Coaching To Change Lives

In my last school we had a 35 minute activity period in which I had all my football players in. We originally used it to show film, chalk-talk, etc. but after I got the Coaching to Change Lives program materials, I began to utilize it in this period. Worked great.

I use this daily throughout the football season. I am in a different building (Elem); otherwise, I might try to incorporate something each and everyday.


We try to find a story pertinent to the upcoming week, whether overcoming adversity, playing together, responsibility, etc. We normally do one a week, but if we feel that they are not understanding the importance we may continue into the next week. One of our favorite ones is a poem called "The Cold Within". Basically this is a poem about different cultures, ethnicity, SES, etc and they each have their own log to help start and continue the fire to continue to burn. We relate this to our football team basically saying that if each one of us is important in their own way, and by everyone pitching in playing to win, doing their own part, we will have a great opportunity to be victorious at the end of the night. However, the more selfish acts, the colder the fire gets and less chance for us to be victorious at the end of the night.



We hand out copies to each player (only about 40) and try to incorporate them as much as possible. They do the readings aloud, answer questions aloud, and participate as a group. Makes it easier for the coaches and they tend to participate better when they do not know when they will be called upon to read or answer a question.



I was not the one who bought the booklet, it was the coach before me. He didn't utilize it much, and I sat and listened to some coaches at a clinic a couple of years back talking about it. Asked questions and realized this is something that I needed to bring to our program. The other source I listened to was Gary Halverson from Woodbury High School in Minnesota. Listened to him at the Glazier Clinic last year, and to me, just reaffirmed why I take time to utilize this in my football program.

If money is an issue, try to get together with a couple of other coaches and have them split the cost with you. Maybe try to split cost with the basketball, football, and wrestling coaches or something like that.

I used it in my program as well, but you have to stick with it for it to work. we stayed on one example for the whole year. IF YOU DO THE THING YOU WILL HAVE THE POWER.