Thom Sigel, the retired basketball coach at Rock Island, has always been one of good guys in coaching. He is intense and highly competitive, but he also showed himself to be a man of principles. Sports are in schools to teach important life lessons to young people. Thom used sports to teach important life values.
Thom is a religious man. He has been involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athlete's Coaching Huddle for over twenty years. I hope to do two blog posts centered on the FCA Coach Huddle. The first part is this post, with Thom describing what the group is, how it has impacted him, and how coaches could get involved. Later, I plan to do a post where 4-5 coaches in the group share how their faith has impacted their coaching.
Massey- When did the FCA Coaches' Huddle start up? How long have you been attending the FCA Coaches' Huddle?
Sigel- I am not actually sure exactly if the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Coaches' Huddle started before I was involved, or it was about the same time. I have been attending since around 2002 or 2003.
Massey- How did FCA Coaches' Huddle get started?
Sigel- Tim Schneckloth was the Director of the Illowa FCA and started the coaches huddles on Thursday mornings. It started out small, with usually only 5-6 attending, and the location moved around a few times. The state split with Dan Pearson in charge of the Northwest Illinois FCA, and I joined the 3 Rivers FCA segment of his area, I also began helping Dave Anderson organize the continuation of our Coaches Huddle.
Massey- How many are involved and is it all face to face meetings?
Sigel- We have had a small core continue to meet, but we have been able to grow with the use of Zoom. We meet Thursday mornings 6:30-7:15, but this year we are adding some Sunday evening Zoom meetings and social events to reach out to more coaches. Some coaches are able to meet with us for breakfast in Milan, but about half use the Zoom link to join in either at home or from work. We have grown to about 10-15 each week with retired coaches as well as coaches from Geneseo, Rock Island, Erie, Bureau Valley, Sterling Newman, and Pontiac.
Massey- Is this group open to new members?
Sigel- We continue to reach out to more coaches who wish to be involved. We would love to have women coaches and those from outside the QC who are interested, reach out to join in.
Massey- What do the meetings mean to you personally?
Sigel- I know many of us over the years have felt that starting out our Thursday mornings with our meetings is rejuvenating. Personally, even though it is busy when in-season, those Thursday mornings were even more beneficial. I made sure to get up and be there every week.
Massey- Our your meetings structured with something like lesson plans?
Sigel- While we find materials to base the meetings on, I think we all appreciate the discussions, stories that we share, and the laughs we have when we get a little off topic. This year we will spend a few weeks in the new version of the FCA Coaches' Handbook. I feel like the many resources over the years have helped me stay grounded and grow as a coach and as a Christian. There have been numerous times I wish I would have been exposed to topics we cover when I was a young coach.
Massey- If a coach is interested, how would they go about getting involved in the group?
Sigel- The easiest way coaches who have an interest in the 3 Rivers FCA Coaches Huddle is to email me at tsigel@fca.org . I can email them more details and make sure I add them to our email list so they can get the Zoom links and any materials I send out.
Massey- I appreciate Thom sharing information about the FCA Coaches' Huddle. I will be doing a follow-up post where some of the individual coaches will talk about their experiences with the group and about how their faith has impacted their coaching.
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