledge, develop
leaders, instill competitiveness and teach the lessons of a fair, just and tolerant
nation.
Throughout modern time, sports participation, particularly team sports, has served
well as a traditional classroom for leadership. Its qualities and virtues have
produced some of the great leaders of our times. Many of those leaders sit among
us here today.
Sports
instills values, develops the necessary "competitive edge", it fuels the desire
to prepare; to properly do what is necessary to excel; to develop the will to
reach beyond expectations, both personal and those of others and to succeed against
the odds.
For
many of us, sports has served as a means to an end. Sports has presented opportunities
we otherwise would not have had. Sports has brought exposure to different people,
cultures, settings and philosophies.
The
value of sports participation is about experience. It's about education. For those
of us who played sports on the high school and collegiate level, our lives are
illustrative of the opportunity presented. Like some of you, I came from a family
where no one attended college, participation in sports allowed me to see other
parts of the world. It taught me custom and etiquette, preventing me from remaining
the rough-hewn young man from inner city New York.
If education is the key to unlocking potential for advancement and leadership,
then sports gave to me those keys to a kingdom where I developed skills that will
stay with me for a lifetime and which will allow me to continue to serve my community
and my country.
But to utilize those keys, to recognize where they fit and which doors to unlock
required a mentorship of unyielding dedication, patience and caring. We needed
a guide. And each of us found one in the persona of someone called "Coach".
The
Sports and Education and Leadership equation doesn't occur in a vacuum. Young
student-athletes don't merely find their way. The personal virtues of Respect,
Loyalty, Honesty, Tolerance and Charity were conveyed by the presence and deeds
of "Coach".
Coaches
pushed us up the rungs on the ladder of success: Desire, Dedication Discipline
and Determination, by their persistent demonstration of confidence and belief
in us...by their demands for the excellence they knew resided within us. Without
their sponsorship, their guidance and support, the formula for success would go
unrecognized. Without them, the sports, education and leadership equation simply
would not add up.
To illustrate how vital of a role a Coach plays or how dominant he or she necessarily
must be in the lives of their student athletes, we only need to take a glimpse
at those who reject or are denied the benefit of a true coach's impact.
Sadly,
too many ignore the coach. They reject the formula. If you believe as I do that
one is too many, then there are far too many young people in high school and college
sports with exposure to exemplary coaches and their tried and true philosophies
of success who are making decisions either not to go to college or not to avail
themselves of the opportunity to become exposed to all which a university community
can provide.
Rather
than accepting the challenges and applying the coach-instilled lessons of work
ethic, perseverance and the other elements that forge that competitive edge, these
kids opt to follow someone else down a different road. Many of them are still
attempting to find their way back.
More
sadly, today we are witnessing an attempt at de-emphasizing the education and
ethical development of young athletes by parents and by coaches; both paid and
volunteer, on the elementary, middle school HS and AAU level.
I'm not sure if it is the desperate vicariousness of living and reliving adult
lives through the children or if it is the false dream of pro riches and stardom,
but far greater numbers of adults have gotten out of control. The desire to "win-at-any-cost"
has eroded the credibility and belief in our sports and education value systems
and filtered down to the young. The sole focus on winning as the ends, has minimized
the value of sportsmanship and of imparting the other virtues for "success in
life" as the definitive means.
Certainly,
sports is a vital element of the sports, education and leadership equation. However,
the realistic and integral development cycle through which we want our student-athletes
to travel and where a coach must stand as sentinel is education.
And,
too often, some athletes, many of whom but not all are of color, lack the continuum
of successful academic experience that parallels that of their more advantaged
counterparts. I'm speaking, at a minimum, of family members with degrees or college
experience.
The
disadvantaged athlete lacks a "Culture of Achievement" and the road map to academic
success.
*They have few role models in their neighborhoods
* No one at home or close
by to emulate
It stands as no surprise that some of these kids don't make it. Or that some of
these kids don't want to make it in the "traditional sense of earning some type
of post-secondary degree.
It's also not surprising that they are viewed as dumb or ignorant when they decide
to go for the gold and skip college. Or viewed as exploited when they exhaust
their eligibility without a college degree. What else do they see? What have they
been taught?
For
them, there is no motivation versus a society that celebrates celebrity and material
wealth at any cost. It's only about instant gratification. Here is where coach
comes in.
The
lessons of life: the value of developing character, of goal orientation and of
constant and persistent execution of life plans are taught in the laboratory of
sports and the coach is the professor.
My
high school coach, the late Jack Kuhnert and I, had a special relationship. Developed
by circumstance and by accident, the strength of it lasted until his death a few
years ago and the memories will endure.
I entered Power Memorial Academy as a raw 15 year-old, big for my size, attempting
to play a sport I had never really played and seeking to fit into a society I
had never really experienced. I was a product of public schools, not of the Christian
Brothers Order, hell-bent on disciplining anything that walked.
