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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


4,733 Wins, 5 Coaches, 1 Question

American Football Monthly spoke to the record-breaking coaches in a number of different sports to get their answers on winning.
by: Terry Jacoby
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Glenn Robinson Men’s College Basketball Coach • Franklin & Marshall
Franklin & Marshall head coach Glenn Robinson is the most successful basketball coach in Division III history with 697 wins. He has been coaching for 37 years and what he learned at the very beginning helped set him on his course for success.

“One of the first things I got to do when I became a coach was meet Dean Smith,” Robinson said.

“He was very successful and had that great staff of coaches around him, and what I took from that meeting was how important organization was. I took from that experience that you leave nothing to chance. So I carefully plan practice and try to deal with every situation that could come up in a game.”

Robinson was very impressed with how detailed the Carolina staff was in everything they did. “If another team had a cherry picker that would release early, they would have a plan for that situation already mapped out,” Robinson said. “They also spent a great deal of time on fundamentals.”

Robinson took over Franklin & Marshall following consecutive 4-16 seasons. By his third season, his team was raising the conference championship banner in the gym. “The key to turning around a program is patience,” he said. “Coaches should try to avoid the quick fix or the shortcuts and stay the course. I see more mistakes made because coaches are impatient. The first thing you need to do is get the players playing hard. Install a hard work program right away and people will begin to see the results right away. It doesn’t mean you’re going to win every game, but hard work will only mean improvement.”

Dave Shoji Women’s College Volleyball Coach • University of Hawaii
Dave Shoji has been the head women’s volleyball coach at the University of Hawaii for 30 years and has set, spiked and volleyed over 800 victories – more than any other coach in his sport.

But all those victories didn’t come after his team took the floor. Shoji believes in preparation. He believes that when his team steps on the floor, they are already prepared to win. And all they have to do is set the ball in motion and the win will come.

While Shoji’s victories have come from the team, it’s the individual players that he credits most for his success. It’s their individual skill level that has made the difference in the win-loss record. Shoji, however, deserves plenty of credit for the skill level of his players.

“I don’t know how other teams practice in other sports, but I like to spend at least 70 percent of our time in practice on individual technique,” Shoji said. “I believe that if the player is better fundamentally and technically, then the team gets better quicker as a result.”

Perhaps the only philosophy that hasn’t changed has to do with recruiting.

“There are plusses and minuses to coming to our school,” said Shoji, who has girls from nine different states currently on his roster. “And even though we have been successful, we aren’t going to get the top five players in the country. So we have to get the athlete that is going to work hard, one’s you can train and want to get better. So potential and work ethic are important.”

Larry Kehres College Football Head Coach • Mt. Union College
In over 20 seasons as head football coach at Mt. Union College, Larry Kehres has walked off the field a winner more than 200 times. As a Division III football coach, you don’t have the luxury of leaning on a large staff to carry out all the necessary details, so Kehres developed a checklist that helps prepare his team and staff.

“I was taught a long time ago that you divide up the responsibility and also make people accountable to carry out those responsibilities,” said Kehres, who was first an assistant for 10 years before taking over the head job.

“Someone has to be responsible for every aspect of not only a game plan but everything.” And “everything” at Mt. Union College includes being responsible for fixing a helmet, bringing the footballs on the bus or taking care of special teams. And that’s just the beginning.

“The responsible sheets that the coaches have are pretty extensive,” said Kehres, who shares in the duties. “For example, if a punt is blocked and the ball ends up beyond the line of scrimmage our players better have been taught what to do. Every thing that can happen in a football game usually does at some point, so we need to be prepared to handle each situation the right way.”

Kehres also doesn’t believe in the perfect practice. “I like to create some chaos in my practice, a little confusion,” he said. “When there is pressure in practice, it helps ease the pressure the players feel on game day. I demand players think a lot in practice and that carries over to the games.” And the players have won over one-hundred straight regular season games.

“Never blame the players for a loss,” Kehres said. “You recruited these players and if they lose, it’s because they weren’t ready. Everyone has to share in the defeats. Study what made you lose, or better yet, study what can make you lose before you play.”

Leta Andrews High School Girls Basketball Coach Granbury High School (TX)
When Leta Andrews began coaching girls basketball it was a six-player game. That was 43 years ago. Today, it might seem to opposing coaches that Andrews is still playing with six players. Andrews has won more 1,200 games since beginning her coaching career in 1962 and the main reason for her success is simple.

