Can you answer, ‘Yes, my season was successful?’

By Kevin Merkle

Associate Director MSHSL

Another winter tournament season has concluded, and we congratulate those teams and individuals who won titles, and to those teams and individuals who had the opportunity to participate in the state tournaments. These teams and individuals, along with their coaches, worked extremely hard to develop the skills, strategies, teamwork, discipline, and competitive edge necessary to be successful. For that they should be commended.

Since one of the major functions of the League is to organize and run the state tournaments, we tend to focus on the successful teams and individuals — those that advance and participate in the tournaments. We may sometimes forget about the many teams that just weren’t good enough or fortunate enough to advance. Yet, we trust that the many educational values that are at the core of our activity programs are present in those programs, just as they prevail in the fortunate few that advance to the state level and receive recognition.

Congratulations are in order not only for the state champions and the state tournament participants, but to all of you who had successful seasons. Most of those who did not make the tournaments worked as hard or harder to improve and develop the skills necessary for success. There are many ways in which we can measure success other than by wins and losses. Every time someone wins, someone else loses, so when we measure alone on wins and loses, at best half of our teams/individuals are successful.

The true purpose of our activity programs is the education that our participants receive outside of the normal classroom. While those who made it to state had the opportunity to have a state tournament experience and build very special memories, the rest of you also had many special experiences throughout the regular season. Experiences offer opportunities to build memories that will also last a lifetime, and also the opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge and the many other positive values that come from participation in our athletic/activity programs.

Except for a very small group of undefeated teams and individuals, all participants had the opportunity to win and to lose — to learn and grow from both experiences. How would your participants answer the following questions: How did we react after a win; what did we learn? How did we react to a loss; what did we learn? Did we bounce back? Did we work a little bit harder to get better? Did we learn to make adjustments? Did we continue to give great effort? Did we continue to be a good teammate? Did we help our teammates get better? Did we continue to show good sportsmanship? Did we continue to build positive relationships with our teammates, coaches, and opponents? Did we continue to wear our school colors and represent our community with pride?

While it is usually easier to do all of the above while winning, this can also be accomplished when we lose. We can’t always control the score, or the ability of our opponents, or the calls of the officials, or the injuries, or the “breaks,” or the bounce of the ball — all of which will affect the outcome of a game. But we can control our own attitude and effort, and by doing so we can answer yes to the above questions. More importantly, these skills and values will lead to success in any endeavor. If you were an employer, would you want your employees to answer yes to those questions?

This is the true challenge for all of us — coaches, ADs and administrators — to make sure students learn these values whether they win or lose in competition. As a leader of programs how would you answer the following: What did I do to make sure that my team was successful, beyond the wins and the losses? Did I build positive relationships with those that I coached and worked with? Did they know that I cared about them as individuals? Did the participants develop and improve the skills and techniques involved in that sport or activity? Did the participants learn to control their emotions and to overcome adversity? Did they learn and develop healthy habits that will benefit them throughout their lives? Did they learn to be respectful? Did they learn how to manage their time?

If you can answer yes to all or most of these questions, you did have a successful season, and you too should be congratulated!

Let’s also not forget that we have the responsibility to continually share this message with our students, and more importantly, with our parents and community. That is also part of the education process. As program leaders we must educate our parents and communities about the true value of participation in our co-curricular programs. Our programs are not just about winning and losing, and we can always be successful. We all want to win, and we should always be striving to win, but we must teach and remind others that the skills and values learned by simple participation are much more important. Those lessons can be learned regardless of making it to state.

For those of you who have just completed your winter season, or even those whose most recent season was completed last fall, take time to reflect on your season and to ask the questions shared earlier. How would your participants answer? Consider asking them directly. Use that information to help you make changes and adjustments.

Those of you involved in spring sports have most of the season in front of you. It’s not too late to make adjustments for this season. Take time to reflect on the true purpose of your programs. Take time to look at the bigger picture. Take control of the things you can control, and ensure that all of your seasons are successful.