The coaches of Ball State University were able to get a piece of advice Thursday night from a very accomplished coach. Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts came to the Arena Lounge of Worthen Arena and spoke to the coaches and athletic faculty of Ball State. Dungy touched on aspects of coaching from the high school to the professional level and spoke about relationships within the coach-to-athlete realm.
"I think coaching is a profession," men's volleyball coach Joel Walton said. "It doesn't really matter what sport you're coaching. There are a lot of principles that apply for every sport, and just because I'm a volleyball coach, it doesn't mean I can't learn an awful lot by listening to Coach Dungy talk about coaching in general."
Dungy talked about how young men grew up in a family where there was no father figure. He also spoke about how a majority of these young athletes look to their high school and collegiate coaches as father figures and mentors and how important it was for these leaders to present a good example and model to live by.
For teams, sometimes there is a down year and the record is lower than the expectations the team harbored in the pre-season, similar to Ball State's men's basketball season.
"That's something that we kind of fight every year because for us, unless you win the Super Bowl, it's always a disappointment or a down year," Dungy said. "So every year you're coming back off a disappointment. What I try to do is try to explain to the team that the team is like a car, and every year its a new model. It's still a Corvette, but an '86 Corvette is better than an '85 Corvette. Likewise even though we're still the Colts and come April 3, during our first meeting, it's an all new year."
Dungy also spoke about the things that he tries to focus on and what he hopes to be remembered for.
"I would like to think that I got our team to play to their potential as often as they could," Dungy said. "I would want to be remembered as someone that helped develop young men as people above players."
Administrators can be looked at as the leaders of the coaches to a degree, so it was beneficial to them also. Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs Joe Hernandez had a good perspective on the impact on the coaches.
"I think its always important [to have these speakers]," Hernandez said. "We want our coaches to learn just like we want our students athletes to learn they're in the education business. So we want them to be educated and obviously being able to listen to a man of Tony Dungy's stature and profession that they share is very important for them and very good for them. I think we try to bring some people in like this to help them learn more about their profession and learn more about working with their student athletes and sharing the same problems they have with coaches in the professional level."
"It was great," cross country coach Sue Parks said. "It just reinforces the way we all want to coach, that we want to develop people as people beyond just athletes and it just reinforced the beliefs that we all have but sometimes move a little away from."
As a closing remark for the coaches Dungy leaves a final piece of advice.
"I would say number one is to think of your job as a teacher and build those relationships with your players and try not only to help them become better players, but better people," Dungy said.
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