By Jon Kohler and Brad Strand
(September 21, 2021)

It’s Friday night. The lights are on and the crowd is cheering from the sidelines. Two decades-long rivals are battling it out on the high school football field. The grandstands are full, the band is playing fight songs at halftime, and the players are busting their guts for their teams. This football game, for most residents of each town, is a live-or-die, bragging rights for a year type of event.

The game comes down to the final possession. The home team is down by three points. It’s fourth down and short. The ball is on the 30-yard line. It’s too far for the kicker to even attempt a field goal to send it to overtime. Their only choice is to go for it. One big push to get a new set of downs and a chance for a closer field goal or to get the outright win.  

The quarterback lines up under center and starts his cadence. Linemen go down, a receiver goes into motion. The backs are lined up in a pro formation. This same formation has worked for the team all year; it’s bound to work again, right? The center snaps the ball, the quarterback receives it…and it slips out of his hand. In his scramble to try to pick up the football, he is smothered by the opposing defensive end. The game is over.

As fans file out of the stadium, the athletic director (AD) hears comments such as “what a great game!” and “those boys played so hard tonight, we are proud of them.” But the AD also hears comments such as “that kid at quarterback has sucked all year” and “what the hell were those coaches thinking?” 

Coaches, athletic directors, and educators have all heard comments which reach across the spectrum and at times this can lead to frustration.  As an AD, I get angry. I want to scream and yell at the complete frustrations we have of our fans because they just don’t get it. They don’t get the whole goal of education-based athletics. They do not understand that the whole goal of education-based athletics is that the playing field is an extension of the classroom (Gardner, 2015), and a learning environment created by the coach.

Education-based Athletics is Key to the Growth and Learning of all Participants
Education-based athletics (EBA) has been described as a U.S. model of incorporating sports and other activity programs within the high school setting. Unlike many other countries, the US is unique in that participation in sports is a part of the overall educational experience (Gardner, 2015). Done right, EBA provides an outlet for those students who are not interested in the Fine Arts or other extra-curricular activities. Ideally, EBA provides a nearly consequence-free atmosphere in which to grow and make mistakes without the fear of punishment, rejection, or ostracization. Coaches working in an EBA environment are educators, and they too, implement the education process daily.

EBA provides an outlet for all students, but for some students, it is their only outlet. For some, it may be the only reason they continue to keep their grades passing. If participation in a sport can keep a student’s nose in a book, and working hard to maintain their grades in the classroom, it must be considered a win. If participation in a sport keeps a student in school and graduating, then that sport and all sports are vital to the learning environment of a school.

How many have heard one of the following statements in regards to certain athletes: Does he only goes to school so he can play sports, is he in school, and is he passing all his classes?  Do not marginalize a sport simply because it is “only” a sport. By being in school and participating as an athlete, the student is learning both on and off the field, and their chances to graduate will only increase. This is much better for his future than being a high school dropout. Let sports be the primary conduit for those students to enter the learning environment. 

The Coaches Role in Creating an Education-Based Athletic Environment
Sports participation teaches coaches and athletes how to handle mistakes, move on, and grow from those mistakes (Cohn, 2021). To do so, a consequence-free environment is essential.

Coaches must provide an atmosphere of learning every day in practices and games. When an athlete makes a mistake in drills, or in a game, set, or match, the coach simply corrects them. Hopefully, in a manner such that the athlete feels it is ok to make a mistake because they have the support of their coach to help them learn from it.

Care about academics year-round
Do athletes’ get an academic break or exceptions, so they can keep playing? Do teachers give them extra time, or “extra chances,” just so they can compete on the field of play? The answer is likely a firm no. Remember, this is education-based athletics. The key here is education. The athlete may only be coming to school because of his or her love of a sport. But that passion cannot be fed without consequence. If an athlete truly wants to compete, he or she must be held to the same standards as all students in the school regarding their grades. The student/athlete needs to know the consequences and they need to know their decisions matter.

Most students will do the coursework required to keep them eligible for the season. But what happens after the season? What if they are not in another sport? This is where a good education-based coach becomes invaluable. Good education-based coaches do not just care about their athletes’ grades during their season, they also care about their athletes’ grades throughout the entire school year (Hoch, 2016). A coach who is only concerned about an athlete’s grades during a season does not truly care about the athlete as a student, they really only care only about their team and the success of their team.

Embrace a consequence-free environment
Athletes need to NOT be afraid to make mistakes. Without mistakes, one cannot learn. The same can be said for adults, but to be fair, as adults, our learning curve is much lower, and the stakes much higher in terms of career and advancement. A high school athlete’s career is not as an athlete, it is as a student. And this is a learning experience. When we create an environment in sports where our young athletes are not afraid to try things and fail, then we will create successes.

