Thoughts on the Hall of Fame

Thanks to all of you for visiting and reading some feelings that are important that I express regarding my Hall of Fame Induction.

No coach needs a hall of fame to validate a coaching career, there are many who are more deserving who haven’t received this honor, but I want to make it clear how honored and appreciative I am for this distinction.

I would like to begin by thanking the Hall of Fame committee, not only for this distinction, but for the thankless and difficult job they do, sifting through so many great candidates and bearing criticism for very difficult decisions.

I would like to thank Sam Seemes, the hardest working person I know and a great friend. I can remember when this organization was a couple of dinky meetings inside of someone else’s convention, and now we have this incredible professional event with so many nice functions. Young coaches, don’t take this for granted, it wasn’t always like this. No Hall of Fame is perfect, but the biggest omission from this one might be Sam.

I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s in a tiny place in Louisiana where most people spoke French, they grew sugar cane or caught crawfish, and the most respected people in town were the Catholic priest, the Baptist minister, and the high school’s head coach. If someone sprained an ankle, they didn’t go to the doctor, they went to the head coach to find out what should be done about it. The coach was arguably the most respected person in town. The coach wore a crown, not a crown of power or fame, but a crown of service. I think that is part of why I became a coach.

I must thank my parents, who were incredibly supportive of everything I did. It’s easy to accomplish great things with that level of support.  It’s easy to reach high heights when you stand on shoulders like theirs. Many of you know them, my mom was the sweet lady working the horizontal jumps who spoke to everyone and slipped candy to the athletes between jumps. You probably don’t know my Dad but he was there too, he was the quiet person who raked the pit all day long, never complaining. My Dad passed away a few years ago, but he’s here tonight. My greatest heartbreak is that my Mom can’t be here tonight due to health issues, and that mentally she can’t understand the honor I’ve received. One day she will.

My career has been littered with people who gave me great opportunities, often when I didn’t deserve them. Jimmy Waguespack was my high school football coach and he made athletics a positive experience for me, and showed me that athletics could be a tool of discipline and character development for young peopIe.

Allen Hymel and John Boughton, my first head coach and principal, gave me tremendous amounts of responsibility and autonomy that I really didn’t deserve in my early 20’s. That, along with their tolerance of my mistakes, gave me an incredible head start of high quality experience in my formative coaching years, taking years off my learning curve.  

I am appreciative of Steve Silvey who took a chance on me, giving me my first collegiate job at Blinn College.

I am appreciative of Charles Lancon, who, although I really hadn’t done much, gave me my first opportunity to coach in NCAA Division 1 at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

I want to thank Pat Henry, who took a chance and gave me my first opportunity to coach at a major university. I had coached an NCAA champ and several all Americans at USL but nobody knew for sure that I could do it at that level. After my first year, the jury was still out.  But Coach Henry stuck with me and it turned out OK.  I learned so much from him. He is the master of program culture and standards, and he made it easy to coach winners. Later when I started and managed the Track and Field Academy, I tried to apply the things I learned from him there.

I want to thank Dennis Shaver who brought me back to LSU for what I jokingly call my “second sentence”.

I must thank Dan Pfaff, my greatest mentor. He taught me so much and selflessly invested an incredible amount of time in me. He told me … didn’t ask… told me that I was going to become involved in coaching education. So, depending upon how you feel about it, you can thank him or blame him. Most importantly, at a time in my career when I was starting to see things a little differently, Dan told me “you’re seeing this clearly, you need to trust yourself .” He created in me an appreciation of mentorship that I still possess. I decided to pay him back for his efforts, then I realized I never could, so I made a conscious decision to pay that debt forward to the next generation of coaches. I have tried to make myself available to coaches as an educator and mentor, this is one reason why.

Most importantly, I thank Kayla and Julie. Kayla, my daughter, is the joy of my life and I love her dearly. She has been incredibly supportive and has sacrificed a lot so that I could be a coach. In Julie, my wife, who I love dearly, I could not possibly have a more supportive partner. Those of you who have coached for long time know what I mean when I say that there are good spouses, and good coaching spouses, but they aren’t always the same people. With Julie I have both. When coaching took me away from family, and I was feeling guilty, hundreds of times she looked me dead in the eye and said “You’re the coach. You have to go.” That made it easier, and I never took that for granted. I’ve reached the age where I go to a lot of funerals, many are coaches funerals. When I approach the family, the words that seem to naturally fall out of my mouth are “thanks for sharing him with us”. Coaches never completely belong to their families. Instead of congratulating me, I would love for you to thank Julie and Kayla for the sacrifices they made that enabled me to do this.

A group of people I have to thank are the athletes. I could never name them all.  You know the names. I would like to name them all, but I can’t. A great friend, coach, and a person I respect tremendously, Joe Walker Jr., once told me “Coaches don’t create great athletes, God does. We are only developing that which already exists”. He is so right. When you think of it that way, you begin to realize that an athlete is investing their most treasured possessions, their time and talent, in a coach. I am so thankful that these athletes allowed and trusted me to share their journey.  There were many athletes, sometimes those not so talented, who showed tremendous drive, effort, and were very appreciative of my coaching. Some times in coaching you have a bad day, or a bad week, or a bad month. Many times, when things were going badly and it was tough to go out on that track and give a great effort, I did. It wasn’t so much because of the great athletes, frankly they would have been fine without me. I went out there and gave my best effort because I didn’t want to let down Margaret Reeves or Craig Harris. I didn’t necessarily make every athlete I had a better athlete, but every athlete I ever had made me a better coach.  It’s important that every athlete I ever coached knows that it wasn’t as much about me motivating them as it was about them motivating me. I thank all you athletes, most of all, for tolerating my failures and imperfections. I hope you feel that I worked hard for you and in the rough times, that I had your long term best interest at heart.

Finally, another group I must thank are the coaches. It was an honor to coach against you, coaching against you made me better. Today I have so many wonderful friendships that began with conversations at the pit, in the stands, or in the hotel lobby. That’s a fringe benefit of a sport without sidelines. I developed so many friendships with coaches who shared the dais and good times with me at clinics and coaching education functions. I would also like to thank the mentorees. The hundreds of you who have taken classes or asked me for advice, whether it was a single email or years of ongoing communication. You kept me sharp, you kept me on my toes. So many of these relationships that began as mentorships have evolved into wonderful friendships. It’s important to me that you know I have never regretted a minute spent with you, because everything I’ve given I’ve received back double. So many of you call and thank me when your athletes do well. You call or text just to check on me. You often show a level of loyalty I’m not sure I deserve. I just hope you all understand you’re an important part of my life. I would like to extend this sentiment outside of the track and field world to those I have worked with in other sports, strength and conditioning, and the physical therapy and rehab world.

Coaches are special people. Often we are the only people left speaking to young people honestly, telling them tough truths. Coaches take the unsure and troubled and put them into situations where they can develop confidence and character. Coaches teach young people to win with dignity and lose with grace. We teach them that losing with honor is OK, and cheating is not. Coaches teach them that how hard you try really does matter. Coaches even teach young people that sometimes the problem with you, is you, and that changes are within your power.  Not many people are still doing this. Coaches, your athletes are better people because of what you do with them daily. The title “Coach” is a tremendous honor. Millions of people sit in the stands and watch sports on television and want to be coach. How lucky am I that I truly got to live that life.  I hope I’ve done it honorably. I hope that as we all remember how special coaches are, and we leave with a renewed commitment to wear the crown of “Coach” with an attitude of unselfishness and service. Thank you.