I wonder what the difference is in benching a star college athlete for a DUI for the championship game and benching a NFL player for the super bowl. It cannot be age because both are of an age to get a DUI. It must be the money. I get it! College athletes are not paid! Right!!! Maybe keeping your job might have something to do with it as a NFL coach is more likely to lose it if he were to follow thru and discipline a player. If character matters then the level of the athletic playing field should not matter.

I was watching the NBA championship game Sunday night between the L.A. Lakers and the Orlando Magic. The Lakers easily won their 15th championship as a franchise and the 10th for head coach Phil Jackson. That’s a new NBA record.

After the game Lakers guard Derek Fisher was asked what made Jackson such a great coach. Without hesitation he said that that Jackson didn’t coach them as much as he “empowered” them to succeed.

Jackson made the team believe in his system and in their ability to execute it successfully. Then he allowed them the freedom to express themselves within that system.

What a wonderful thing to say and what a wonderful way to play. A coach who empowers his or her players gives up a certain amount of control, but in the long run builds a team that believes in itself.

One of Phil Jackson’s favorite sayings is, “The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf.”

Empower you players, don’t rule them.

I heard an interesting interview with British Open and PGA champion Padrig Harrington the other day. He was asked what motivated him to play so well. You see if he wins The Masters this week that will be three major championships in a row.

But Padrig simply said he was motivated by fear.

“Each week I’m afraid that I’ll miss the cut and won’t even be around for the weekend,” he said.

We all push so hard to try and be confident. To believe that we’re champions way down deep inside. Coaches try to tell us that, and yet here’s a champion telling us a fear of failure can be a powerful motivator as well.

If all the rah, rah hype doesn’t work for you, that’s fine. Find whatever it is that clicks for you and use it.

Coach each kid individually, not just the way you expect them to be.

Two weeks ago I went golfing twice in one week, which is a rarity for me and I was in a pretty good flow. Shot 81 and an 83 easily, and if it hadn’t been for a few bad double bogeys I’d have been in the 70’s.

I don’t play enough to be very good, so this was sweet. I was in the zone, able to concentrate, read the greens, and for the most part, hit shots where I wanted to. So when I went out to play this week I was pumped, expecting to build on what I’d started, but that dream came crashing down on the first hole.

I double bogeyed. “That’s OK,” I thought, “I’ll get back in the zone and hold steady from there.” It never happened. My mind played games with me. I kept thinking about the swing instead of where I was going. I couldn’t read the greens and never found the line.

When the struggle ended I’d shot a 90. The trouble with me is that I expect too much of myself and grind over myself when I don’t do it. I’ll bet a lot of you do the same.

A good coach teaches a young athlete that some days you got it and some days you don’t, so don’t beat yourself up over it. Plus on the coaches side, don’t expect them to be perfect all the time. If you need to be reminded about this, just go out and play a round of golf.

Tiger Woods held his first press conference yesterday, in preparation for his return to the PGA tour this weekend. He’s been out for eight months after reconstructive knee surgery on a torn ACL.  He said there were times when he was discouraged, but fought through that and says his legs are now stronger than ever before.

We can all learn something from those last two statements.

Getting discouraged is normal, but there’s nothing wrong with it. Pushing through and becoming even stronger is taking the bull by the horns and making the best of a tough situation.

When he was asked if he’ll be nervous when he tees it up for the first time on Thursday he said “Sure, but being nervous is fine, it shows that you care”.

That’s the kind of statement we can all take to the bank.  Forget about the guy who tells you just to relax. I can’t do it and Tiger’s telling me it’s not about being nervous, it’s what you do when you’re nervous that counts.

That’ll set you free won’t it?

Thanks Tiger. I hope coaches everywhere are listening in.

Like most people I was disgusted by the coach of the Covenent Christian Girls basketball team that beat Dallas Academy 100-0.  He allowed them to run up the score and then had the nerve to refuse to apologize for it, saying it would be a slap against his girls for playing the game the way it should be played and with integrity.

