The School Sports Director

Preface

I have worked and learnt lessons from some incredible leaders and visionaries over the last 20 years during my time teaching, lecturing and working in sport. It has been an absolutely phenomenal journey so far and I thought I would share a few simple but important tricks that I have learnt along the way. Many of these ideas are not my own. These are thoughts and ideas I have learnt, stolen and high jacked from various people and experiences over the years. They do not belong to me so please steal and share as you see fit.  

Dedication

My father is the most hard-working human being I know and will always be my biggest mentor. He taught me how to grind. This article is dedicated to another one of my mentors, the late Nestor Pierides. It’s absolutely amazing how another human being is able to shape the way we think about the world and what we do in it. Nestor taught me how to turn that grind I learnt from my father into performance. Peace and love to you my brother. I miss you so much. 

The Director of Sport

This is a 24/7, seven days a week job, that requires you to be hard working, organised, thick skinned, emotionally intelligent, loving and kind. It really is a pretty picture when it all comes together which gives people this crazy perception that it’s a walk in the park, but the process is certainly not all sunshine and roses. Im so grateful to have a wife (Amanda) and son (Reece) that supported me whole heartedly through this process. If you perform at this level it will challenge all your relationships and shudder the balance of your life in so many ways. That in itself will teach you many lessons that you can use and translate into performance on the pitch.

Philosophy, Vision, Values and Purpose

Setting these goals at the start will allow you to plan effectively as you drive towards a clear vision. It needs to come from the top and almost infect every single individual within your organisation. It certainly isn’t easy getting the buy in from 100% of your staff. The closer you get to that 100% mark the better all your functions will perform. The School Sports Policy is key to this vision becoming a reality and needs to be in black and white. While this policy contains the nuts and bolts of your organisation’s systems and processes it also needs to keep safe your core values. Making difficult decisions becomes that much easier when it’s a values-based decision. Your policies and processes can and should be updated and changed with the times as you move closer to your end goal, but your values need to remain true for a lifetime. 

Relationships

Building relationships will help you build teams. Don’t make it about results and trophies. Make it about connections with the right people. Your relationship with every staff member, every student, every parent, every role player from within and outside your organisation is critical if you want to perform. Right at the very beginning I learnt that spending time with the u14h cricket team and taking a drive to the local primary schools regularly on a Saturday morning or a Friday afternoon to watch a bit of cricket or rugby and then having a refreshment with everyone afterwards was the most rewarding part of my job. Win or lose, stick around afterwards and have that drink. It will give you perspective and help you understand why you do what you do. 

Recruitment/Talent ID, Marketing and Admissions

There is certainly a massive difference between these three areas. If you attract the top sportsman, top academics and most importantly the best people to your school, you will have a competitive advantage over any of your rivals. Without going into too much detail about the difference between recruitment, marketing and admissions I want to make a point that every single human that is a part of your school is a living walking advertisement for the school. An interesting fact, there was a time when we conducted a survey on the top 30 academics and bottom 30 academics in each grade and looked at what sport they played. We found that the 85% of the top 30 academics were also A and B team sportsman and played a sport every term and 85% of the bottom 30 didn’t play a sport at all. Our admissions policy was driven around recruiting and admitting the best well rounded human beings. You need to create a brand image that every parent and every child can identify with and have the best admissions policy in the country that understands and supports the vision of the school. Then, you need to recruit the best. 

Administration

Communication and impeccable administration skills are the key to any successful organisation. We often talk about areas in our charge that we can control vs the things that are out of our control. This is an area that you have total control over and therefore should be nothing short of perfect in every aspect. We live in an era where information is easily accessible, and people want to stay informed and in the know. Invest in the necessary technology and train your staff effectively in this area. Performance on the pitch will always be debated. Don’t give anyone an opportunity to debate your performance in this area. Be perfect. 

Staff

For me the u14a cricket coach is probably the most important coach in the school. The philosophy behind this idea might be a difficult one to understand and certainly cannot be explained in one paragraph. In short this is the staff member that is going to get the opportunity to shape and mold your top athletes/humans/leaders in the school from day one. Take some time to think about this and you will understand why I say as much. 

Recruiting and training quality staff has and will always be a passion of mine. My staff always came first. Show them the way by being the first to arrive and the last to leave. Train your staff well enough so they can leave but treat them so well that they will stay and fight with you on the pitch. 

People often talk about the “school master” coach/teacher. What and who is this person? Simply put this is a human being that understands what we call the “middle line”. This is a teacher that doesn’t just teach Maths but rather he/she teaches Johnny. This is a coach that doesn’t just coach cricket but rather he/she coaches Johnny. Some people say that you have to be a school teacher at the school in order for you to be a good sports coach. People also often talk about how specialist sports coaches are not good for school kids. For me you have to try and find a balance. The top schools should have high performing Academic and Sport Departments. You need to have the best staff in the classroom and the best coaches on the pitch. It’s not always possible to have that “Joe Blogs” that can teach six English classes and then coach an A team sport every term. Training all your staff to understand the middle line is an ongoing process and will ultimately result in the school producing high quality sportsman/women that are also quality human beings. If you can find the balance between having the best academic staff and the best sports staff, you will reap the rewards. I can assure you that this is possible. 