I
was also the product of a household where both parents were around. Loving and
hard working my parents were limited in their practical understanding of education
beyond their world because they were limited by a lack of formal education. Coach
Kuhnert and I both lived too far from Manhattan to travel home on game nights,
so we hung out together, at school. Our wide-ranging discussions offered me a
chance to learn, to express myself, to process his feedback and to grow.
This
was more than just coach-athlete talk. Basketball was a distant down the line
as a topic. Coach was another role model in my life, another value proposition
offered. Coach Kuhnert was a yardstick by which I could monitor my growth, values
and beliefs. As a player, he helped me believe that I could learn and prosper.
He not only taught skills, he taught me how to implement them and why.
Coach
Kuhnert was my coach, my basketball tutor and a life skills tutor. He was my Trigonometry
teacher and my friend. At a time, in the late '60s, when so many voices and so
many forces were in tugging in opposition to success for guys like me, he, along
with my parents pulled in the other direction.
Remember,
I came from a 2-parent household…from parents who valued the promise of education
as much as they could. Yet I still needed and benefited from the lessons learned
from sports and imparted by my coach.
After
Coach Kuhnert, there was the reinforcement of the success formula from my college
coach, Lefty Driesell. A Dale Carnegie devotee, on a daily basis he recited the
success mantras until in became second nature to us.
Today, a coach continues to serve as a bridge to opportunity for student-athletes.
Coaches must be surrogate parents, confidants and educators. Coaches define the
skills necessary for success. They create the settings where skills can be practiced
and perfected. Their jobs are to provide feedback and constructive criticism in
the attempt to perfect those skills.
For
me: The successful coaches among us are those defined more by what their student-athletes
become in life as much, more than, their win-loss records.
We
live in a knowledge-based economy where (with a few exceptions) we get paid based
upon what we know. We are rewarded for academic achievement.
* MBAs get paid
more than BAs
* PhDs earn more than MAs
* Doctors receive more than paramedics.
* Investment bankers get paid more than branch bankers
High school coaches also have the task of acting as guidance counselors. They
must impart the value of the student-athletes unique status and privilege as potential
leaders. Therefore, the concept of the college experience must be part and parcel
of their daily wisdom. The reasons are clear. According to US Dept. of Labor statistics:
*By
2004, 85% of jobs will require training beyond mere high school
* The annual
gap in earning power between someone with a college degree and just a high school
diploma is over 100%
* A mere high school diploma in the work force is worth
a little over $20,000 per year.
* By the year 2040, 50% of the labor force
will consist of minorities.
Those
children we forget today, if we foreclose on the opportunity to establish that
culture of academic achievement, we not only lose those kids to the streets; we
jeopardize our global leadership as a nation.
It's not enough to lament these situations. As a community we must apply support
and resources where the needs are greatest: in the schools, at home. We must endow
every ally of education with the power and resources that result in the greatest
influence possible upon our young people.
My
call to action is for you to get involved and stay involved in the education of
all our young people. The
potential of developing new and diverse leaders makes it worth the effort.
These
are times that cry out for leadership in sports, particularly high school and
college sports. We are in need of proactive approaches that present sound and
clear solutions to problems before they become crisis.
Once
again, we are here because we celebrate sports and everything that flows from
appreciation and participation. We are here to honor those in the front lines
of instilling values, of teaching methods for success and self-fulfillment. We
are here because we hold the truths of sports and education and their impact on
developing our leaders of tomorrow as self-evident in their positive impact.
Let
us work together to assure those in the front line continue their efforts for
all of our kids.
Let
us bring to bear every type of legitimate pressure to assure that we recover from
the leadership void I spoke of earlier. We must continue, at every opportunity,
to recognize those leaders in coaching who epitomize the examples we wish our
children to follow.
Without
further delay, we must express a clear set of expectations for our current leadership
in every walk of life, in every endeavor. We must set clear and unambiguous standards
and examples of our young people and then, settle for nothing less.
For these our children, we must walk the ethical walk as well as merely talk the
talk when it comes to the value of sports participation and education. When our
coaches and our educators get it right, they will need our reinforcement at home
and in our neighborhood streets.
Through
sports, as a medium of teaching, learning and communication, we can and must re-emphasize
the virtues of learnedness, work ethic, poise and perseverance that result from
education.
Our
national moral compass in sports, business, politics and even our day-to-day dealings
with our fellow human beings has for too long pointed towards "win at any cost".
It's time to re-set that compass to point in the same direction towards the destination
set by these distinguished honorees.
Reversing the tragic momentum I spoke of requires commitment from us all. It requires
our recognition of the good things about sports and the good people in sports.
Sports is a great equalizer, a pure meritocracy that allows triumph on the merits
of performance. Through coaching and through the competitive experience, sports
is a teacher of universal values that place principles of fair play and tolerance
for differences at the top of the list.
It is a proving ground for developing self-reliance and community responsibility.
It can be a pathway to opportunity not always available to some. Let's keep the
path clean and clear. Let's fight the attempts to demean its value.
Sports, Education and Leadership: If you believe this equation contributes to
the success in bettering our society, then like those we honor tonight:
Let's
work to "Keep it Real"!
