Jeff Janssen, Janssen Sports Leadership Center

Coach by Michael Lewis

Coach is the intriguing story about Coach Fitz, a highly successful, yet controversial high school baseball coach who epitomizes the struggles veteran coaches encounter when dealing with today's highly sensitive kids and their parents.

The book is born out of author Michael Lewis' attempt to honor the difference Coach Fitz made in his and several teammates lives by naming the school gym after him.

Lewis writes:

A few people, and a few experiences, simply refuse to be trivialized by time. There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child's mind; it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever. I'd once had such a teacher. His name was Billy Fitzgerald, but everybody just called him Coach Fitz.(page 12)

Ironically however, Lewis soon discovers that the current crop of parents are trying desperately to fire Coach Fitz for the very same coaching methods that his former players want to honor.

In recalling the venerable coach's influence on him, Lewis recounts numerous pivotal moments and messages that Coach Fitz taught him as transformed from a youth to a young man.

I can still recall, thirty years later, the sensation he created in me. I didn't have words for it then, but I do know: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do. At the time, this was a wholly novel thought for me. I'd spent the previous school year racking up C-minuses, picking fights with teachers, and thinking up new ways to waste my time on earth. (page 30)

How many high school and college kids that you work with spend more time "thinking up new ways to waste their time on earth" than really applying themselves?

Because Coach Fitz continually challenged his players to bring it both on and off the field, he was eventually able to connect with many of his players so that they could see the bigger picture.

I'd never been so filled with a sense of purpose. Immediately, I had a new taste for staying after baseball practice, for extra work. I became, in truth, something of a zealot, and it didn't take long to figure out how much better my life could be if I applied this new zeal acquired on a baseball field to the rest of it. It was as if this baseball coach had reached inside me, found a rusty switch marked Turn On Before Attempting To Use, and flipped it. (page 52)

Much of coaching is continually searching for the "switch" that will make the difference. With some kids you can find the switch right away. But for most, the switch is only found after days, months, and sometimes years of trial and error before the kid finally "gets it."

Having the patience to find this switch is really the "art" of coaching - and one that Coach Fitz is focused on more so than winning.

However, Coach Fitz's values and standards are increasingly coming in conflict with today's players and parents who want instant gratification, praise for every behavior, and feel a sense of entitlement.

Coach Fitz laments, "All this is about a false sense of self-esteem. It's now bestowed on kids at birth. It's not earned. If I were to jump all over you today, you would be highly insulted and deeply offended. You would not get that I cared about you." (page 62)

Coach Fitz's style is to be brutally honest and truthful - not because he wants to be a jerk. But because he really wants to see a kid succeed and feels that sugar-coated feedback is really a disservice to the kid in both the short and long term.

However, Coach Fitz finds both the kids and parents balking at his stern approach. Parents are complaining to the AD about his coaching style. And the AD is caving in because of the political pressure the rich parents have.

Like many coaches, Coach Fitz's frustration with many of today's kids is that they don't take enough pride in what they do and how they compete.

He says, "You are almost a recreational baseball team. The trouble is you don't play in a recreational league. You play serious, competitive interscholastic baseball. That means the other guy isn't out for recreation. He wants to strike you out. He wants to embarrass you...

One of the goodies about athletics is you get to find out if you can stretch. If you can bet better. But you got to push. And you guys don't even push to get through the day. You put more effort into parties than you do into this team." (page 87)

For coaches who are struggling with dealing with today's kids and parents, Coach reminds us that there are many who still appreciate the values that demanding yet caring coaches can teach.