High school coaches respond: Best lesson a player

For months, current and former high school coaches have been requested to reply to my simple query:

“What’s the best lesson a player taught you?”

It’s so exhausting to come up with an reply that many can’t do it immediately. They’re compelled to suppose, which implies the query is excellent.

Stories are always written about classes discovered by college students in the classroom and on the sector, but what do coaches, most of them lecturers, study from their college students?

Here are some solutions.

Weeks before he died last March, Venice soccer coach Angelo Gasca told me the story of a player who needed to stop and what he discovered. That player later turned one of his assistant coaches.

“I’m not accepting your resignation today,” Gasca told him. “You need to go home and think about it.”

“He said he went home and thought about it and stayed on the team and was our starting center. He taught me the best thing we can teach is come to school and you never know what connections you’ll make at the school you grew up at. He taught me there’s more to coaching than winning games and scoring touchdowns. In our lives as teachers and coaches, we do learn from players. When we stop learning from our players, it’s time to stop coaching.”

Former Edison soccer coach Dave White remembers suspending his group’s best player before a journey to Hawaii for a group rule violation. He had to keep home even though his dad and mom had paid money for the journey.

Dave White speaks to a crowd, including the soccer group, during the official naming of the Belcher White Strength Training Facility at Edison High School in 2022.

(Scott Smeltzer / Los Angeles Times)

“He taught me that I made the right decision and it was best for the team and in the long run best for him,” White said. “I was proud how he handled things. There are consequences for bad decisions. I really enjoyed and respected him more after that.”

Granada Hills women volleyball coach Tom Harp said he had a player with a incapacity. She misplaced sight in an eye during an accident.

“She taught me how to overcome a difficult situation with a positive attitude,” he said. “She was a shining example of how to overcome adversity. It showed me my little problems aren’t as bad as they seem if she can overcome that.”

Lorenzo Hernandez, the soccer coach and athletic director at Whittier and former head soccer coach at Garfield, said a remark from a player made him notice to change techniques.

Former Garfield coach Lorenzo Hernandez runs onto the sector with his gamers and assistant coaches.

(Hernandez household)

“You grow up in a certain era and have to adapt,” he said. “These kids want to enjoy themselves. They taught me to keep it as fun as possible. We worked on discipline. A kid said, ‘That’s great coach, but I don’t think we’re having fun.’ It made me take a step back. We have to understand it’s a different era of athletes and they require different ways to handle things. That’s helped me build better relationships. I’ll meet you halfway.”

Former Crenshaw soccer coach Robert Garrett said he discovered to discuss to college students about their personal lives to perceive why they’re behaving in sure methods. He found one of his gamers had nowhere to wash his garments.

Longtime Crenshaw soccer coach Robert Garrett talks to De’Anthony Thomas, one of his best former gamers, in 2011.

(Robert S. Helfman)

“Some don’t have a stable household,” he said. “You don’t learn that until you talk to them. I knew he was intelligent and studious but until I found out his hygiene wasn’t good, I realized the environment he was up against. It wasn’t until he shared with me what he was going through I offered assistance to wash his clothes.

“He didn’t need tough love. He needed kid gloves. Every day I try to find at least one child I didn’t know and have a personal conversation, ‘What middle school he went to, where does he live, are his studies OK.’ I try to learn the child before I learn the body. Adults never talk to kids. We just assume a kid is a certain way until you have a conversation and know their background and what they are going through.”

Former Hart baseball coach Jim Ozella, retired and watching his grandson play sports activities, told the story of his former player, Jack Ralston, reaching the major leagues this 12 months taught him about perseverance.

“Everyone wants instant gratification,” Ozella said. “Here’s a kid who didn’t make the major leagues until he was 29. For us, he was an outstanding pitcher. We made it to the CIF final. Then he walked into UCLA, didn’t pitch as a freshman or sophomore, pitched a little as junior, then boom as a senior. He got drafted. His lesson has been off the charts for me.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow with Hart coach Jim Ozella, who coached him in high school.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

“You can’t expect results immediately. You’re talented, put in all the work and effort. In this case, it didn’t work. He kept plugging along. His lesson is everyone is different. His was keep plugging away and it will happen. I called him after he gave up a home run. He said, ‘Today I woke up and it’s a new day.’ What a role model. Don’t expect everything overnight. It takes time. Be patient.”

Then Ozella quoted a well-known line, “The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.”

Hall of Fame soccer coach Paul Knox had a state of affairs early in his teaching days at Dorsey dealing with two brothers and determining what you’re supposed to do when they’re different.

“They were very close in age,” he said. “I learned by trying to coach them you can’t coach everyone the same. Whatever I tried, one was very coachable and his younger brother all the things I tried never worked with him. We went back and forth.

Dorsey coach Paul Knox celebrates a miracle win in the 2001 City championship game at the Coliseum.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I found out I had to find a whole other way to reach him. I learned you can say how you treat everyone the same, but you approach some kids differently. You never really know precisely who’s listening to you and sometimes the satisfaction of being a teacher or mentor is delayed and you don’t know until years later.”