During tough times, internal team leadership most needed

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Through my work as a sportswriter, as well as my own coaching endeavors, I’ve often found that matters outside the field of play have a greater bearing on success than talent and elaborate schemes. Just look at some of the things in the news lately. Even the Super Bowl champion New York Giants can’t escape it. Plaxico Burress, who got a $35 million contract after catching the winning pass in the Super Bowl, was suspended for one game by the Giants this week for missing a practice and not calling to explain his absence. Choosing not to make a telephone call is apparently going to cost him more than $235,000. I like the explanation of Giants coach Tom Coughlin in the Associated Press report we got. “We have had success here because of the team concept,” Coughlin said. “And the team concept means basically that everyone is accountable and responsible and that we don’t let the other guys down.” The old, “do you know who I am?” concept didn’t fly with Coughlin. Sometimes you have to sacrifice short-term production for long-term gains, for the sake of integrity. Husker volleyball Be careful about passing this along to my Hawkeye brethren, but one team I’ve followed closely is the Nebraska volleyball squad, undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the country. I just like the way coach John Cook runs his team, and I enjoy reading Chad Purcell’s coverage in the Omaha World-Herald. I always come away feeling that I’ve learned something that can help me in covering volleyball locally. Recently, the Huskers have moved toward winning another Big 12 championship despite an off-court crisis that threatened their team chemistry. Heading into last week’s Big 12 opener at a strong Kansas State team, two starters were benched for a violation of team standards related to alcohol. Nonetheless, with a short bench, Nebraska managed to beat the Wildcats. Cook reinstated the two sophomores last Friday. He noticed in that day’s practice that they were pressing so hard in hopes their teammates would forgive them, it resulted in a poor practice. The next morning, just before the Huskers hosted No. 3 Texas in another key conference showdown, Nebraska’s three senior captains invited the two sophomores out for breakfast. It was a meeting that got the team moving forward, and both of those players had a good match in a Nebraska victory that night. “It was a very stressful week,” Cook said. “Everybody was a little touchy. We focused on what needed to be done, and we’ve moved on. I think this team could go through anything and we’d still be together.” Hazing incident In New Mexico, there’s a high school team — Robertson High — that had to dismiss some of its most talented players from a squad that has played in the state championship game in each of the past three years. They were ringleaders of a hazing episode against six younger teammates at a summer training camp, which amounted to criminal assault. The fallout has cost the head coach and all five assistants their jobs, and the district attorney said school administrators could face charges of failing to report child abuse. Bruce Brown, a successful coach and athletic administrators at several levels, spoke to Hawkeye 10 coaches recently about developing leadership within a team. The cases mentioned above are examples where positive peer pressure is most needed. First of all, good leaders create an atmosphere were new teammates are welcomed, not victims of hazing. In fact, the old system of making freshmen do all the labor like carrying water and equipment is counterproductive, he said. If seniors show they’re willing to lead in doing the work, younger kids will follow. There should be no caste system within a unit. A good captain has to be the first to lead by example, and the last to violate team standards. A leader also has to be interested in all levels of the team, not just his class. Be the first to protect one another, and the last to criticize your team. When a team starts losing, there are snipers out there taking shots at the team. That’s when you have to circle the wagons and show loyalty to one another, instead of division within the ranks. On the best teams, the most talented are also the hardest workers. Next week Creston/O-M coach Dick Bergstrom, who heads up the summer weights and conditioning program, will hand out T-shirts to those who attended at least 80 percent of the 40 morning sessions at the high school last summer. Sometimes there are circumstances such as morning jobs, but in general the best teams I’ve seen here, regardless of sport, have had multiple kids from each class dedicated in that program. Peer pressure Every successful team needs somebody to step in and provide some peer pressure when people aren’t showing dedication, or team standards aren’t being met, instead of just relying on coaches to do the dirty work. Brown related two stories about great leaders he had on his basketball teams in the state of Washington. One did it with subtle suggestions, such as speaking with a teammate at the end of the line, not even looking right at him so as to not create attention, and under his breath make encouraging remarks about stepping it up to help the team in a certain way. He was respected so much, that just the disappointment of not meeting his standards usually was enough. Another guy was much more direct. And he was 100 percent committed to team success. This kid on Brown’s team was getting irritated at a new transfer student on the team, who obviously had a ton of talent, but played lackadaisically. The team had a defensive scheme based on mutual help and all-out effort, and this kid screwed up the chemistry. One day, Brown looked over and saw his captain with a finger poking the newcomer in the chest, up against the wall. The team was doing conditioning drills, and the new guy had been jogging. “YOU’RE LAZY, AND WE’RE NOT!” the captain said. “EITHER GET WITH US, OR GET OUT!” From that point on, the kid hustled and showed how much he could help if he tried. Not everyone needs that kind of wake-up call, but the point is, internal team leadership is essential. Talent being equal, I’ll take the team with discipline and selfless cohesiveness over the team with individual egos and lack of mutual respect. To be that kind of leader, to confront violations of team standards and work as a problem solver rather than a problem avoider, requires courage. But those who are willing to show that kind of aggressive determination and leadership will go a long way someday. For the Creston/O-M football team, this is a critical time. There are multiple injuries, an inconsistent new offense, and rumors of off-field incidents that could lead to ramifications, depending on the results of a school investigation. It would be easy to crumble into a heap of 1,000 excuses and just go through the motions for the remaining five weeks. Kind of like the competitive nature dissipating last week after a Lewis Central interception made it 21-0, dissolving into a 41-0 halftime deficit. Or, some guys could step up and pull the remaining troops together, and refuse to go down without a fight. Regardless of the score, or the amount of time left. I’ll be pulling for the latter. —————— Larry Peterson can be reached at 782-2141, ext. 232 or lpeterson@crestonnews.com