The Extra Champions Have

The other day, I was driving and listening to ESPNU on the radio. They were having a discussion about what college coaches look for in athletes. The obvious was that it starts with physical characteristics- size, strength, speed. The consensus of most of the coaches was that while many athletes share impressive physical characteristics, champions have a different set of psychological or personal qualities. Listening to this discussion, it became obvious to me that high school, college, and pro coaches all are looking for some very important intangibles in their athletes.

Passion- This past winter, Loyola’s Porter Mosher talked about his experience working as an assistant for the legendary coach, Rick Majerus. Mosher described coming back from a recruiting trip, and describing players he had observed. He would describe how they moved, their athleticism, and how they could shoot. According to Mosher, Majerus would at some point interrupt and ask, “Yes, but does he love the game?” Majerus view was that to become a champion you had to invest incredible time and sweat. And you could not put the time and sweat needed unless you loved what you were doing.

The point of Majerus, to become a champion, basketball must be a priority. To become great, it has to be something you WANT to do.

Ability to Grow- On the radio program, Nick Saban said he liked to get athletes who had maybe not been the best student or best player as freshmen or sophomores in high school. He liked to get athletes who had shown an ability to grow.

Coaches want players who will grow, players who are not satisfied. All of us have seen the junior high star who may be a little full of themselves, and by their senior year they aren’t even playing. Players need a level of humility, which lets them recognize, “I need to get better.”

Often the big jump for a college player is from their freshmen year to their sophomore year. Their freshmen year, they are trying to compete with and against 21-22 year old men or women. It can be a real eye opener. As a result, that experience gives the player to work to improve in the off-season.

Culture of Accountability- They say that Bill Belichick sits down with every player and every staff member to explain exactly what is expected of them. The message is that this is your job, this is what is expected, you are accountable to do this.

Successful players and successful teams accept accountability for what they do. Losing teams and unsuccessful players often fail to accept responsibility- they play the blame game. When things don’t go right, the unsuccessful blame a teammate, blame the ref, or blame the coach. The bottom line is that they don’t ever blame themselves. To grow and to improve, you have to accept responsibility, you have to be accountable for what is going on.