DEVELOPING SENIOR LEADERS

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The full text of “DEVELOPING SENIOR LEADERS” by Jeff Adamson, from the Vol 4 — Winter 2025 issue.

EVE PORING By Jeff peo Head este Coach ceo go" School (IN)) o team can be successful without great leadership from the players who make up the team. Developing leaders and providing them with the tools to become positive leaders in the locker room, on the field, and within the school will have a huge impact on the culture of your team. Our leadership program started after a disappointing season. We had a talented group of players, but there seemed to be something missing.

Our coaches were dealing with player issues that we had not had to deal with for several years. We ended the season repeating the famous quote that all coaches have stated at one time or another, “we just didn’t have any leaders.” It was at that point that our staff decided we needed to be intentional about developing leaders within our team and not leaving it to chance. 34

PHOTOGREDIT JOHN CHAPMAN “The leadership program we currently use has been refined over the years, but has allowed our coaching staff to at least have a common starting point.”

We start meeting with our current juniors after our Spring Break, which is usually at the end of March, and continue meeting until the end of the school year. We meet together during our school’s Home Room period, which lasts 35 minutes. In our first meeting, we tell our juniors (next season’s seniors) that their legacy as a player will be defined more by what they do as a leader of next season’s team than any play they make on the field during a game.

Some of the early meetings we had with players helped our coaches learn very quickly that most players felt that being a leader meant bossing the underclassmen around instead of serving their teammates. At our very first leadership meeting, the first priority is to make sure all the players understand what leadership means.

We define leadership as, “influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good.” Everything we do in our leadership meetings should relate back to that common definition of leadership. Also in that first meeting, we want players to understand we are all recognized as leaders because of Power or Authority. We define Power as the ability to force or coerce others to do your will, even if they would choose not to, because of your position, title, or might.

Authority is the skill of getting people to willingly do your will because of your personal influence. We use this chart to help them see the difference between Power and Authority. Know the difference between Power and Authority! “Do it or else.” Power is an ability. You can have Power without having You can have authority without having power. Authority. Can be bought, sold, taken, or given away. More about who you are as a person, your character, and the influence you've built with people.

There are times when Power is necessary. Using authority wins people’s hearts, minds, commitment, and creativity. Obviously, we want players to lead with Authority instead of Power. We also want them to understand that it is impossible to lead that way until they have invested in their teammates and worked to build relationships with them.

The next part of our leadership meetings is to provide them with some specific things they can do or say as a leader that will help them build relationships with the underclassmen, especially the incoming freshmen or some of the other teammates they don’t know as 36

* PHOTO, GREDITHOHNIGHAPMAN| well. To help with this, we give every junior an index card. We tell the players to write the name of the person at the top of the card who has helped them the most in their football career. After everyone has decided who that person is, we have the players write down three specific things that person has done for them to help them in their football career.

We go around the room and have every player share who their person is and share one thing that person has done to help them in football. The coaches make a list on the whiteboard of the specific things that people have done to help their

careers. As the Head Coach, I also do this with the players. I tell them that my Dad has always supported me when I was playing and since I’ve been coaching. He has always been brutally honest with me about things that he sees in our team, especially those things that I didn’t want to hear. After compiling this list on the whiteboard, we tell the players these are all specific examples of things they can do as a leader of the team to serve their teammates.

The list shows specific things our leaders can do to serve their teammates and to help them feel like they are an important part of our team. As a part of this exercise, we have every senior pick at least one underclassman that they will intentionally seek out and lead. The coaching staff will occasionally assign a freshman to a senior if we feel that player needs some extra encouragement. We will also assign more than one player to any of the seniors who have already proven themselves to be solid leaders.

Once a senior is assigned to an underclassmen, it is expected that the senior will look after that player for the entire season. As we head into summer workouts, the seniors will have the opportunity to put into practice what they have learned through our leadership meetings. We use the acronym “FIST” to remind them of the specific things we want them to do, starting at the very first workout of the summer.

We want them to be the first to show up at every workout, be in the front of lines, and finish every drill and workout. We want them to be intentional with the player they have chosen. They need to have a plan of how they are going to approach their player and encourage him through their first workout. We want them to speak to their player when he arrives. The new guys coming in are always nervous about how they will get through the first workout and we want the leaders to welcome them and put them at ease.

We also want them to check in with their player afterwards to see how they did and encourage them to be back the next day. Lastly, we want them to touch their player with a high five, fist bump, or a pat on the back.

The coaches always meet with the seniors after that first workout to see how things went and to give them feedback. The coaches look for specific instances of good leadership and recognize it with the group so that it will continue through the summer and the football season. Building these relationships between the seniors and the underclassmen has led to a couple of unique traditions within our program. We regularly have seniors who “will” their jersey number to an underclassman.

We have a lot of the seniors also “will” their locker to an underclassman. These two traditions have helped those relationships continue after our seniors graduate and have helped create a cycle of positive leadership year in and year out. Jeff Adamson Assistant Principal Head Football Coach Eastbrook High School 560 S. 900 E.

Marion, IN 46953 (765) 664-1214, x. 4002 Coach Jeff Adamson is one of Indiana’ great coaching legends having accumulated over 330 Victories since becoming Head Coach at Eastbrook in 1989. Current record is 331-107 This amazing record includes 16 Sectional Titles, 7 Regional Titles, 4 Semi-State Titles 4 State Final Appearances 2004, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 17 Conference Titles. Maybe most special is the amazing feat of achieving 8 Undefeated regular seasons. 39

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