ALL I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
It is painfully obvious that Jim Tressel andBruce Pearl never attended kindergarten because if they had they would still be employed. So I have enclosed a copy of ALL I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN by Robert Fulghum in the hopes of helping other coaches that may have missed these important life lessons.
Share everything- just for clarification this does not mean share your house and food with players not yet old enough for official visits. Do not allow car
dealers to share cars with your players. It means when you have made a mistake go and tell and share with your athletic director. Do not wait almost a year to admit you knew your players were selling memorabilia.
Play fair- ummm don’t cheat, don’t
pay people, don’t lie so that your team can have all their best players in the
hopes of winning a BCS championship. Besides don’t you want to win because you and your team were good enough to do so without cheating. Do you want to look at that championship ring and think about all the shortcuts you took to obtain it?
Don’t hit people-for example Woody Hayes hitting the Clemson player, Lou Pinella throwing first base, Bobby Knight throwing a chair, Chaney threatening Calipari and McClendon actually stealing first base. All good examples of WHAT NOT TO DO when you are upset.
Put things back where you found them-if you throw a chair return it to
where you found it. Return players to their parents and hometown in a better state when you took them under your wing.
Clean up your own mess-if you lie,cheat or steal own up to it and take the consequences. If you have junior recruits over to your house for a bbq and take a picture with your assistant coach’s wife and illegal recruit, do not then attempt to say you don’t know who the people are in the picture. If you find out your players are selling their jerseys and rings to a local tattoo parlor you should fix it right away by turning them in. If you make a mistake here is a good phrase to use at the news conference “I am sorry, I madea mistake”. You will be surprised how forgiving fans are if you own up to your mistakes right away.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours-if
you have to lie about or hide one of your actions it probably falls under
taking things that aren’t yours. If a high school player verbals to a school
respect that decision, don’t keep calling them. If someone wants to donate money to your program for time with your players, you are giving away your players’ time and it isn’t yours to donate without their permission. There are a million examples, use common sense.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.-Take responsibility for your
actions. Sure Bruce Pearl cried on television and said he was sorry, but then he went out and “bumped” a recruitseveral days later. So his sorry is
quite hard to believe. Tressel on theother hand never even attempted to say he was sorry.
Wash your hands before you eat-check
out the people around you, know them, and make sure they are good people who
have your program’s best interest at heart. That goes for everyone from your secretary to the President of your school.
Flush-get rid of any crap around your program, end of story
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you- sit down with those around your program in a non threatening environment and you will be surprised what you will learn about the players and coaches in your program. So go on dunk your Oreos.
Live a balanced life- volunteer, make time for your spouse, your kids, exercise, further your own education and travel.
Take a nap every afternoon-if coaches as a whole took a few minutes
of solitude everyday to review their actions from the past day they might
realize some of their mistakes as well as some of their successes. I think Eddie Fogler at U of South Carolina used to shut his door everyday, pull out his couch and take a nap everyday in his office and left us with this quote after his last game… “It is very difficult with college athletics being the way it is today and the pressures. You are darned if you do, darned if you don’t. I’m leaving college basketball with my dignity, my integrity and my sanity”.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together-find yourself assistants and support staff that you can trust. There will always be people trying to bring you down and you will need
staff members who aren’t afraid to tell you when you are off track.
Be aware of wonder- start to think only in terms of what its like to win a national championship and you will find yourself justifying reasons for cheating. You shouldn’t have to put on a vest and nickname yourself the Senator to give the appearance of virtue because then you are simply a contrived individual with no true substance.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that-build a solid foundation for your program from the start; don’t allow any shortcuts, shady individuals, or quick fixes to take root in your program. Need a blue print look at Coach K’s example. In his early years Duke was ready to fire him but he didn’t deviate from his plan for a quick fix and 30
years later his program is still strong and clean.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.- walk around campus, sit in the back of a classroom,show up at a recruits practice unannounced, sit in the school cafeteria for a day and LOOK. You will be surprised what
you will learn.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup -they all die. So do we.-Doesn’t matter if you are Bruce Pearl or Jim Tressel eventually you will get your due and be kicked to the stands for your actions.
FOR NOW I AM THINKING OF THAT BEAUTIFUL FALL DAY in 2002 when I sat in the fifth row, on the 50 yard line at Ohio State, watched Maurice Clarett tear around the field and wondered to myself what did they have to do to get him to OSU.
