If you don’t define success before the season starts, the scoreboard will happily do it for you. So will parents. So will social media. So will your own ego.

It’s easy to say you care about the person, not just the performance. It’s trickier when you’re staring at practice plans, game film, scouting reports, parent emails, and the never-ending chaos of a season. But here’s the truth: your athletes will forget most of the drills you ran. What sticks are the moments where they felt seen.

Your athletes can feel it when you don’t trust yourself. It leaks out in how often you second-guess decisions, how quickly you panic when things go wrong, and how defensive you get when questioned.