Meet Joe • Recent Press

2007

November 1

Speaker stresses relationships in team sports

By Jeff Elliott, The Times-Union

Former NFL player Joe Ehrmann challenged Jacksonville-area high school football coaches to maintain high standards and strong principles in their teachings and influence over players.

Ehrmann, who is now a nationally recognized inspirational speaker and seminar leader, was the featured guest at a breakfast Wednesday at the Southpoint Marriott to honor the memory of former Mandarin football coach J.D. Hall, who died during the summer from an apparent heart attack.

Ehrmann told a crowd of about 250, including most of the Mandarin football team, that coaches need to ask themselves four basic questions:

"Why do I coach? Is it the same reason as when you started out 10, 15, 20 years ago?" Ehrmann asked the coaches. "Second, why do I coach the way I coach? Why do I relate to my players the way that I do? Third, what does it feel like to be coached by me? You think of the pressures that these youth are under today, getting up so early and all the social, peer and educational pressure they have in school, and then at the end of the day, they come in front of you.

"And, finally, what do you want to accomplish as a coach? At the end of the day, after all the hours and time and effort you put in, what is it you want to accomplish?"

Ehrmann, who has been named one of the 100 most influential sports educators in America by the Institute for International Sport, stressed the importance of team sports and the relationships that are built through sports.

"Team sports are all about relationships," Ehrmann said. "It's all about teaching our players how to connect and relate to their teammates. Sports has the capacity to bring people together across racial, economic and geographical differences that they normally wouldn't, because society would dictate that you stay separate and apart.

"Team sports is also about committing to a cause. You bring your individual gifts, and you give that to a whole community to accomplish something that you couldn't accomplish by yourself."

Ehrmann was brought to Jacksonville by K Life, a youth ministry that focuses on mentoring and disciplining today's teenagers to build positive relationships that can withstand negative peer pressure. Hall had become involved with the group before his death in June.

"Coaches are the key citizens to bring about change in our society," Ehrmann said after his presentation. "I don't think there's a more powerful group of citizens in this country that collectively have this incredible influence over boys and girls from the earliest of age to older age. They need to get their own values right and understand the privilege it is to have that whistle around their neck, to be called a coach and then think about the responsibilities that come with that privilege."

jeff.elliott@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4292