Measuring Coaching Success

Since retiring as a high school coach after 24 years, I muse from time to time about how to measure my coaching performance. The bottom line question is: was I successful? People consistently tell me I was and maybe, from their vantage point, that is so. But I am...

High School Athletics and the Job Market Advantage

When I set out to write The Other Classroom: The Essential Importance of High School Athletics, I was focused on how the high school athletic experience contributes to personal development in various ways. I had in mind skills like self-advocacy, conquering comfort...

Call to Arms

My next book, The Other Classroom: The Essential Importance of High School Athletics (Rowman & Littlefield), gets released today. On a personal level, pondering the task of writing book first required a deep look in the mirror to see the ways I and my coaching...

Squeaky Wheels and High School Athletics

When I was a young hoopster in the Bronx, I read a comment by legendary Oscar Robertson that stayed with me forever. A reporter asked the Big O why he was always chatting up officials. His pithy response was an American proverb: “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” I...

The Sacred Trust of High School Athletics

This is the first in a series of blog posts about the many challenges and opportunities in high school athletics, covered extensively in my forthcoming book, The Other Classroom: The Essential Importance of High School Athletics (August 15, Rowman & Littlefield)....