Suit Up Sit Down: The Art of Athletic Substitution - Servant Leadership Coaching Strategies

By Norm Wilhelmi, Tom Roy and Dan Wood

Why would anyone suit up for a game, only to sit down for it? Why should they?

Author Norm Wilhelmi pours his coaching wisdom into Suit Up Sit Down from years as an award-winning, Hall of Famer, veteran athletic director and coach for baseball, basketball, and soccer. You'll find his exclusive interviews with belo

• Language: English
• Publisher: JH Media Int
• Release date: Nov 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9780999729458

Norm Wilhelmi

Norm Wilhelmi (1926-2012) spent 29 years directing athletic programs and coaching three sports -- baseball, basketball, and soccer. A graduate of Taylor University (1999 Basketball Hall of Fame) and a Masters Degree from Columbia University, he understood athletes and athletics from almost every angle. He and his lovely wife Eunice saw five children come and go from their nest and the "second half" began in the form of five grandchildren. The Wilhelmi's made their home in Montreat, North Carolina. 

Norm was more than just a coach, he was an exceptional college player himself. He was selected for the Indiana All-Star Basketball Team in 1951. He was the founder of four national sports organizations, including Christian College Baseball Tournaments and the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) 

He produced a radio show called the "Christian College News Network" from 1976-1998. It was a nationally syndicated daily Christian sports news program, providing sports coverage from small colleges to over 500 radio stations.


Book preview

Suit Up Sit Down

Suit Up Sit Down

The Art of Athletic Substitution: Servant Leadership Coaching Strategies

Norm Wilhelmi

Tom Roy

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Dan Wood

Why You Need The Bench

Introduction

1. Just What Is The Bench, Anyway?

2. Dealing With Bench Problems

3. Ignoring The Bench

4. Bench Humor

5. The Hope Factor

6. The Happy Bench

7. Advice to Coaches from Coaches

8. Bench Characters

9. Maintaining Enthusiasm on the Bench

10. The Bench for Players

11. The Cut

In Conclusion

Index

Meet The Authors

Meet The Authors

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all coaches and managers of every sport on every level of competition. I hope this book will bring attention to the major resource sitting at the elbow of each coach. It’s my desire that this book will offer insight and wisdom on how to recognize, utilize, nurture, and develop the ultimate bench.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my wife, Eunice, for suffering through the ordeal of getting this book into print. I would also like to thank Coach Jim Sziksai for his encouragement and for suggesting the title. Many coaches unselfishly shared their knowledge, wisdom, and diverse bench philosophies. Thank you all!

Foreword by Dan Wood

With just 5 months’ notice, a coach was assigned the task of fielding a men’s soccer team for his college by the next Fall. What did he know about soccer? Nothing! Which was as much as he cared to know. Basketball was his sport. However, while at the grocery store grabbing some items for his wife, he spots a 17-year-old stocker and belts out, Hey, you play soccer?

The stunned stock boy shares that he is a wrestler and had never played soccer.

Want to? asked the coach.

Why would you ask me after I told you I have never played?

Because God made me! said the coach.

That kid rode the pine before finally playing soccer at The King’s College. His Hall of Fame coaching career at Messiah College still stands as the best in Christian college soccer. The athletes he coached were trained and mentored from the pitch and from the bench. Today they are Christian, God-honoring leaders in almost every setting and owe much of their success and spiritual heritage to their coach.

That kid was Layton Shoemaker.

The original coach, the one who spotted Layton stocking shelves in a grocery store, was Norm Wilhelmi -- the author of this book and my mentor.

I knew Norm as Ole Coach and loved him from the first day I met him in April of 2000. What I thought was a one-time lunch at Cracker Barrel in Hendersonville, NC became a monthly appointment that never failed to make my 45-minute drive back to the office better than the drive up. So, tell me about the NCCAA today, Daniel, was the lead into the conversation. He enjoyed hearing about the updates, challenges, and lifting up the prayer requests.

Norm Wilhelmi had the ability to look back to his experience as NCCAA’s founder in 1968, just a small association of basketball programs from Christian colleges. He intertwined that with my own experience as the current Executive Director now with over 100 colleges and 20 championships. To hear that what was presently happening was so clearly part of his projecting decades earlier so lifted my spirit and added confirmation that God was still active in our efforts.

The Sweet Smell of Pine was the title of the 1st edition of this book that you now hold. It is Norm’s wonderful book of life from the athletic bench and has been embraced by coaches at almost every level. The challenge of what a good teammate and substitute should resonate with stars and wannabes alike. Validating the cliche that there is no I in team, Norm simply laid out that a servant-hearted competitor might need to become an asset instead of just a substitute. Biblical principles became strategies and steps toward becoming more. More helpful. More caring. More studious. More than a bench warmer.

I pray you read this modernized resharing of Norm’s original effort and bless all you know by passing your wisdom on to others as Norm did with me. As I look back at decades of wisdom being shared with myself and thousands and others, I chuckle knowing Norm’s past projections now are clearly here for us to live out and see as we all rise daily to suit up, sit down, and grow.

Norm Wilhelmi mastered the art of balancing life. With an eye to the steps behind him and another eye imagining the steps not yet taken ahead of him, he lived every day for the King and to share life. He lived every day because God told him to while balancing the lessons from yesterday and the possibilities of tomorrow. He was always teaching, mentoring, and growing. His last challenge to me had two mandates. The first was to make sure the first C (in NCCAA) stays first or it won’t last! And the second was, eat at Cracker Barrel the second Thursday of each month!

Enjoy this read. Embrace your journey. Smell the pine moments of your life. Get ready to suit up, sit down, and be challenged. Me? I am headed to Cracker Barrel!

Thank you, Ole Coach! You Made a Difference!

Dan Wood

Executive Director of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA)

Why You Need The Bench

You need this book if you’ve ever sat on the bench. That should be all of us.

You need this book if you’ve ever wondered why you’ve suited up for a game, only to sit down for the full duration of it.

You need this book if you ask others to suit up and sit down. This book has the potential to change your coaching philosophy and see every player on your team completely differently.

If you’ve ever wondered why someone would go to a college and end up primarily sitting on the bench their entire 4 years, you’re not alone. Norm Wilhelmi was intrigued by this question too.

Norm Wilhelmi was an original. He was tall, rugged, and larger than life, a mixture of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. He was a straight shooter who could make you laugh, cry, or stop and think. He left a lasting mark on many, including me. Norm Wilhelmi was a coach of coaches. He was part of the greatest generation. Who wouldn’t want to hear the thoughts of a coach who has walked the road before us?

Norm was never afraid to express an opinion and had a keen understanding of sports, especially its athletes. He looked beyond the Xs and Os into the heart of the athlete. This book will show you not only how to use your bench but how to get to know the athletes on your bench.

He had a creative mind, always thinking of ways to encourage the individuals on his team. He made it a point to learn from some of the greatest coaches of all time. Drawing from that learning and his own experience, he reveals the importance of the bench, examines the mindset of second-string athletes, and explains how they add value.

Norm was my mentor and added much value to my life, and I am confident he will add value to yours. In this book, you will learn from a legend.

What’s New in This Second Edition

Originally Norm published this book under the title The Sweet Smell of Pine and although many athletes might understand that title, in this posthumous second edition, Norm’s family and I agreed that a new title might help the book get into the hands of more readers. The modern bench is made of more than pine these days. So this edition has an equally fresh cover with added information from coaches of today.

Additionally in this second edition, wherever applicable we also updated any date reference or removed obvious gender bias which was a natural state of the culture of athletics during the original publishing date of this book. I was encouraged to see how little of that kind of updating was needed though! Sitting on