Win or lose, coaches must do so gracefully

Win or lose, church-sponsored teams are usually expected to maintain a consistent attitude. Thus, coaches walk a fine line of motivating their team to win without losing perspective of creating a positive experience for all involved.
   
“You can say what you want, but when you get into competitive sports, it’s intense. You’re out there to do your best, but you also have to learn how to lose gracefully,” said Chuck Shepherd, District 2 (Etowah Baptist Association) coordinator of RA/Challenger program. 
   
“I think it is a mistake for people to assume that if you are keeping score in a game that you should not be concerned about who wins or loses, whether ‘church ball’ or any type of varsity sport at a high school,” said John H. Merrill, an RA Crusaders basketball coach at Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa. 
   
Vigorous players winning games can be a positive motivation for a church team, he noted.
   
He further explained his view, saying that many people focus on the meek, mild, non-confrontational, soft aspects of Jesus, but this characterization is an incomplete understanding of who he was. “I think if Jesus played basketball, if basketball had been around 2000 years ago, I think that he would have gone after every loose ball, dived for every rebound, jumped to block shots, but I think if a person went down, he’d be the first one to help them up,” he said.
   
“Some people don’t like the way I coach. Some say I’m too hard or not positive enough; I’m very vocal with my kids and expect them to perform at high levels,” he said.
   
“I have some who really can’t play a lick and some who are superstars.  I’ve coached some who have gone on and played college ball and some who didn’t play again, but I invested the same in all of them,” he said.
   
Woven into his tough methods are lessons on losing.
   
“It is very important that they understand that you expect them to act the same whether they win or lose. If you play enough, you’re going to lose, and people learn more about you from watching you lose than seeing you when you win,” Merrill said.  “It’s hard to maintain a positive attitude and a significant Christlike appearance when you’re doing that.”
   
Merrill currently coaches 5th and 6th grade RA Crusaders basketball at Calvary.  In big letters their jerseys state: “Christ,” then below that in progressively smaller letters, come “Team” and “Me.”
   
Merrill encourages churches seeking a coach to find someone who has an interest in coaching that goes beyond their son or daughter being on the team. Merrill, for instance, began coaching in 1981, but didn’t have children of his own until 1990 and they didn’t begin playing organized sports until 1995.
   
“I got into it because I wanted to help kids achieve a level of participation and competition that I didn’t have at that age,” he said.
   
Whether a team consists of kids, teens or adults, it is the coaches that set the attitudes and philosophies that govern their behavior. “Behavior is an extension of the coach,” Shepherd said.
   
He said there must be guidelines of behavior that are applicable to not only the team, but also the coaches, and if anyone does not follow these rules, there are penalties to pay. Penalties could range from sitting out a game or two, to being off the team for the season.