If coaches can properly teach young people to be able to overcome mistakes and adversity when they are young, we can be assured we will create a well-rounded, well-adjusted adults when they leave our school system. We can help them identify problem-solving skills to help them overcome a mistake. In essence, coaches are fostering a growth mindset.

Model it!
Perhaps the most vital part of this equation is the educator-coach. This person can be the most crucial person in a young athlete’s life. Keith (not real name) has been a coach for over thirty years with most of that time in the same school system. He has won state championships, he has lost state championships, and he has helped grow successful young men. He does it using three things: high expectations, empathy, and a commitment to growth.

Keith has high expectations for all his athletes. He has helped several of his athletes “over-achieve”, as coaches like to say. How does he do that? He makes them believe they can do more than they think they can. He does this through a mixture of toughness and mistake correction mixed with a generous helping of empathy. So really, his athletes do not “over-achieve”, he just gets them to realize just how much they can really do.

Keith is also one of the most empathetic coaches I know. Is he tough on his athletes? Yes, he can be tough on them, but he loves them. He loves them all, and he loves them all unconditionally. Every athlete who has had him as a coach has had a caring, tough, and complete experience with him. He is quick with a hug and encouragement when they are down, and he is quick with a hug and encouragement when they succeed. He does not only care if one is a winner. Every former athlete of his I (author) have talked to, has only fond memories of him. One statement to describe him would be, “He was tough on us, but he was always there for us.”

Keith is also committed to the growth of his athletes. He once had a young athlete who was tough to coach. He was frustrating, and sometimes, uncoachable. He recently ran into this former athlete who had been out of school for a few years. The young man had a stable life, was married, had a child, and had a steady job. When the two parted they hugged. After all those years, those emotional ties were still just as strong as the last time this former athlete competed for him. And what did Keith say about it? He said to me “and that’s what all this is about.” 

It’s Just a Game
Let’s go back to our quarterback who fumbled the snap on the last play of the game.  What should a good coach have said to him after the game? A coach who genuinely cares about his quarterback as a human being; and is concerned about his well-being, growth, and maturity; more so than just the x’s and o’s.

This is a perfect time to talk about how mistakes do not define one as a human being unless we want them to. This was a football game. Was it a rivalry? Yes. Was it a big game in terms of their season outlook? Maybe, but to be fair, not enough information was provided to make that clear. This point is this: it was a high school football game. These athletes are not under contract and are not being paid for their services on the field. It is just a game. 

The game itself is a learning experience. Consider all the practices during the week as the classroom learning experience. The game itself can be considered the lab portion of the learning experience. Remember when you were in school and maybe flubbed a science experiment? Did you get expelled from school? Were you fired from your position as a student? Maybe your grade suffered a bit. Maybe, one can surmise that one’s high school experience was not predicated on the success of one physics lab. 

You made a mistake in a nearly consequence-free environment. It is the same for this young quarterback. He made a mistake at the end of a football game. At the moment, this young man feels as if he lost the entire game for his team. He feels he has destroyed their post-season hopes. Most coaches have all been there with an athlete. The best, console and reassure their young athlete that their mistake was not theirs alone. The worst make sure the athlete knows he lost the game for the team. Sports is full of teachable moments. If this was the NFL would that kid be benched the next game? Maybe, maybe not. We tend to treat our high school athletes, and their failures as projections on their entire lives. “Oh, he failed at football, this kid must be a failure at everything.”

Conclusion
With education-based athletics, three things are essential for students to succeed, not only in school but in life after school. First, the sport experience needs to provide an outlet for those students whose creativity may involve football or volleyball. Two, coaches need to provide athletes with a safe environment where they can learn, and not be afraid to make mistakes for fear of reprisal from a coach or teammates. Third, and most importantly, athletes need you, the coach. You must be the beacon who shines in these athletes’ lives. You need to be the conduit through which the learning experience flows.

References
Cohn, P. (2021). How to let go of mistakes and end dwelling. Peak Performance Sports. Retrieved from https://www.peaksports.com/sports-psychology-blog/how-to-let-go-of-mistakes-and-end-dwelling/

Gardner, B. (2015, Sept. 23). Defining education-based activity programs. National Federation of State High School Associations. Retrieved from https://www.nfhs.org/articles/defining-education-based-activity-programs/

Hoch, D. (2016, Nov. 4). Developing an education-based culture in high school activities. National Federation of High School Associations. Retrieved from https://nfhs.org/articles/developing-an-education-based-culture-in-high-school-activities/