Leadership Thoughts from "A Season of Life"

"A Season of Life" is a book written by Pulitzer Prize winner, Jeffrey Marx. Marx profiles the 2001 football season for Gilman High School in Maryland. One of Gilman's assistant coaches is Joe Ehrmann, a former Baltimore Colt and now a minister. Marx shows how Ehrmann and the rest of the Gilman coaching staff use their roles to lead their players into becoming much more than football players but most importantly, men. Marx writes about many of the discussions he and Ehrmann had during the season. In one of these discussions, Ehrmann gives his take on leadership...

"It's gotta be based on some kind of moral, ethical foundation. You can't just go with the flow in life. There's a broad road and a narrow road, and you have to learn how to courageously stand up on some kind of foundation, some kind of principle, make decisions, be a leader, and go that way. It takes great courage to lead in the right direction...and especially at the age of the boys on our football team. In the midst of all of the peer pressure, the whole social setting, it takes tremendous courage to stick to the right values because they're often gonna find themselves at odds with the rest of their peer group."

Tony Hinkle's Offensive System and Other Thoughts

Coach Paul D. Tony Hinkle served Butler University as head basketball, football, and baseball coach, and athletic director, over the course of six different decades. Most of his coaching success came as head basketball coach at Butler, where he coached from the 1926-27 season and ended the 1969-70 season (Coach Hinkle coached at Great Lakes Naval Training Center from 1942-45 where he was stationed during World War II.)

Among Coach Hinkle’s greatest accomplishments include the 1929 National Collegiate Championship, having his name put on Butler’s historic Fieldhouse, and being inducted into the Nasimith Basketball Hall of Fame. Coach Hinkle was extremely innovative, as well. One of his great contributions to the game was his idea of using the orange basketball.

The following thoughts on Coach Hinkle came from Howard Caldwell’s 1991 book “Tony Hinkle: Coach for All Seasons.”

“THE HINKLE SYSTEM” – Coach Hinkle’s Offensive System
- Constant movement between pairs of players on the floor
- Coach Hinkle worked out an array of 14 two-man exercises designed to block out defensive players; today they’re known as picks and screens
- Concentrated on getting good percentage shots, since most teams were bigger than Butler
- The offensive drill on the first day of practice with Hinkle was identical to the offensive drill on the final day of practice.
- Hinkle wanted habits so deeply ingrained in his players that they would respond to changing situations without thinking.

COACH HINKLE ON RECRUITING…
No matter how competitive the search for player prospects became, Butler’s coach never wanted a kid who had been talked into a commitment. He wanted the prospect to get a factual rundown of what Butler was all about…He was proud of the university’s academic reputation, a reputation that carried over into a strict interpretation of the rules as they pertained to athletes.

COACH HINKLE ON BEING SUCCESSFUL…
His basic approach was to remind everybody that success depended on the team as a unit, not on the individual. What better way to remind them of that concept than to use the word “kid”, a number, a hometown, or an abbreviated form of the name.

Brad Stevens Thoughts and Defensive DNA - Final 4 Part 4 of 5

8 COMPONENTS THAT MAKE A GREAT TEAMMATE…
1. Selflessness
2. Honesty – “Truth is a prerequisite of trust.”
3. Accountability – “We have accountable people. When you don’t, you can’t improve.”
4. Respect
5. Passion – “Kids have to love the game.”
6. Enthusiasm – “Attitude is everything.”
7. No doubts
8. Servanthood – “If you want to lead, serve first.”

ON WHAT IS NEEDED TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN BASKETBALL…
“The game honors toughness.”

ON EXCELLENCE…
"Success is having something. Excellence is being something."

ON BEING WHO YOU ARE…
"We're Butler and we're going to be Butler. We're going to be as good as we can be, but we're not going to be something else."

BRAD STEVENS’ DEFENSIVE PRINCIPLES…
These were notes from the University of Florida Coaches’ Clinic last August. Thanks to Mark Daigneault for providing these:

Coach Stevens developed these 6 Defensive "DNA" Principles because he was coaching six freshmen who needed to learn how to play their defensive system.
1. Commitment - In 11 years, he never had a player in the program that worked his tail off on the defensive end that wasn’t a great teammate and student.
2. Positioning – Starts with transition.
3. Prioritization – The goal is to stop the other team from scoring.
4. Awareness – Awareness can allow a marginal athlete to become a very good defender – more so than a great athlete with marginal awareness.
5. Execution/Technique – Technique is easy to work on in individuals (workouts).
6. Completion – The importance of finishing plays (blocking out)