Keep on Coaching
February 1, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A few weeks ago, I finally got my first chance this season to watch a friend coach his basketball team. After guiding some others at the lower levels, this is his first time running the varsity – something he wasn't sure he wanted to do with a 1-year-old just learning to walk, but a challenge he ended up taking on to the benefit of all those involved.
Simply put, he’s good. I've seen a lot of teams and a lot of coaches over the past 15 years, and although I wouldn't know much of what to do if I were walking the sideline, I felt pretty qualified in telling him I was impressed – even if he didn't buy that I was offering an unbiased opinion. The best news is he’s gone from not sure about this a few months ago to talking about next season.
We know, at least anecdotally, that coaching continues to get more challenging. The time commitment has grown substantially to make running a program a year-round endeavor in a lot of sports at a lot of schools.
That commitment – especially for coaches with children of their own – was a main reason referred to in a New Haven Post-Chronicle story Saturday that noted 23 football coaching openings in Connecticut at one point this offseason. That state has 146 football teams – meaning roughly 15 percent will have new leaders this fall.
And that got me thinking about my friend, about how glad I am he’s given this a shot, and how I've seen so many others either not do so, or not stick around long despite having some pretty nice success.
A study published last winter in Interscholastic Athletic Administration magazine – a product of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association – noted some predictable results of a study that sought to determine the biggest challenges faced by first-year high school coaches.
The toughest according to the study was balancing the demands of coaching and teaching, experienced by nearly half the respondents – 98 percent of which coached high school teams and 81 percent of which are teachers.
The next six reasons all were noted by at least 30 percent of those in the study – personal fatigue, securing community support, securing and caring for facilities and equipment, parental contact, keeping non-starting players motivated, dealing with schedule interruptions and motivating athletes to achieve consistent, peak performance.
Nothing there is earth-shaking, and most if not all of these challenges are faced by high school coaches regardless of how long they've been in the field. But I got a little more perspective from some of the 32 items that ranked as least challenging to the first-year leaders – keeping in compliance with state and league regulations, dealing with substance abuse issues, teaching sport skills and creating a positive team atmosphere – things that seem most important, and yet appear to be easiest to do. I’m not sure what that tells us – but I think it tells us something.
Click to check out the entire three-page breakdown of the study, plus the researchers’ recommendations to remedy some of what first-year coaches face.
Giving back to Saginaw
I love reading about high-level athletes – like a star-studded group of alums from Saginaw – giving back to where they got their starts.
Pittsburgh Steelers star LaMarr Woodley made a big impact before the start of this school year by donating $60,000 to cover all participation fees for athletes in his former school district. The Saginaw News’ Hugh Bernreuter writes today about how Woodley (Saginaw High), the Philadelphia 76ers’ Jason Richardson (Saginaw Arthur Hill) and former Oakland Raiders standout Stu Schweigert (Saginaw Heritage) have combined to give more than $865,000 back to their home communities.
Bernreuter also mentions the non-monetary contributions of the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (Saginaw High) and former Indianapolis Colts receiver Blair White (Saginaw Nouvel).
Click to read more about it.
Quote(s) of the Week
While rifling through more papers on my desk, I found an article from the Washington Post from Sept. 2011 titled “How high school sports save our schools.” I was drawn to it in part because I spent more than a decade in a newsroom, and it was a piece by a reporter covering education who instead of reporting on school boards and the like, delved into the importance of interscholastic athletics to education as a whole.
He spoke of how participation continues to grow even as resources dwindle, and of data supporting that extracurriculars like sports are more effective than academic classes in teaching leadership, teamwork, time management and “other skills crucial for success in the workplace.” Later, he mentioned a study noting that those who participate in extracurriculars earned more a decade later.
Click here to read the entre piece. These passages struck me most.
“Coaches might be the only faculty members still allowed by our culture and educational practice to get tough with students not making the proper effort. They have the advantage of teaching what are essentially elective non-credit courses. They can insist on standards of behavior that classroom teachers often cannot enforce because the stakes of dismissing or letting students drop their courses are too high. …
“Students do better in activities they choose. If we provide more of them, led by committed adults … that can make a difference. We know the bad news about education. Dropout rates are high. Achievement scores are stagnant. But sports participation is going up, despite pressure to cut it back. Let’s cheer about that and look for a way to draw in more students.”