Top quality sports coaches that are loved and looked after will market every aspect of your school better than any advert. Parents used to crowd around the training sessions of some of our teams with excitement. I absolutely loved standing and watching with them especially after winning a big fixture vs a local rival. An outcome based high performance training session run buy a number of coaches to our A/B Team squads or an organised fun based session to our G/H Teams, it didn’t matter. One thing I can say is that there are no parents peeping into Maths classrooms during the day watching our teachers explain algebra and make mistakes if they do sometimes, but our coaches are always in the public eye. They are always under pressure as they are always being watched with a magnifying glass in hand. 

Presentation

Look smart play smart and create a brand image that is incredibly attractive. This has always been one of my mottos. Treat every match day like it were the World Cup Final. Every staff member and every player need to be dressed to the nines. Coaches and players love kit. We all do. Do your best to ensure that they have the best kit. Don’t settle for average in this area even if it costs a bit more.

Associate yourself with brands that have similar values to you and create a meaningful relationship with them. Brand loyalty and this kind of relationship will go through ups and downs but just like any relationship if you chose your partner wisely and for the right reasons its will be worth the give and take. 

Double check and triple check your match day checklist and set up. Remember you are always on show to the public. Make sure you show up first and entertain till the last person leaves. Don’t settle for average. It’s your movie, so make it special. 

Coaching and Performance

We all want to win those big games and bring home the trophies and medals. That fire is embedded in my soul forever. I can be and I am still sometimes the grumpiest human when I lose. I can also say that I have let myself down at times when the scoreboard didn’t reflect in my favour. That’s important to me so If you are that way then stay that way. Don’t let anything or anyone kill your competitive nature. I don’t want to work with anyone that’s not bothered when their team loses. I guess I have learnt how to express my frustration a little better since my move to Johannesburg!

Winning on a Saturday drives kids to come school on a Monday. The buzz on the school corridors on a Monday morning after a big win on the weekend always gave me goosebumps as my office was smack bang in the middle of the school. It gave every child the motivation to work harder in class and on the sports field that week. 

Having said that, we can’t always win and it’s important that we are still able to measure our performances outside of the score or result of the game. Create those targets as a team outside of the win/loss column and hold yourself and everyone else around you accountable for them. It sounds so cliché, but it is the biggest truth, control the things you can control and eventually the results will look after itself. Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day and neither was any other great place. We are all chasing the lights and if we do things properly, we shall get there. Some of us will get there before others. The take home is don’t get so focused on winning that you lose sight of what is important. The key is to stay patient, focus on the prize and remember to enjoy it when it does come around. 

There is massive value in creating a blueprint around the way you train and play from the juniors age groups to the senior age groups. Choose a style that suits your school. It can’t always be sexy and romantic but try your best to give the people what they want. Training in squads rather than teams will also create depth with your athletes and your coaches. This is certainly not an easy thing to do but the right people will make it happen. 

Another thing I have learnt along the way is that an athlete (young or old) always asks themselves three questions before attending any session. Is this going to be fun? Am I going to learn anything? When are we going to play a game? Always keep this in mind. 

High Road Projects

The biggest mistake any of us can make is finding a comfort zone. There is and will always be a chasing pack. You simply cannot do the same thing year after year and think you will continue winning. 

The only constant in this environment is change. You have to evolve and change with the times to stay ahead of the pack. Growing and developing your facilities, your staff and your program needs to be on every agenda at every meeting. Im not saying make changes for the sake of making changes but making critical and calculated changes are important. 

Facilities form an integral part of any sports program and this area has and will always be close to my heart. I love working with the ground staff to get every strand of grass in place. Its always a great start to build on any great facility you do have, and also make sure that it stays in pristine condition. Create a list of high road projects with timelines and drive your department towards the success of these projects. 

Conclusion

This is certainly not a complete blueprint on how and what to do but rather a skeleton plan to build on. There will be great days and tough days. To share a very recent story with you, in 2015 Westville travelled up to Affies for the first time with approx. 600 boys and about 50 staff to play rugby, hockey, tennis and golf. Long story short we lost 25 out of 26 rugby matches. Many of the matches were lost by more than 50 points. The disappointment and the anguish that came with that weekend drove us into a frenzy. The next Saturday we hosted Kearsney at home and you might not believe me, but we won 24 out of 24 rugby matches. Im not going to tell you exactly what we did from the Sunday after Affies to the Saturday we played Kearsney but what I can share with you is that we all live for those moments. 

I have enjoyed actually typing out my thoughts and would love it for people to share their thoughts and ideas. School sport is close to my heart and may the success of school sport continue to thrive long after this and any other pandemic that challenges what we do. 

Special mentions

Nathan and Sharla Naidoo, Jenaisher Govender, Amanda Govender, Reece Govender, Maryna Hobel, Nestor Pierides, Trevor Hall, Grant Bell, Wayne Marsden, Mike Bechet, Thoks Zulu, Grant Price, Fabian Lazarus, Ant Denissen, Craig Currin, Brad Rowe, Cameron Mackay, Wian Du Plessis, Myles Usher, Steve Bezuidenhout, Trevor Cowie, Tanya Bower, Marcelino Nyar, Dave Collier, Karl Bresler, Yashin Ebrahim, Desigan Reddy, Tracey Osborn Lamont, Kary Sharrat, Neville Rothman, Kovin Moodley, Nicola Ludlow, Anne Vilas, Guy Vilas, Nigel Prout, Jack Thonissen, Lee Michael-Besnard, Adrian Carter, Michael Dick.