The Coach/Athlete Relationship

This verges on the cliche, but it will help clarify for many of you what the relationship between an athlete and a coach is really like. You will see the many facets of the job:

NBA player and former University of Michigan star Jalen Rose attributed much of his success to his high school coach, Perry Watson. "He was more than just a basketball coach. He was my counselor. Any time I'd want to talk, just gain knowledge, I'd take my lunch down to his office and talk, and find out about guys that made it, and guys that didn't, and what I could do to make it."

Mary Scotvold, skating coach to Olympic medalists Nancy Kerrigan and Paul Wylie, said that although you send athletes home at the end of the day, coaching is really a 24-hour-a-day job because you spend your time away from them thinking about ways to help them improve.

According to Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson, "As a coach, you get involved in the background and the personal lives of your players and you have to be able to deal with more than just what is going on on the court. You have to deal with it. We as coaches are just more aware of what's going on."

Mamie Rallins, a four-time world record holder in the hurdles and a member of the 1968 and 1972 U.S. Olympic teams, described her job as track coach at Ohio State University: "When I coach and recruit for this university, I always try to tell my athletes that I will coach you as if you were coming to a finishing school. When I get through with you, you will know how to dress, eat, do anything else in the world that you want to do."

Runner Michael Johnson, winner of two gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, has been with his coach, Clyde Hart, since his days as an undergraduate at Baylor University: "Some people try to find a mentor who will provide everything for them: counseling, companionship, guidance, and discipline. That is too taxing a demand for you and for your mentor. A good mentor--like Coach Hart--offers directions and driving tips from the back seat. You still have to drive the car."

Mike Kennan, former coach of the NHL New York Rangers (the team won the Stanley Cup under his direction) and now with the Vancouver Canucks, talked about his coaching style: "I never had the desire to be liked by everybody. My responsibility is to determine the best abilities a player has and can give me. To do that, it's not necessary to be liked. It's necessary to be respected. Making the choice was not hard for me."

Davin Williams is a three-time Idaho high school state champion in the triple jump. Since eighth grade he has been coached on a volunteer basis by Gerald Bell, a junior high school assistant principal who was a triple jumper at Boise State University. Williams works with him on Sundays. ''He's more than my coach. He's my friend. I can talk to him about anything. He's there. He'll always be there.''