He was fired by the school for his actions and lack of sportsmanship.

Funny thing is, it reminded me that in 1916, Georgia Tech beat Cumberland College from Lebanon, Tennessee 222-0 in a football game, apparently payback for Cumberland’s baseball team beating Tech 22-0 earlier that summer.

The Irony is that the coach of Georgia Tech was John Heisman, for whom the Heisman trophy is presented each year to the outstanding college football player in the country.

So have times change?  Is football different than basketball? Maybe, but the common element in all of this is the coach. The coach is the one who either feeds or calls off the “dogs”, and by doing so sets an example for his players and the legacy that he leaves behind.

Despite all his wins, I’ve never had much respect for John Heisman. His legacy was stamped 222-0, and tells me he couldn’t control himself.

I did an interview the other day with the outgoing executive director of the TSSAA, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which is the governing body for all of high school athletics in the state of Tennessee.

Ronnie Carter is retiring after 23 years as the director and 42 years overall as a coach and administrator in the school system.  He told me that one of the most disturbing issues that he has to face is the growing number of parents who either move or actually get divorced in order for their son or daughter to be able to enroll and play at a high school of their choice that’s not in their district.

By divorcing, one parents stays in the original house and the other moves into the new district.  He went on to tell me that he got involved in a case where five sets of parents, who’s kids had played basketball together on AAU teams, all got together and decided that they wanted their sons to play on the same high school team.  So two of the parents moved and three got divorces so they all enrolled at the same school at the same time. The trouble, for me is that the new coach let them.

As Ronnie put it, the job of the TSSAA is to set minimal guidelines.  He said it was up to the coaches and principles to expand and enforce those standards.

The problem, Ronnie said, is that you can’t enforce morality.  If winnning is all that matters to a coach, then nothing else matters.

I watched greatness at work the other night. John Jenkins is a 6-4 senior guard at Station Camp High School in Gallatin, TN. He’s a four-star recruit and one of the top shooting guards in the country who’s already commited to Vanderbilt for next year.

He’s pure silk on the basketball court and scored 57 points in that one game. He’s averaging 44.5 points per game while shooting over 55 percent from the field. What impressed me the most was the day after scoring 57, his coach told me that John apologized to him for scoring that much. His whole aim was to make his teammates better. When I interviewed him he told me that he’d won enough personal awards already in the career. He was more interested in team goals.

I asked his coach where John got that attitude from and he told me it came from home. His parents had instilled in him a desire to learn in the classroom and excell on the basketball court. He was a self motivated, none egotistical young man whose head could be too big for any hat size, but that’s not what he’s made of or how he was raised.

Great coaching starts at home.

I was at the Tennessee state high school football championships this past week and saw something I’ve rarely seen in years of covering team sports.

In the Class 4A championship game, unbeaten Maryville was taking on Hillsboro High School from Nashville. Maryville came in having won 74 games in a row and four state championships in a row. They were heavily favored to be Hillsboro.  Their coach is George Quarles, a quiet, caring, but competitive man who actually allowed our camera’s into his locker room before the game.

Quarles walked around the room hugging and shaking the hands of every one of his players. He didn’t give a rah rah speech. Instead, he just encouraged for each player individually.

I watched him on the sidelines throughout the game and he conducted himself the same way despite the fact that his team committed a number of uncharacteristic turnovers and wound up losing the game 10-7.

I was curious to see how he and his team would react to the loss, and to my amazement Quarles and his team didn’t hold their heads down even though I knew they were bitterly disappointed.  They walked straight over to the Hillsboro players and I heard them say over and over, “good job or good game.”

Then at the trophy presentation Quarles led his team out with a smile on his face and offered thanks for the runner-up trophy which the players on his team lifted with enthusiasm. The runner-up trophy mind you. The 74-game winning streak was snapped, and yet they conducted themselves with class and dignity.

I can see why they’ve won so much and why they’ll win again. They’re coached by a man who “coaches for life” and lives what he preaches.