2011 -- A Look Back

TWENTYELEVEN
Twenty eleven has been an incredibly productive year for me and for our athletic program at North Shore. For several years, I had planned to start writing a blog. But I finally started on February 19th due to a variety of forces. My father for years had pushed me to write down my experiences as a learning and reflection tool. I had read my friend Vern Gambetta's blog Functional Path Training since he started it in 2005. At the beginning of last year he passed on a draft of his new book Following the Functional Path which was a compilation of five years of blogposts. I was struck by how the draft expressed Vern's creativity and willingness to innovate in his approach to coaching.  I began feeling I was missing out. Dr. David Hoch -- possibly the most prolific writer/ high school athletic director in the country -- had mentored me over the years and had also encouraged me to write. Lastly we seemed to have gotten to a tipping point in our community regarding what athletics at North Shore Country Day School meant.

Athletics has always been a significant part of the educational experience of a North Shore student. But as the schools most public program, it is easily affected by what is happening in the larger community. Although some of those influences can be beneficial, I have found they can also lead to a sense that we are lacking coherence to our program. Despite the fact that I speak at the occasional board meeting or parent gathering regarding what is going on in athletics, I have found that many people are much more interested in educational athletics in general rather than a mere citation of recent results. I decided my voice needed more opportunities to be heard more often and so this blog started.

Now closing in on 400 posts, I am surprised that I have so much to share and say. I have also felt the blog has improved the dialogue about sports at North Shore and beyond as I have lots of readers from the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada as well as a surprising number in Russia and Germany.

My approach has always been to spend a little bit of time every day working on this blog. If you were ever on a team I have coached, you know that one of my main tenets is success comes from disciplined consistency and that has been my approach in my writing. It still amazes me how much work can be accomplished just doing a little bit every day over many months. One of the best things now is the opportunity to easily look back on the years events. Although I have an extensive index of posts, I see the blog as having about six themes which include the  following:
1) Notable accomplishments of our athletic program
2) Writing on best practices and life lessons for coaches and athletes
3) Larger issues in the greater world that directly or indirectly relate to athletics
4) Important local community events that directly or indirectly relate to athletics
5) What I do to continue to improve myself
6) And recognition of major life events for friends and family who have influenced me
With these themes as an outline, I will review the major posts of the year. Anything that you see in purple font is a link to the post sited.

Notable accomplishments of our athletic program
We had a lot of championships and many other significant accomplishments over the last 11 months. Championships for the year started with our first Boys Basketball Regional title in school history, a regional girls soccer title, conference and regional baseball titles, the fourth straight field hockey conference title, and culminating with the schools first team STATE title in any sport -- Boys Golf. Other notable athletic accomplishments include: Kim Kahnweiler named athlete of the month for March by The Winnetka Current, our first Bass Fishing team competing in the state sectional, girls and boys qualifying for the state track meets, Alex Bergman qualifying for the girls tennis state tournament, a near record number of athletes named to all-conference teams this fall, a nearly undefeated football team and their playoff run, and Juliette Corboy 3rd in State in Diving and being named a High School All-American.

Writing on best practices and life lessons for coaches and athletes
This blog gave me many opportunities to share my life experiences and what I have learned from them as they apply to sports. Some of the most read posts included: March 5, 2011 - My Greatest Disappointment in Sports; March 24, 2011 - Failure Part I; April 3, 2011 - Talent Part I; July 3, 2011 - Why I Teach; August 15, 2011 - Dreams...More Than Just Once in A Lifetime; November 10, 2011 - Why I Failed to Qualify for the Olympic Trials. I have also spent quite a few posts explaining what I see as great coaching. Some of the most read were August 3, 2011 - Thoughts on Effective Coaching; September 27, 2011 - Thoughts on Effective Coaching Part II; November 7, 2011 - Some Final Thoughts on the End of the Season.

Larger issues in the greater world that directly or indirectly relate to athletics
This blog also became an easy way for me to speak about major sporting events and the occasional major world event - like the Royal Wedding - and how they could relate to our sports program. This summer included posts on the World Cup Soccer Team, the Track & Field World Championships, and the changes to the Illinois High School Association rules and policies. This fall we had an amazing end to the baseball season. But dominating all other issues was the turmoil that seems now to be Major College Athletics. 

Important local community events that directly or indirectly relate to athletic
We had a number of community events that had impacts on our athletic program. Our parents association brought in two great speakers Carol Dweck -- author of Mindset and Sian Beilock author of Choke both spoke to large groups of parents, teachers and coaches. Our Diversity Committee was a sponsor for Evanston's Race Against Hate this past June which is run in memory of Ricky Byrdsong former coach of the Northwestern Wildcat Mens Basketball team.

What I do to continue to improve myself
Through the blog, I have also been able to log my attempts at self-improvement. These include my professional/ recreational reading, my attendance annually at the Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network (GAIN) Conference and my attempts to be a good physical role model participating in the Madison to Chicago Relay this past June.

And recognition of major life events for friends and family who have influenced me
In my own family we had a number of important Birthdays -- my dad turning 80 and my wife 50. We also had the addition of a new baby - my nephew Jasper Francis McHugh. Unfortunately, there were many losses this year too and recorded in this blog were the deaths of Todd Walker, William Donald Shaefer, Parker Hall, Steve Jobs, Bill Iannicelli all of whom had some impact on either North Shore athletics or me.

This blog could not have made it to the new year without a lot of encouragement from others -- some in the North Shore community and many outside of the community. I hope you know how much I appreciate your suggestions, thoughts and consideration on what I have written whether it was stopping me in the hall and saying I enjoyed reading that, giving a post a LIKE on facebook, or some long and interesting emails and phone calls started in reaction to a post. I have appreciated all the feedback and hope I am still writing on a daily basis this time next year with much more to report. Mostly I hope the blog continues to add value to our community. I hope tomorrow or the next day to post my hopes and goals for the next year. Happy New Year to you all!