Resources vs Commodities
Develop the Resource, Protect the Commodity
Why Athletic Leaders Must Grow Their Coaches to Grow Their Kids
In the world of high school athletics, we talk a lot about developing young people, and rightfully so. Our student-athletes are our most precious commodity. They are why we show up early, stay late, and care more than most people understand.
But here’s a perspective shift that athletic leaders, especially those of us in AD roles, need to lean into: We can’t develop our most valuable commodities without first developing our most vital resources.
And what are those resources? That’s your coaching staff.
Coaches Are Not Just Employees, They’re the boots on the ground
We've all heard the old saying that a single coach can impact hundreds of lives over the course of their career. Multiply that by the number of coaches in your department, and you’re looking at an exponential influence engine. Leadership is influence but influence can’t run on autopilot. Leadership, coaching needs someone to set the course of action, provide the tools and environment to grow and develop.
If you’re in a leadership seat, here’s the truth:
You set the ceiling for your staff’s growth.
And that staff sets the ceiling for your athletes.
You cannot expect your student-athletes to reach their full potential if your coaches are stuck in survival mode, running the same system year after year, getting the same results, and calling it “experience.”
Leadership in athletics is not just about compliance and scheduling, it’s about cultivating the environment where coaches can thrive. And when they thrive, so do their teams, our student athletes, our most precious commodities!
The AD’s Job: Develop the Coaches!
Its important to remember, as the Leader of the Athletic Department, you were not simply hired.... You were chosen to carry the burden and responsibility of the position because you are more than equipped to handle that weight. Let’s talk straight: your job is not to fix every little thing. It’s not to micromanage. It’s to set a culture where growth is expected, supported, and celebrated.
Here’s how we start:
1. Lead Yourself First
"You can't win until you start". If you want a growth-minded coaching staff, you’ve got to model it first. That means reading, learning, evolving. Don’t ask your coaches to do anything you aren’t doing yourself. Leadership is a mirror. Show me your calendar and I'll show you your future. Is your calendar filled with mundane tasks that bog down your time and your energy or are you intentional. Do you set time aside each day to grow yourself? That is certainly a personal challenge for you to determine but, read, journal, write to colleagues, attend a leadership workshop, lead a workshop, the list goes on and on. Find your niche, what fills your cup and challenges you to be your best.
2. Build the Framework for Growth
Create rhythms of professional development. Host workshops. Invite guest speakers. Start coaching cohorts. Set the expectation that personal development is a non-negotiable, not an extra credit. One way to help you with this and also create buy in from your staff is to create a leadership team. That group of people can help you with this so that you don't feel overwhelmed. Part of that team can be dedicated to helping with professional development, a "Leadership Development Team or Committee".
I also believe a huge portion of this phase has to be in evaluation of your systems. Take a deep dive into your systems, do they promote growth? Are they aligned with our values? In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear comments that you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. Your intentionality to your systems can make or break the growth of your staff.
3. Pour In, Then Let Go
Give your coaches the tools, the language, the resources and then give them room to lead. Growth requires trust. Yes, they’ll make mistakes. But that’s the same thing we ask our kids to do every day in practice. Every coach would demand that their players grow and develop. We demand work ethic and sacrifice from them but many coaches don't hold themselves to the same standard. They must see you as a partner not as an adversary or competitor for them. Come alongside them and help them with their challenges and their growth.
4. Promote a Risk-Taking Culture
Encourage innovation. Reward experimentation. Don’t punish the coach who tries something new and doesn’t get it perfect. Stretching leads to strength. Give them permission to step outside their comfort zone. If coaches fear ridicule or reprimand for making mistakes or they fear that no one has their back when or if they fall, fail, then they will be extremely reluctant to step out of their comfort zone. Most often, this is masked by a simple statement: "I don't have time for all that". That is a knee jerk reaction to fear in most cases. However, I am reminded of a quote I once heard that sums this up real well; "You can make excuses or you can make a difference but you can't do both", the choice is yours!!
5. Check in, Not Check Up
Replace “evaluation” with “conversation.” Build in time to ask:
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Where are you growing?
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What’s stretching you right now?
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Where do you feel stuck?
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How can I help you win?
Growth is a dialogue, not a clipboard. Make a point to schedule more open forum discussions with your staff. Be intentional about "checks in". Schedule one on one meetings with your coaches from time to time. Most importantly, take time to listen to your staff. We would all be amazed as leaders what you will learn from your staff when you practice the art of listening!
If We Want Better Programs, We Need Better Leaders of Our Coaches
We all want our athletes to be accountable, courageous, and confident. But those traits don’t just show up on the field. They’re taught. Modeled. Repeated.
And who teaches them? Our coaches.
And who teaches them? That’s on us as the leaders of our athletic departments.
Let’s stop assuming coaches are already where they need to be. Let’s stop handing out binders and calling it leadership. Are you a leader or a manager? Honestly, both have vital role and are equally important to the overall success of any business, not just in athletics. Most Leaders spend a disproportionate amount of time on management and not enough on leadership. Let’s get intentional about creating a leadership pipeline that starts with us and runs straight through to the student experience.
Because here’s the deal:
When we develop the resource, we protect the commodity.
When we grow our staff, we grow our students.
And when we raise the bar for coaching, we raise the bar for everything.
Final Word:
As an athletic leader, your legacy won’t be written in win-loss records or facility upgrades. It will be written in the growth of the people you led, the coaches you developed, and the kids they impacted. Success is not measured in the trophies we win but rather on the impact we have made on others around us.
So lead with vision.
Lead with empathy.
Lead with urgency.
But most of all—lead with growth in mind.
Because everything rises or falls on leadership—including the next generation of student-athletes.
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