I remember when I first started coaching sports,
I just knew that through my sheer will and hard work, I could turn any team into a winner.
I just knew that I could even turn around a perennially losing program into a winning one.
As I have aged and become more experienced, I realize that there are very few coaches who can actually do this.
I know of 3 out of the many, many coaches I know that can do this or who have done it.
There is just something about changing the mindset of kids who have grown up and never won.
They've never won and they've heard from their elders how they never won and no one will ever win from their town.
I was lucky, I took my first head coaching job at a school that was relatively competitive and was through my 7 years, but some coaches aren't so lucky.
Some young coaches will take any job they can get because they just want to be in charge.
The problem is that if there are not players that can help you win, you won't be in charge for long.
So if you want to take a job and the players don't look that skilled and someone says "Well, the 5th grade is pretty good", or the 3rd grade, or the 6th, or any grade other than one about to enter high school, you probably won't be around to see them.
Because you will either tire of losing, or you will be fired.
If I were giving advice to a young coach, I would tell them to be very careful about the first job you take.
Not only do you want to be successful, but what you do in those first two or three years could very well follow you in trying to get your next job.
