One Team / One Family: Winning Is a Lifestyle

By Mark Maas

One Team / One Family: Winning Is a Lifestyle, reflects the belief that building character, trust, and positive chemistry among teammates is at the core of success. Whether in the realm of athletics, the corporate boardroom, on the factory floor, or in schools and offices across America, this book provides a blueprint for success. Sharing stories from a forty-year career in teaching and coaching, Mark lays out the fundamental principles for building team relationships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888511985

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Coach

Coming Home

The Family

Jake

Altruism

Building Team Leaders

Don't Drink the Poison

Learning Abilities

Track and Field Interrupted

The Myth of Winning

The Italian Stallion

Staying in the Moment

Building Trust

Failure

Epilogue

About the Author

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One Team / One Family

Winning Is a Lifestyle

Mark Maas

ISBN 979-8-88851-197-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88851-198-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Mark Maas

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Foreword

In the pages that follow, Coach Mark Maas shares with us, the readers, stories from his life long experience as The Coach…not only a coach, not only a sports coach, but his experiences as The Coach! His message is personal…it is real…it is genuine…it is intimate…it is challenging…it is encouraging…it is honest…it is revealing…it is inspiring…and, it is the truth!

This is a message that every person who sees Coach in their mirror each morning should read, whether you are a new coach, just getting started, or a long-experienced coach, nearing retirement or even are retired, or a coach somewhere in between…or even if you are not yet a coach, but you are dreaming about and thinking about wanting to become a coach. Yes, if you are any of these, you need to read and consider what Coach Maas is sharing.

And, this is a message that should be read by every parent of an athlete, an athlete of any age or gender or ability or level of competition! Who is coaching your kid? What do they know and understand? What and how and why are they coaching? What do they value? Parents need to read be informed and encouraged by Coach Maas' simple, yet brilliant, true stories from his life as The Coach!

Kids matter!

Coaches matter!

Kids meet sport at the Coach! The Coach is the Definer, the Creator, the Provider and the Deliverer of the sport experience! Coaches do this by what they know and what they don't know, by what they do and what they don't do, by what they say and what they don't say, by what behaviors they allow and those that they don't allow, by what they value and don't value!

In short, the Coach can Make or Break the experience of every team, every athlete, every kid that they have the opportunity and responsibility to serve as their Coach!

Certainly, coaches are responsible to be knowledgeable and skilled teachers of the physical, technical, tactical and mental aspects of their sport, of the game! Unfortunately, and too frequently, coaches' attention is focused on coaching the sport, coaching the game, when in fact, coaching is really all about coaching the kids who play the game!

Coaching is all about the relationship that one person, the Coach, has with another or several others, where the intention is for the Coach to share with the other or others in such a way that at some designated time in the future, the others will be better, and ostensibly because of the efforts and influence of the Coach! Thus, Coaching is really all about…

Teaching, Guiding, Encouraging, Building, Believing, Caring, Sharing, Giving, Forgiving, Expecting, Respecting, Modeling, Serving and Inspiring!

This is real Coaching! In every chapter of Coach Maas' One Team/One Family, Winning is a Lifestyle, you will see, recognize, become informed, encouraged and inspired to be that special Coach! Whether in sport, in the family, in the workplace, in public service, or even all of the above, this book holds meaning and encouragement for everyone!

Enjoy, and please encourage ever coach in your sphere to read this book!

Dr. Rick McGuire

Head Track & Field Coach (Retired) (27 years)

Graduate Professor, Sport Psychology (Retired) (30 years)

Founder, Missouri Institute for Positive Coaching

University of Missouri

A Special Coach

A Coach is a molder of lives,

a shaper of dreams,

a teacher,

a helping hand,

a loyal friend…

A Coach brings out our best,

inspires us to achieve,

shows us the need

to believe in ourselves

and in others…

A Coach is someone

To respect

To admire

To trust…

Someone like YOU!

(Author unknown)

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without the help, love, and support of so many people.

To Josh Smith, a marvelous journalist in his own right, I can't thank you enough for your support, encouragement, suggestions, gentle prodding, and patience in staying with me during this process. Your influence on my writing of this book was invaluable and so appreciated.

