Have you ever stopped to think, “What am I doing here?”

Not in a negative way, but in a purposeful way. “What is my purpose as a coach?”

To win conference championships, get personal bests, beat the rival team, make it to the post-season? To influence others and make an impact in their lives? To help others flourish athletically and/or personally? There are many reasons that people get into coaching, any of which are fine. The accolades that get noticed are the wins or losses, the outcome on the playing field. Those successes are great, but to me (and probably most coaches out there) coaching is so far beyond the playing field. To me, a coach is there to provide two things for their athletes, 1) opportunity and 2) experiences.

This past weekend, my team spent 5 days in the California sun, competing in multiple meets and setting numerous personal, school, and state records. They were determined to make their way up the regional and national rankings. Needless to say, it was an incredibly successful weekend on the track. As a coach, it was exciting to see athletes lead and win their heats and events or achieve the goals they had set for the weekend. The energy was contagious. But the moment that reaffirmed my purpose and love for coaching didn’t come while I was yelling splits as the psuedo-distance coach and watching our athletes win. It came in the moments after, where nothing with track was really involved at all.

After much convincing, we took a group of athletes out to the beach to stick their toes in the water. I love this part of the trip just as much (maybe more) than the athletes. As I was snapping pictures and taking in the beautiful sunset, half of the group started jumping into waves, laughing, and taking loads of selfies. One athlete was loving it just a tad more than everyone else and ran out of the water toward her teammate saying “this is the best day ever!!” I felt like a proud Mom to be honest. This was the cherry on top of her amazing weekend, as she had set a new school and state record earlier that day by running 4:22.62 in the 1500m. (Stud!)

Last year on the California trip, I had the same feeling while at the beach on Saturday evening. A couple of the athletes in that group had never seen the ocean, so that was a cool experience in itself. To make it even better, we saw dolphins jumping around less than 100 yards from the shore. It was incredible. We also walked around muscle beach, which was a pretty cool spot for a bunch of throwers to experience. They loved every minute of it all and I know that these are the moments they’ll remember, not necessarily how far they threw the shot put that weekend.

During experiences such as these, I can’t help but to feel a sense of purpose beyond making them run fast, jump high, or throw far. I feel as though this is what coaches are here for, to provide these athletes with incredible experiences on and off the playing field. Providing the opportunity of being a student-athlete can lead to so many things. It can provide a great education, a way to get them out of a negative environment, or provide them with many experiences that will enhance their personal and professional lives. The experience of being a student-athlete alone teaches many core values; hard work, teamwork, leadership, commitment, perseverance, time management, organizational skills, the list could go on and on. The experience of traveling the country is one that I appreciated the most as a student-athlete.

I have been given the incredible opportunity to provide those opportunities and experiences to young people through coaching. I am making an impact on their lives in some way or another, whether either of us realizes it right now or not. When training and competing doesn’t always go the way we want it to, the moments on the beach are important to reaffirm the purpose and opportunity a coach has been given and in turn can provide to their athletes.

Coach Cota