Trust the process

T
rust the process. It’s a phrase I’ve long heard when it comes to sports, and it’s one that has proven to be true. 
You always want to be playing your best at the end of the season, and to improve with every week. 
When it comes to building a winning program, coaches know that there is more to it than just stepping on the court and putting together players and a game plan — but what is the secret to executing the process in a way to achieve success at the end?
In my tenure here in Newcastle, I have watched schools like Douglas, year after year, crank out winning programs and I often wonder what they are doing there to continue to succeed. Yes, they are a bigger school, however, other schools also have their fair share of athletes who are talented.
Now, I have no idea what their secret is, but I decided to do a little digging to see what I could find and, not surprisingly, the bulk of the information out there focuses on the mental aspect of the game and bolstering a team sense of focus, rather than producing star individual athletes.
Jerome Bettis, former running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, stated in his Hall of Fame induction speech that there are four keys to greatness. He identified these as being willing to sacrifice, being willing to endure both physical and mental pain, being able to recover from failure, and most important having love. 
“You have to love what you do and love your teammates. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do the first three steps.”
These are all legitimate skills to have as an individual, but obviously to be successful as a team you need more than that. According to americanfootballinternational.com, there are four stages of building a successful program and those include learning how to compete, learning how to win, learning how to handle winning, and learning how to be a champion level program.
In each of these, the concepts identified all point to each member of the team keeping the big picture in mind and understanding that a winning team isn’t made up of individuals focused on their own success.
It involves being purposeful in your approach to your sport and playing for a cause greater than yourself. It involves being powerful and playing with passion. It involves committing to making yourself better in the off-season and taking care of yourself in all aspects of your life which means being disciplined. It also involves having confidence without developing arrogance. 
University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban states in his book entitled “How Good Do You Want to Be?” that “it’s all about being relentless in the pursuit of your goal and resilient in the face of bad luck and adversity.”
Imagine a team made up of athletes with that mind-set. 
The NFHS also identifies keys to building a successful program which focuses on recognizing and rewarding team-focused behaviors rather than on individual achievements, encouraging communication which builds trust and dependence on the team as a whole, investing in the leaders of the team and relying on them to shape the attitudes and beliefs of the group, and giving team members ownership of the program. 
It is also important to keep raising the bar. Setting and achieving goals is great, however if we don’t set the bar higher each time we reach a goal, we have a tendency to become complacent and ease up. A winning program has to keep pushing for the next goal and the next achievement.
Winning programs also include more than just players and coaches. It’s a community who must support the team, whether that’s athletic directors, parents, feeder program coaches or whomever. Everyone needs to be on the same page and they need to buy into the program’s philosophy, working together to achieve the goals set therein. 
Every one of the steps identified in all of the sources I referenced involve instilling life skills that go far beyond simply having a winning sports team. Achieving this is obviously easier said than done but though it may be a challenge, I’m thinking that striving to teach our young people these values is worth the struggle.