A Coach's Perspective: How to Deal with Kids

You can make a significant mark if you put 40-plus years in the coaching business. And Pat Collins certainly hasn’t been cheated during a career that began in 1963. Collins’ experiences have been many and varied – he has coached in high school, college and the pros. He was an assistant at Louisiana Tech when a sophomore named Terry Bradshaw was tearing up the college ranks. Collins won a Division I-AA championship as head coach at Northeast Louisiana (now University of Lousiana/Monroe), and he was able to look on with pride as his son, Mike, coached at LSU as an intern during the Tigers’ run to the 2003 national title. But one of Collins’ most important achievements might be his institution of a feeder system in the Longview (Texas) Independent School District. The feeder system puts all sports in the school district on the same page in terms of coaching techniques and