Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > December > 29
Friday, December 29, 2006
The power of encouragement
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz
Over the holidays, I’m reading the autobiography of former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz. In one way, Holtz’s story is classic — poor kid overcomes odds and reaches great heights through hard work.
But unlike many other folks who made this climb, Holtz benefited from a very supportive family. And the turning point in his life came during a conversation with his parents and a coach who had a different vision for Holtz than everyone else in his life.
It’s a good demonstration of the life-changing power of teachers and coaches.
As Holtz tells it, he was by far the smallest and least suited player on his high school football team. And he didn’t have a reputation for great classroom smarts either. But he loved playing football and earned a reputation for not only knowing exactly what he was supposed to be doing on the football field at all times, but also knowing — and sometimes reminding teammates — exactly what the assignments were for the other 10 players on his side the field.
At the end of Holtz’s junior year, his school’s football coach got a job at a bigger school. Before he left, he called Holtz and his parents in for conference where he stunned all three by suggesting Lou ought to go to college and become a football coach. Holtz’s father was a bus driver and ex-coal miner from West Virginia. The thought had never occurred to anyone in the Holtz family that any of them should, or even could, go to college.
But that one conversation changed the direction of Holtz’s life. He probably would have ended up working in an East Liverpool, Ohio, hospital like his sister without that coach’s words. Instead the whole family pitched in to send Holtz to Kent State University.
Can you imagine what any of the folks involved in that conference — the coach, Holtz’s parents, even Lou himself — would had said if you’d have told them then that this boy could someday be the head football coach at Notre Dame? While Holtz was leading the Irish, he learned that the coach who inspired that early change of direction was still alive and retired in Southern California. For years, he was Holtz’s sideline guest for the annual Notre Dame-Southern California game.
It just goes to show what a little encouragement from the right teacher (or coach) can do for a young person.
(Image credit: Motivational Celebrity Speakers)
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: My Favorite Posts, Teaching and Learning
