RESPECT yourself, RESPECT the team, RESPECT the game, and RESPECT the opponent enough to play your best
The second part of our motto is Team. Players and Coaches must respect the team. This is accomplished by many small actions that add up to something big.
- Proper Preparation for practice and games. A player/coach must come prepared to give maximum effort at every practice and game. This means proper nutrition, rest, and mental readiness. At each meal the player/coach should choose to respect the team by eating healthy. The player/coach must take care of school/work and family obligations so their focus can be 100% on the sport. Lingering assignments or obligations tend to take away focus. Proper preparation also includes all equipment and clothing is clean and ready – don’t leave something in your car/locker/home. The most important part of being prepared is to be ON TIME. This is critical when practice time is limited. When the team is waiting on one person to get started it disrespects and devalues the time of the entire team.
- Be a good teammate. A player/coach must think and aware of their own actions and words to ensure it is being helpful and not hurtful to the team. A coach can yell and push the players to give maximum effort only after that coach has proven that this is being done for the good of the team. How do you prove that you ask? The most direct way is to point out improvement after the team is yelled at or encouraged. Then remind the team that yelling is not preferred – the preferred method is for the team to do it right each time without raising your voice. A player can accidently hurt the team by excluding a teammate or otherwise demonstrating that teammate is not valued. Other players must watch out for this and be aware it takes everyone to build a championship.
- Caring about team culture. It is understandable that no one like to work in a hostile environment. That does not encourage anyone to give their best effort. The culture of the team is so critical and so misunderstood. It is also a careful balance that must be monitored daily.