Expert Series: Lori Hill on Developing Youth Athletes

I literally got involved in coaching because of a coach. He inspired me to want to help other people. I remember being in fourth grade and there was a little girl who just wasn’t maybe as fit or as healthy as some of the other kids in the class. And I remember thinking, if I could get a jump rope, we could jump rope at recess and I could help her. I could help her get healthy and fit. And that all goes back to that coach who just inspired me to want to help and to coach others. If we can inspire one tiny little thing in these kids, and I see it every day, I see the kid who wants to put the bandaid on the kid that’s hurt. I don’t know. Is that kid going to be the world’s best runner? Maybe, but if we inspire the kid to maybe want to be a nurse, absolutely. We just don’t know where we’re going to inspire a kid. And these tiny little things can blow up to be just huge aspirations for these little guys.

We go into all of our programs or into our schools with a super, super positive mindset. We’re not looking at finding the negative in winning. Winning is an exciting thing. Who does not want to win? Now, your definition of winning maybe a little bit different than mine, and our motto is, “Finishing is winning.” So finishing for some kids is never missing a practice. Finishing for some kids is for the love of Pete, your shoes were tied the entire meet. That’s fantastic. It just depends what your definition of finishing is as far as what is a winner.

We have a athlete that broke their foot or their leg. Had to have surgery. Ended up in a wheelchair, and there was another little boy, fourth or fifth grade that gave up his race to push that little kid in that wheelchair in a cross-country meet. There was no chance that this little guy was going to win. There was no chance this little guy was going to have the best time that he’s ever ran, but that characteristic trait, I don’t even know where you start. Perseverance, integrity, grit, respect, truth. I mean, you name it. So in that respect, that is one heck of an all-star.

But I also think that that kid that goes to practice every day trains really, really hard and wins first place has the same characteristics. If we are going to take value-based education and put that into sports, we are going to start to see kids who want to persevere. They’re going to want to persevere not only in sports, but in school. They’re going to want to persevere in being a good big brother or a good big sister. We’re going to start to see kids who have just heaps of integrity and they’re going to consistently make the right decisions. They’re going to try their hardest. It’s definitely a small piece of a very large puzzle, but I certainly believe it’s one of the most important pieces of that puzzle that we can play.