Every parent, without exception, wants his or her child to succeed at school and at school sports. Likewise, every educator wants to feel that they have been successful in teaching the students placed in their care. Athletic direc­tors and coaches, without exception, want that too. But what is success? John Wooden, one of the greatest coaches of all time, defined success as “peace of mind, which is a di­rect result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the ef­fort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” The goal of an athletics program must be to gain this peace of mind among students, staff, and parents by developing Christian character: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, hold­ing promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Tim 4:8).

Student success⤒🔗

Professional sports place a high value (literally and fig­uratively) on winning. In Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy, for­mer NFL coach writes,

Society tends to define success in terms of accomplish­ments and awards, material possessions, and profit margins. In the football business, winning is the only thing that matters. God’s Word, however, presents a different definition of success – one centered on a re­lationship with Jesus Christ and a love for God that al­lows us to love and serve others. God gives each one of us unique gifts, abilities and passions. How well we use those qualities to have an impact on the world around us determines how ‘successful’ we really are (143).

Too often, Christian school communities use winning as the primary factor in defining the success of their athletes and teams. Instead, success must be gauged by how well the coaches and student-athletes use their special interests and abilities to have an impact on everyone around them. A school’s athletics program should equip students with skills, not just physical skills, but also emotional, mental, and spiritual; these skills will empower them to be faithful servants of God, as good husbands, wives, friends, siblings, children, church members, colleagues etc.

Character development must occur in a successful ath­letics program, or else the program will be characterized by entitlement and bad attitudes. Here are some ways that these negative characteristics can manifest themselves in your student-athletes: they feel above the law, ridicule those at school who don’t play sports, show disrespect to­wards officials, coaches, opponents, and teammates (hazing being an extreme example), exhibit a lack of commitment (including missing practices, classes, team required activi­ties), or break the student code of conduct. Student-athletes need to be aware that they publicly represent Christ and their school; as such, their conduct should be exemplary. School sports are also a tremendous way to enhance lead­ership amongst the student body. Star athletes and/or cap­tains should not get special privileges in a classroom, locker room, or on the court/field/track; in fact, it’s probably best for them if more was expected of them. Influence comes with responsibilities, not perks (Dungy 2007, p. 159).

Creating a successful program: the role of the school←⤒🔗

For a school to have a successful athletics program, the athletic director must be actively involved in the program. This requires an appropriate amount of administration time, as well as the wisdom to know how to balance work and personal life. Too often athletic directors are young and inexperienced. Energetic and enthusiastic educators are highly valuable but are often given important adminis­trative tasks without any training or experience, and their passion can sometimes blind them to how much their work is wearing them out. Personally, I look back on my first few years as an athletic director when I had no administrative experience or training; I took the job with a lot of enthu­siasm but was ignorant of how much effort it was going to take and the administrative demands that came with the job. I made many mistakes and had much to learn. I frequently felt worn out. Criticism was dispiriting. I have grown through my experiences and through education, but the process was often overwhelming. To have a success­ful sports program, athletic directors need an appropriate amount of administrative time and access to professional development, which requires support from the adminis­tration and board: take advantage of the skill and energy of these teachers, but don’t take advantage of them.

So, what is all this effort, energy, and enthusiasm put into? Hopefully your school has a written vision and mis­sion statement. That statement can be foundational in creating documents such as parent handbooks (including parent/guardian and athlete contracts, spectator expec­tations, travel rules etc.), coaches’ handbooks (including codes of conduct, observation procedures etc.), and oth­er school-specific documentation. It is also wise to create playing time policies. Once these are in place, they need to be administered and maintained; one very helpful way to do that is to have regularly scheduled meetings with stake­holders (e.g. administration, parents, and coaches).

Athletic directors are also responsible for motivating and inspiring students with special interests and abilities to use and develop their skills to their utmost, and to God’s glory. The program should inspire students to be uncommon through work ethic, not through skill (Dungy, 2007, p. 29).

A crucial task for athletic directors is in finding coach­es who understand that their most important task is to teach, and that physical training has value, but godliness has more. Often, we want coaches who are experts in the specific sport, but most failings are spiritual, not tactical (Dungy, 2007, p. 87). Athletic directors need to be wise in choosing whom they work with; choose the best teachers over the best tacticians. An objective of an athletics pro­gram should be “to use athletics to build positive attitudes and provide positive experiences” (Brown, 2003, p. 27).

That is why enlisting great coaches must be a priority of a program. We shouldn’t underestimate what impact a posi­tive role model at a school can have on a child, and sports is a terrific way for teachers to build special relationships with students.

Respect is an important characteristic of a successful school sports program. We live in hyper-critical world, and a Christian school should not be contributing to this. A successful sports program will be known for the respect that players, coaches, and parents show towards officials, opponents, and each other. This includes coaches modelling respect in their communication with officials (including the fifteen-year-old scorekeeper who made an error) and talking respectfully about opponents. Modelling respect, however, needs to start at the home.

Maintaining success: the role of parents←⤒🔗

Spiritual preparation is important for parents to pro­vide a proper Christian perspective on sports to their child. Parents need to be intentional and reflective about how they view success for their child on the court/field/track; place value on physical training (or else don’t sign your child up for school sports), but it should complement godly charac­ter (and certainly not come at its expense). I don’t know of any schools that have too many volunteers for coaching po­sitions. One of the reasons that often comes up for choos­ing not to coach is negative experiences with parents. This is troubling feedback to hear in Christian communities, es­pecially when coaches in Canada are almost always volun­teers (and that includes teachers who coach).

In his video, The Role of Parents in Athletics, Bruce Brown specifies the four roles in an athletic contest: spectator, coach, official, and participant. He advises parents (as spec­tators) to release their children to the game. A successful sports program has parents who respect their children enough to let them play and have fun. They don’t try to coach, officiate, or live vicariously through their child. They show respect for officials and their decisions, during and after the game. They support the coach when he/she makes decisions such as substitutions and game strategies. If they disagree with a coach, they will follow the rule of Matthew 18 and not criticize the coach to the other spectators, or their children, but instead will approach the coach directly (but wait at least twenty-four hours so that the conversa­tion is not emotionally driven). They might even empower their child to respectfully talk to the coach.

As both an athletic director and coach, I have grown im­mensely through incredibly positive and thankful parents (who make up the vast majority of parents I have worked with) who offer constructive criticism in a positive, Chris­tian manner. Negative feedback, however, can often be harsh – not upbuilding, but dispiriting. Even worse is when it is heard through a secondary source and the criticism is rash and unheard (see Lord’s Day 43).

For a school sports program to be successful, parents need to speak positively about the coaches, officials, and players at the dinner table or during the car ride home, supporting administrative decisions, even if they disagree with them (again, following the rule of Matthew 18 if they do not). If the parents in our communities show disrespect to officials, athletic directors, coaches, and players, how do we expect to develop respectful attitudes among the stu­dents? A school sport program cannot be successful if any part of it is disrespectful.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

It is important to always remind ourselves that kids want to play and want to learn. A successful program must facilitate both. Have you ever heard a baseball game start with an umpire calling, “Work Ball!” (Dungy 2007, p. 49)? Schools must ensure that sports are in the school for kids to play. Let’s ensure that students hear, “Play Ball!” – and not just in words. For a sports program to be a success, directors, coaches, and parents must ensure that the stu­dents are enjoying their learning to play in a program that values physical training, but values godliness even more. If we stick to learning and having fun while focussing on Christian character, it’s unlikely that anyone will feel like failures; instead, peace of mind will be for all.