The Pyramid of Success

When we arrived at Chestnut Middle School Library tables and bookshelves were set up for a book sale. Chairs were moved about for the Blue Shirts to begin their first Project Coach class they will receive high school credit for. The Blue Shirts who wanted to receive credit in addition to being paid were given a contract to read over and sign; their commitment includes coming to the sessions prepared in full uniform, attending all Project Coach sessions and doing their homework for Monday’s Project Coach class.

The class began with a short clip of a children’s basketball session. In small groups headed by Red Shirts, the Blue Shirts critiqued the coaches in the clip. The Blue Shirts praised the coach who was using his loud ‘coach voice’ and had the kids listening. They criticized the coach who did not make eye contact with the children and the lack of movement during the session since only two kids were handing the ball at a time, leaving many of them with nothing to do but wait in line. When asked for how they would improve the session, one coach said she would split the kids in half, circle them up and lower herself to their eye level to explain the game rather than have them in a line while she explained and demonstrated. One Blue Shirt said he would have joined in and integrated himself into the game as another player. Another Blue Shirt suggested giving each kid a ball. A six-year-old kid does not go to practice to stand in line. When one coach was asked to put herself in a six-year-old boy’s shoes she said she would want to go to practice to have fun and play ball.

The Blue Shirts’ critique of the clip was followed by a mini-lesson on the Power of Three. Blue Shirts wrote down three reasons the city of Springfield benefits from Project Coach; they were then asked to stand up and use their ‘coaching voices’ and present to their peers.

The lesson shifted gears when the Blue Shirts were shown a video about Coach John Wooden. Taking the men basketball team at UCLA which won eighty eight consecutive games under Coach Wooden as an example, each Blue Shirt wrote down what they thought made a team successful. They were then given a handout on Coach Wooden’s 'Pyramid of Success' and prepared to explain a component of the pyramid in front of everyone. Everyone stood up and the Blue Shirts began to lay down the foundations of the pyramid, explaining what they believed Enthusiasm, Cooperation, Loyalty, Friendship, Initiative, Alertness and Self Control meant to them and to their teams.