Each season a new challenge arises. The challenge of having a new coach each season. How do you overcome this so you can continue to learn and grow each season?
When you are trying to connect and gain trust with someone, you try and connect with them with common ground. That’s exactly what Coach Jacob Burke did.
“I feel the best way to connect with these athletes is to be authentic,” said Coach Jacob Burke. “I love the game and so do the guys, so it’s easy to find some common ground there.”
Burke credits the players as much as himself for forming those relationships, observing how welcoming they were and how naturally the connections developed. That mutual effort is what allowed the team to move past uncertainty and focus on growth. A good coach-athlete relationship is necessary if you want to be able to succeed in your sport.
“It is important to have a good relationship with your coach because it can bring the team together,” said Nathan Jordan, a junior on the team. “And can help make a better team overall.”
Team unity can allow you to be able to rely on one another to do your best. It also can allow the team to feel more relaxed at times and can joke around with each other.
“One thing that Coach Burke says to me a lot is ‘You’re benched,’” said Jordan. “He never actually benches me, but every time I tell him something and he says, ‘you’re benched,’ it makes me want to do better to prove me wrong.
Moments like that show how connection and understanding between coach and player can motivate growth rather than create fear. And that can allow lessons to be learned for the players.
“[The lesson my coach taught me is] the importance of hard work,” said Alexander Stow, a sophomore on the team. “So, on the ice, hard work almost always results in good things with yourself and your team. That also implies with the real world, if your work hard in your job or in school, then you will have good things happen to you.”
Through hard work, you can be rewarded with good things. Coach Burke helps guide these athletes to be the best athlete and person they can be. He lets them know that no matter what, he will always be by their side.
“I would love for the players to remember me as someone who always had their back,” he said. “Hockey is such a small piece of what we do, and I want them to know I’ll be in their corner no matter what.”
