The Responsibility of a Coach

     When Bill Parcells was a 23 yr. old first year assistant coach at Hastings College, he spent an entire week of practice teaching one of his safeties a specific move and strategy in stopping their upcoming opponent’s most effective play. When the Saturday game came and his young player failed at the task at hand, allowing a touchdown on that exact play, Parcells lit into him on the sidelines, on and on, in front of everyone. Noticing the tirade, head coach Dean Pryor told Parcells that that was enough. “But we worked on that play all week” Parcells barked. “Well, you didn’t work on it enough because they scored” the head coach replied. Parcells got the point, and he has never forgotten it.

     As coaches, we sometimes fail to see our own coaching deficiencies while only seeing the deficiencies and mistakes of our players. Probably more than in a lot of other sports, in lacrosse, there seems to be more than enough player failure to go around. Especially if you’re a former player yourself, or if you coach in a youth program or an inexperienced high school or college program. And more often than not, unlike baseball, basketball, football, or soccer, lacrosse lends itself to being more of a challenge to coach, given the popularity and exposure these other sports have in comparison.

     There will usually always be games where your team will face an opponent and be totally unmatched. Every coach has had their share of these games. But in close, competitive games against similarly skilled teams, I’ve never known a really good coach who didn’t always think he had somehow failed as a coach when his team lost. And conversely, I’ve never thought much of a coach who placed blame on a team or a player for a loss.

     A good coach will always think he could have coached a game better. That he should have had a better game plan. That he should have worked on something more in practice, or spent time with a new EMO play, or studied more film on the opponent, or do less conditioning, or more conditioning, or put together a better scouting report.

     Of course, there are situations when players will make costly mistakes in a game, or “choke” at a crucial time and be blamed for losing the game, by teammates, fans, parents, the coach. But the coach worth anything will only look at what he did or did not do, or what he could have done better. He’ll look at his own coaching mistakes; or the team’s unpreparedness for the game, if that’s a possible reason for the loss. And he’ll look back on the game in its entirety, from start to finish, and not just at the moment when his player “choked”. Or, which often is the case, a game of lacrosse just comes down to two competitive teams, both playing well, where the losing team just ends up running out of game clock.

     One season I watched a high school team leave a timeout to play man-to-man defense with the score tied and twelve seconds left. #18, this team’s best defender, matched up with the ball carrier, the best attackman for the other team. As I watched the 6-on-6 alignment before the whistle blew, I thought to myself, why isn’t this defense setting up in their zone defense for these final twelve seconds? Considering the circumstances, and how the game had gone up to that point, I’m thinking that would probably be a better coaching move. As it turns out, #18 gets beat by his attackman, who not only scores the game winner, but eliminates the other team from a playoff berth. #18 is devastated, his head is down, he can barely make his way off the field.

     Now, had the coach gone to a zone, would that have guaranteed overtime and a possible victory? Maybe. Or maybe not. But now, #18 feels responsible for having his team lose this game, and losing the chance to make the playoffs.

     The Parcells/Pryor story I’ve often reflected upon, and have subscribed to its lesson since the first time I had read it in Parcell’s 1987 autobiography. And here, there was no circumstance more fitting. In the locker room after the game, I met with the team--bruised and bloody--who had just given everything they had in their best effort of the season in the heartbreaking 15-14 loss. I told them about the coaching mistake I had made, and how I take full responsibility for the team missing the playoffs.

     As a coach, honestly taking at least partial responsibility for a player’s deficient individual play, or for a team’s play as a whole, will always make you a better coach. And more importantly, a continuing student of coaching. Some of the best lessons learned, and the best ways at improving as a coach, are from asking the question, “Is there more I could have done?” And when your #18 thinks that it’s his fault your team lost, remind yourself of the lesson learned long ago by a future NFL Hall of Fame coach.