To Dr. Rick McGuire, founder of the University of Missouri Institute of Positive Coaching. You truly are a mentor for the ages.

To all of the student athletes we've had the privilege to coach and all of our assistant coaches and their families who were the backbone and truly the real reason for all of our successes, I thank you and love you all. Your support and belief in team and family were the cornerstone of Whippet Track and Field.

To all of our meet workers, especially Wally Goeglein, Mark Olm, Ben McCready, Jeff Winn, Judy Harms, Laura Masbruch, Anne Kuske, Jeff Miller, Kate McNulty, the late Linda Bleck, and so many other whippets who helped make our meets the very best.

Finally, to my family and in particular my wife, Lexy, thank you for your love, support, and patience throughout this project. You are my rock.

Introduction

I don't know about you, but there is something about the words Hey, Coach that brings a smile to my face every time someone calls that out to me. It elicits a feeling that makes me believe I am helping a student athlete do something special, something above and beyond. Yet I have come to realize it is so much more. I've made plenty of mistakes along this coaching journey as I began to self-reflect and understand that I am a teacher of sport and that coach is just a title. It is a fun and endearing title; nonetheless, it's just a title. It doesn't make me special, but it does come with enormous responsibility. I have been entrusted with nurturing the natural talent and gifts of our student athletes. With that comes not only the development of their physical talent but also the teaching and nurturing of their emotional and intellectual development.

I didn't always think about how my words and actions can have a profound effect on every moment I am with the student athletes. The chapters in this book tell the story of a coach who has made many mistakes along the way but has hopefully learned lessons as well. Some were painful and many filled me with regret. The phrase the athletes enjoy success in spite of us certainly could apply to me, especially in my younger years when I thought things like using sarcasm were effective tools. Fortunately, it didn't take me long to discover that sarcasm was, in fact, a relationship destroyer. This, along with many other lessons, is herein contained in the pages of this book.

That the reader will be able to relate to some of the stories is almost a certainty. For if you get the chance to coach long enough, no matter the sport, you will no doubt share similar surprises and experiences. The events and stories come from a nearly forty-year career in the sports of cross-country and track and field. It is my sincere hope that the lessons contained in this book will provide an opportunity for self-reflection.

Finally, I am a blessed man. You could say Blessed beyond measure for all of the amazing experiences I have had. I am eternally grateful to the student athletes, assistant coaches, administrators, custodians, parents, and members of our Whippet family who have had such a positive impact on my life. To my own family, thank you for all of your love and support during this journey. Without you, none of this would have been possible.

Coach

A good coach can change a game, a great coach can change a life.

—John Wooden

In the world of athletics, student athletes often see winning as something that only happens during competition on a Friday night or a Saturday afternoon. The fact is, winning is something that can and should happen every day. Student athletes should be taught that there are countless ways to win on a daily basis. Opportunities present themselves in the classrooms, hallways, cafeterias, practice fields, and one-to-one relationships that are part of the school day all across America. Our student athletes do not come to us merely to be taught the Xs and Os of a sport. They want to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves, a place where they feel valued and accepted, unconditionally, no matter their position on the team.

Building relationships

As coaches, we have a unique opportunity to establish relationships and above all teach the values of team, family, commitment, and altruism in a world where these values are not always the standard. If you think your only job is to be a conduit through which information is processed and poured into the student athlete's head, you are missing out on a chance to have a significant impact on their lives. Remember, coach is just a fancy way of saying teacher. You are a teacher first, and as such, you are the last line of defense, maybe even the last hope, for many young people who are looking for a place to call home. What do you want your legacy to be? Do you want it measured in wins and losses or in the kinds of things that really matter? Things like creating opportunity and changing lives for the better.

Some of the most cherished moments I had in teaching came when coaches, parents, and athletes from other schools recognized and told us that our team was different, not just because we were winning but also because our kids truly cared about each other. At meets you could see it in the way we conducted ourselves and how we spoke to, supported, and treated each other. We