Winning Baseball: "Shoe Leather"

When I was the Head Coach of Vienna Post 202 (2003 Georgia State Champions), one of the most difficult tasks we faced as a Coaching Staff was taking kids from 12 different high schools who have been taught to despise one another all year and make them into a team in only a few weeks.  I'm sure others may have theories on how to do this best, but there is only one way I know:  "Shoe Leather".

When you break Baseball and Softball down to the bare bones, it is an individual sport played by a team.  If each player does his job, you will have a good team and a successful season (you see this often in the professional ranks).  However, in order to have a "Championship" season, you, as a Coach, need to find a way to give your players a common experience, a "group" experience to share that will help your players "find a way to win" when the going gets tough and they need to come through in the clutch, not because he or she wants a hit or an RBI, but because there is no way he or she would ever let their teammates down. 

When I was a player at the University of North Florida, we had a tradition known as "Hell Week".  Each year, when we returned to school after Christmas, we would run at 6:00 AM in a parking lot through the dead of winter for an entire week.  This week did more than get us in shape after the holidays.  It made us find a way to keep moving our feet when the pain was unbearable and we couldn't take another step.  It made us reach down deep to block out the voice telling us "no" and replace it with a voice who repeatedly said "yes".  And looking back, it made us become a team. 

Proverbs 27:17 reads "As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another."  You, as a coach, must provide that method or moment where your young men and women can bleed together, sweat together, and puke together so they can also become sharp as Iron, and "find a way to win" when the going gets tough.