Expanding Athletes' Horizons: College Coaches' Role in Developing Non-Sport Skills

College coaches spend a ridiculous amount of time developing skills that athletes eventually won't use anymore. We teach footwork, technique, positioning, speed, strength, decision making, and every tiny detail that might help somebody become a better player, but eventually every athlete plays their last match. When that happens, I want the people I've coached to walk away with a whole lot more than a better serve or a higher vertical.

That's where I think coaches have a responsibility to see the person underneath the jersey. We're working with young adults who are going to become employees, spouses, parents, leaders, mentors, business owners, teachers, coaches, and members of their communities. They're going to have to communicate with people they don't agree with, interview for jobs, manage their time, speak in front of groups, handle money and responsibilities, accept criticism, solve problems, and lead people when there isn't a scoreboard telling them whether they're winning.

If all I've prepared an athlete to do is play volleyball, I haven't prepared them for very much of their life.

As a coach and a Christian, I care deeply about helping athletes grow physically, emotionally, spiritually, and professionally, but that doesn't mean every athlete develops in exactly the same way or that I'm supposed to turn myself into the expert on everything. Part of good coaching is recognizing what athletes need, understanding what I can genuinely help with, and connecting them with people and resources when somebody else is better equipped to teach them.

Communication is one of the biggest areas where I think athletes need development because being able to communicate well will follow them everywhere. You can be unbelievably talented and still limit yourself if you can't look somebody in the eye, explain what you need, listen when another person is speaking, write a professional email, handle disagreement without losing your mind, or communicate when something is uncomfortable.

I want athletes learning those skills while they're still in my program.

That can happen in ways that don't require another formal class or three hour workshop. Give athletes opportunities to speak at camps. Let them lead parts of practice. Ask them to communicate instructions to younger players. Put them in situations where they have to explain something instead of always listening to coaches explain it. Encourage them to speak during timeouts when appropriate, contribute during team discussions, and learn how to communicate with different personalities.

Writing matters too, and I think athletes sometimes underestimate how much they're going to need it once sports are over. Professional emails, resumes, cover letters, applications, reports, presentations, and basic workplace communication aren't going away because somebody was a great athlete. I've encouraged athletes to journal, contribute guest articles, enter writing contests, and work on essays, while providing feedback when it's appropriate and doesn't cross into doing academic work for them. Helping somebody become a stronger writer is very different from doing their assignment, and coaches need to respect that line.

Mentoring is another huge part of coaching for me because there are things young athletes need that aren't going to be taught during practice. Sometimes they need somebody to help them think through a decision, challenge the way they're approaching something, connect them with another mentor, or tell them something they don't particularly want to hear.

Mentorship shouldn't create athletes who need us to make every decision for them, though. If we're doing it well, they should become less dependent on us over time, not more. I don't want a senior who still needs a coach to solve every problem that makes them uncomfortable. I want athletes learning how to think, ask good questions, communicate directly, take responsibility, and eventually mentor somebody else.

That's leadership development.

Time management is another area where college athletics gives athletes one hell of a classroom because there aren't many college students trying to balance classes, studying, practices, lifting, treatment, travel, meals, sleep, relationships, and whatever else life throws at them every week. Athletes either learn to manage their time or spend four years constantly feeling like they're putting out fires.

I love a good spreadsheet, and anybody who's spent enough time around me knows Microsoft Excel is never very far away. But the specific tool matters a whole lot less than having a system that works. Use Excel, a planner, Google Calendar, your phone, a notebook, or whatever keeps you organized, but stop pretending you can keep seventeen deadlines, three appointments, a travel schedule, two exams, practice, and a group project floating around in your head without eventually dropping something.

Time management isn't about scheduling every second of your life until you're miserable. It's about learning to recognize what matters, plan ahead, and stop creating emergencies through procrastination. If you know the team leaves Thursday and your paper is due Friday, Thursday night on the bus probably shouldn't be the first time you think about writing it.

That's not being busy. That's being unprepared.

Stewardship is another piece I want athletes to understand, especially Christian athletes, because we've been given opportunities that aren't meant to make us more impressed with ourselves. Time, abilities, education, relationships, resources, influence, and opportunities all come with responsibility, and the question shouldn't always be, “What can I get out of this?” Sometimes we need to ask what we're doing with what we've been given.

That's one reason I believe community service matters, but I don't want athletes treating service like another box they have to check because the athletic department requires a certain number of hours. If you spend two hours serving people while complaining the entire time about having to be there, you probably missed the point.

Luke 22 gives Christian coaches and athletes a much stronger picture of leadership than the one sports sometimes sells us. Luke 22:26 (ESV) says, “But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.”

The context matters because Jesus says this after His disciples begin arguing about which one of them should be considered the greatest. He isn't giving generic leadership advice or telling athletes that community service will make them better captains. He's confronting the world's understanding of greatness and showing His disciples that leadership in His kingdom looks radically different.

Luke 22:27 (ESV) drives the point even harder when Jesus says, “For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”

That's the part Christian coaches should probably spend more time thinking about because leadership can become incredibly self centered if we're not careful. We can talk constantly about our program, our culture, our wins, our system, our philosophy, and our athletes while somehow making the whole damn thing about ourselves.

Jesus gives us a different standard.

For Christian athletes, that means leadership can't just be standing in the middle of the huddle giving a speech. Sometimes leadership is setting up equipment without being asked, staying behind to help somebody, thanking the people working your event, mentoring a freshman, serving your community when there's no camera around, or using your influence to help somebody who can't do anything for you in return.

You don't need a captain's title to do any of that.

Coaches also have to remember that developing athletes outside of sports doesn't mean controlling every part of their lives. We're influential, but we're not their parents, professors, pastors, therapists, financial advisors, or career counselors all rolled into one person. Good leadership includes knowing where our authority and expertise end.

What we can do is create opportunities. We can connect athletes with professionals, alumni, campus resources, mentors, churches and ministries when appropriate, internships, workshops, career services, community organizations, and people who can teach them things we can't. We can challenge athletes to become better communicators, stronger leaders, more responsible students, and people who understand that their value to the world isn't going to disappear when they stop wearing a uniform.

And we can model some of it ourselves.

If I tell athletes communication matters, they should see me communicate well. If I preach time management while I'm constantly disorganized, they're going to notice. If I talk about service but expect everybody around me to serve me, they're going to notice that too. Young people are pretty damn good at recognizing when the standards coming out of our mouths don't match the lives we're living.

That's why this isn't only about creating better athletes or making somebody more competitive in the job market. It's about recognizing how short an athletic career actually is and refusing to waste the influence coaches have during it.

Your athletes probably won't remember every drill you ran, and twenty years from now they may not remember the score of a match you thought was the biggest thing in the world at the time. They will remember whether you prepared them to handle responsibility, whether you taught them how to communicate, whether you challenged them to lead, whether you cared about who they were becoming, and whether the things you preached were actually visible in the way you lived.

Coach the athlete standing in front of you as hard as you can, but don't get so obsessed with developing the player that you forget you're helping develop the person who's going to walk away when the playing is over.