Hayden Fox was the head football coach of the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles. In this 1990’s fictitious series, Coach had not only to deal with a football program that had seen its better years, but also with idiosyncratic assistant coaches, and a girlfriend/wife who, though supportive, would rather be shopping on a Saturday afternoon than in a stadium watching her husband suffer yet another loss.

Nevertheless, Fox was beloved by his former players, current players, and assistants for the simple reason that he was their COACH. During a season, all entities have that common bond of getting better and winning games. It is purity at its purest. From the last player on the bench to the all-star, everyone is pulling for the same outcome. Now, certainly a season has its bumps; it has its peaks and valleys. Often, my opening remarks to the team and their parents would be that the season is a journey; however, we do not have a roadmap. What joys and difficulties will we encounter along the way? Undoubtedly, at the end of the season at the annual banquet, the right words are said, the acknowledgments are given, and all is right with the world. The players and parents come and go like clouds and sunshine and snow and blue skies and rain, but the one thing that remains constant is COACH. Coach is the weathered mountain ready to embrace another season.

When you think about it, coaches come in all sizes, shapes, colors and genders. Frank Buford, a diminutive man, was my high school football coach at U of D High School. Don’t let looks deceive you. Coach had spent many years at Salesian High School in Detroit where he had gained a reputation as a great, hard-nosed coach. Despite him working us to death, I respected this man and think of him as “coach” today. When he said at the football banquet that I was one of the toughest kids on the team, my respect for him grew even more. I am sure that he has no idea what that comment has meant to me.

I love when years later a former player refers to me as “Coach”. Every time I talk to Scott Newman, a player on one of my JV basketball teams at Brother Rice, he calls me “Coach.” Now, mind you, I have not been his coach for nearly thirty years! I believe that name denotes respect for sure, but also it reminds all involved of the personal relationships we all developed during a particular season. Certainly, during the season, winning is the goal. Bill Norton, a long-time coach at Brother Rice, MSU, and Groves High School said it best, “It does not matter if you win or lose, unless you lose.”

But from the vantage point of years gone by, what matters is the relationship that makes the player want to call someone “Coach.”

Do you remember some coaches from your past and how they positively dealt with you and the team? Today would be a good day to contact him or her. “Hey, Coach Buford, how are you doing? Thanks for helping me turn into a man.”

Photo Credit: Coach Bear Bryant of Alabama is carried off the field Wednesday night after his team defeated Penn State 13-6 in the 42nd annual Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Jan. 1, 1976. (AP Photo) Anonymous ASSOCIATED PRESS