BC Western Writing Storybook Season with Celebrations, Early Success
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 26, 2023
Before a single pitch was thrown this season, there was plenty for the Bay City Western baseball program to be excited about.
Some of it was historic: Coach Tim McDonald entered the year three wins away from 800 in his career, and, during the season, the program is set to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the 2013 Division 1 championship team.
But the present was just as exciting.
Led by a strong group of seniors that started a program rebuild in 2021, the Warriors figured to have one of their strongest teams in years.
Then the pitches started getting thrown, and the excitement may have been kicked up a notch.
Western is 14-0 to start the season, and living up to its lofty expectations in a year where it just feels like everything is already a celebration.
“It’s kind of freaky the way it’s kind of lining up right now,” said senior pitcher Ben Kohany. “We have our goals in mind, but we’re still taking it game by game. Obviously, there is that pressure (from the program’s past success), but we’re just trying to take things slowly.”
Western’s success on the field this season is the result of a simple formula: good pitching, solid defense and the ability to manufacture runs.
It’s a formula that helps the Warriors to focus on what’s directly in front of them, and not look ahead when they have big postseason goals that could otherwise distract them.
“We just play together as a team – we trust each other, make plays and get the job done,” junior catcher Bryce Neitzel said. “Every day in practice we work on the fundamentals. Especially with bunting, we do a station of bunting every day. I feel like it does help, because whenever we’re in a situation in a game, we’re prepared for the moment. We kind of expect it.”
It’s also a formula that has won McDonald and the Warriors a lot of games over his 31 years as a coach – 811, to be exact.
“We have a philosophy, things we emphasize and things we work on,” McDonald said. “We’re kind of known for our small ball, and we kind of got away from that. This year’s team, one of the many things they understand is that at some point, that’s going to become important. They’re just rock solid. They’re a good practice team, and that translates.”
When the season began, McDonald had 797 career wins, which put him 12th on the MHSAA’s all-time list. It took just three games, and a bit of serendipity, to become the 11th coach in state history to reach 800.
The Warriors swept Flushing in their season-opening doubleheader, which gave McDonald the chance to get win No. 800 against his alma mater, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart, in a game that was a late addition to the schedule.
And just to make it a little more personal, Sacred Heart is coached by Earl Hartman, who coached McDonald and is one of the 10 ahead of him on the all-time list; and McDonald’s nephew, Joe McDonald, was the starting pitcher for the Irish.
“It sounds like a Hollywood script, but that’s just how it all fell into place,” McDonald said. “It was certainly a neat day, and that just added to it.”
While McDonald knew how close he was to the milestone coming into the season, he wasn’t planning on making a big deal of it. The people around him, of course, had other plans.
“They had cupcakes, and my AD got a plaque made for me,” McDonald said. “Somebody did some work behind the scenes, and all of that is appreciated. I’m proud to represent this program. If me, as the head coach, has a lot of wins, that means the school has a lot of wins. I’ve been fortunate to be in a good baseball community. They had good baseball before I came. I’m proud of the foundation that we built, and I think it’s just continued on.”
Getting to be part of that historic moment was a thrill for the current Western players.
“That was super cool,” senior third baseman Miles Yurgaites said. “That’s a lot of wins. It was a super cool moment, and a super fun day.”
The timing was also great for the Warriors, and not just because of the opponent in Game 3 of the season.
“I’m glad it happened early in the season,” McDonald said. “We got to enjoy the moment, and now we can move onto some of our goals that we set for ourselves. That worked out in a good way, as well. Now this team, they’ve become focused, because we still got a lot of work ahead of us. They’re staying humble in their approach, and every one of them knows they have some things they can get better at. As a coach, that’s all you can ask.”
Helping McDonald drive home that message is a trio of assistants who are Western alumni: Brian Patrick, Brendan “Bubba” Harrison and Brandon Wise. Patrick has been on the staff for 12 years, while Harrison (2013) and Wise (2014) were each part of Finals championship teams for the Warriors.
Not only does that give McDonald the luxury of coaching with people who know how a championship program is run, it also gives the Western players a daily look at what it takes to get back there.
“It does help,” Neitzel said. “They have all that experience, and they’ve shared all their memories with us. It makes us want to do what they did.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Bay City Western celebrates coach Tim McDonald's 800th win April 8. (Middle) The Warriors play in the Bay County Invitational on April 15. (Photos courtesy of the Bay City Western baseball program.)