Coaches & Leadership
Think about the coach who had the most lasting impact on you.
Not necessarily the most successful one. Not the one who won the most games. The one whose influence is still present in how you coach today — in the standards you hold, the way you respond to failure, what you believe about what competition is for.
That coach is in this room with you right now, through you. And you are doing the same thing for someone else.
Read this passage slowly.
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.
2 Timothy 2:2 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. Paul is describing a chain. What was given to him, he gives to Timothy. What Timothy receives, he gives to reliable people. Who then give it to others. The chain extends forward indefinitely.
You are a link in that chain. You received something from the coaches who formed you — both the things you want to replicate and the things you’ve consciously chosen to do differently. Both of those are formation. Both are part of what you’re passing forward.
The question worth sitting with is: what specifically are you passing? What is the coaching philosophy, the approach to people, the standard for excellence, the values-in-action that are being absorbed by the people you coach right now? Not what you intend to pass. What you are actually passing, as demonstrated by your daily behavior in the room.
The chain doesn’t carry what you believe in theory. It carries what you demonstrate in practice. The coach who shaped you didn’t primarily influence you through their stated philosophy. They influenced you through what they did when the game was close and the decision was hard and the easy thing was available.
Be that coach. Pass the thing that’s worth passing. The chain runs through you.
The chain doesn’t carry what you believe in theory. It carries what you demonstrate in practice — especially in the hard moments.
What specific thing did the coach who shaped you most pass to you that you are now passing to the people in your program? Name it specifically.
Connecting personal formation to current practice. The specific is the work.
The chain runs through you. Pass what’s worth passing.
This devotional creates natural space for coaches to share a personal story about the coach who shaped them. If the context is right, that story is worth telling.