Great coaches strive to not only teach and inspire on the court, but to encourage these lessons to translate off the court and into life as well. This kind of dedication can only come from a coach who loves what he does. Coach David Warren of Chandler, AZ is this week's Coach of the Week, and according to him, "The definition of success is having the time to do the things you truly want and ought to be doing in life!". Well, according to that we'd say Coach Warren is pretty darn successful!
Coach Warren has been coaching the Chandler YMCA volleyball team for five years. The team plays in the Junior high division but they have kids as young as 5th grade on the team. The team motto is "Play hard and have fun!"
Coach Warren tries to make every practice as fun as possible and develop trust and friendship between the players. This is because of his belief that "to be truly great at anything, you must first love it."
One crucial part of Coach Warren's recipe for success is breeding chemistry off the court. This past weekend he took his entire team to The Karate Kid, also using this adventure to show them the importance of dedication and practice to achieving goals. In the past they have done things such as bowling parties, pizza parties, and other events to build team chemistry as well.
Coach Warren also strives to teach good sportsmanship, teamwork, and dedication. He makes it clear to his team that he will never be disappointed in them for making a mistake, but he will be disappointed if they don't at least try. Sounds like a winning recipe to us!
This past season Coach Warren's Chandler YMCA volleyball team came up just short of winning the Phoenix East Valley Championship. Even though their starting setter had to miss the tournament, they ended up getting third in the Premiere division. Despite trying circumstances, Coach Warren's team ended up with a favorable outcome, and with that experience will certainly do even better in the future. That's what life, and sports are all about! We can't wait to see what's next for Coach Warren's group.
