Coach Josh...

Good morning.  What a moment for me to enjoy:  typing up a blog while my dog lays in my lap chewing on his toy.  I absolutley love it.  The theme of my blog entry today is "Coach Josh" and it was inspired by a comment made by one of my Graduate Hall Directors, Brian, yesterday in our meeting.  I was talking with him about what's next in our two year plan together and I after I finished he said, "wow, I think I was just talking to Coach Taylor (from Friday Night Lights."  His comment really got me thinking and reminded me of this picture below of when I coached cross country at Analy High School in California.

Running w/ the team, Clipboard in hand!

Brian's right, I do approach everything as a coach when it comes to my supervision style and life.  I love the picture above because it completely captures my style:  hands on, in the trenches, working beside you to get better, pushing you to the max.  When I coached, I ran every single mile with the men and women on the team and pushed them all further than they had been pushed before.  With our staff, I am right there in the trenches with them helping develop training sessions, assisting when needed in crunch time, and really asking them the tough questions that will help make them better.  For me, I build a team like a coach.  I recruit like crazy, sell our program as an experience that will help you get to the next level, and then really work to help people achieve success once they get here.  I give speaches, pep talks, and cheer sessions.  I call people on the phone when I'm proud of them or worried about them.  I talk all the time about how our collective goal from professional to student staff member is to be the best and to "expect the best, everyday, all the time, no matter what."  I know I'm not easy to work for becaue I always push folks to reach beyond what they think they can do.  The more I push means the more potential I think someone has.  At the end of the day, I am a Coach and I love every second of being that.  It's a perspective that allows me to always be very proud of our accomplishments and look at disapointment as something to build from rather than be upset about.

Had a fantastic five mile run this morning on the first day of March!  My first two month of running have been rough with the nasty weather and such.  But...we are getting ready to head into prime running season:  March-October.  I'm so jacked up and ready to go.  Have a great day.  Happy running to you...