“It has to do with teaching and teaching the basics,” said Andrews, a legend in girls’ basketball in Texas. “There is a lot of strategy involved with today’s game, but you can’t be successful unless the players know how to play the game.

And that begins in practice. “We spend a lot of our practices going over the fundamentals,” she said. “No matter how many players you have on the floor or on the team, they have to be fundamentally sound. So every day we go over dribbling and rebounding and blocking out and shooting. We might not spend a lot of time on it, but we touch on every fundamental in every practice.”

Andrews has a unique approach to how she takes advantage of her assistant coaches.

“I hire an assistant to bring something different to the team,” said Andrews, whose practices are very structured and very focused. “I want our assistant coach to be creative and show initiative. I don’t know everything so I want them to have ideas and ways of teaching and coaching.”

One mistake some coaches make is they don’t teach something or go over something because they think the players already know it. Big mistake, says Andrews. “You can never assume anything as a coach,” she said. “You have to teach it all. And you have to keep teaching it.”

Andrews has one bit of unique piece of advice for new coaches that you won’t get from a coaching for dummies book. “Communicating with parents is very important in high school sports,” she said. “Parents have to understand that when they play for a team the whole family is making a commitment.”

Harry Statham Men’s College Basketball Coach • McKendree College (IL)
With 896 victories, Harry Statham is the winningest NAIA coach in history. But if you ask him, it’s not the coaching, it’s the players. Still, he’s the one that recruits the players and then plugs them into his system. And it’s these type of players that Statham brings to McKendree College that make winning look as easy as a lay-up.

“Recruiting is the whole key because it comes down to the players, whether you win or lose,” he said. “My goal has always been to build a team and a program around good, solid, hard working young men. I look for players that love to play the game, one’s that are willing to work hard and play for the team.”

When Statham finds this player, he gets an invitation to become a Bearcat. “You really have to identify the player that you want and even if a player has good ability, you have to make sure he’s willing to put the team first,” Statham said. It’s because of these type of players that Statham is still coaching after 39 years.

John Gagliardi College Football Head Coach • St. John’s (MN)
He’s 78 years old. He has 421 wins, more than any other college football coach. But don’t ask him for the keys to success. “Everyone asks me how I’ve been successful for so long, and I still don’t know,” Gagliardi said. “Every year is a big challenge. We are going to be starting up again and it isn’t going to be easy. I don’t have any answers.”

Gagliardi doesn’t have the advantage of a big stadium or TV schedules or NFL scouts hanging around. “This is a different game, a different galaxy than Michigan or Ohio State,” he said. “I don’t have scholarships to give out. Every student at this school is here on their own. They didn’t get a football scholarship. So first I have to find a player who can get in the school. It’s not easy.

“Some people just know how to coach and relate to young men and women. There are a lot of specialization now, but a coach is still a coach. “At St. John’s I have to find players that have potential. One’s that I can teach. We’ve been able to do that.”

John McKissick High School Football Coach Summerville (SC)
John McKissick has won 519 football games since he took over at Summerville high school in 1952. “This has always been a good football school and they won a few state titles before I got here,” McKissick said. “There was a good coach before I got here and I was told I got the job because I didn’t ask how much it paid.”

That hiring has been paying off for Summerville for over 50 years.

The lesson here is that you can’t be a great coach without first being a coach – and that requires getting the job.

McKissick says one of his biggest advantages has been his ability to change with the times. And let’s just say things have changed quite a bit since 1952. When McKissick took over there were 298 students in the school; there are now over 3,300 students.

Not only did the number of students increase over the years, but so did his staff.

“With a program this size you need a big staff,” he said. “You can’t do it all your self. We have four offensive coaches, four defensive coaches, a full-time athletic trainer and a full-time equipment manager. But we don’t have a lot of meetings. We don’t need to. Three of my coaches have been with me over 30 years and deserve the credit for those wins next to my name.”

McKissick has another piece of advice for young coaches looking to start out.

“Surround yourself with good people and make sure you have the support of the school administrators,” he said. “Make sure that football and athletics are an important part of the school. It’s not worth taking the job if you don’t think you will get the support from above.”

And also don’t ask how much the job pays.





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