By: Cole Negen
High School sports are truly a unique experience. Some people don’t get as much experience in it, but as someone who participates in 4 sports, competition is definitely not new to me. Over my time it’s been no secret that the teams I have been on have not been very successful. I’ve been on some really fun teams, and I’ve been on some not very fun teams. As an avid sports fan, I’ve also been able to see what teams who are competing at the highest level looks like. Over this time I’ve noticed a few common denominators.
Identity
More than a lot of things, teams who are most successful have an identity. Not just amongst the best players, but amongst everyone. Everyone knows what is trying to be accomplished and what is expected of them as an individual. Recently while I was down at the state football finals, I got to see a matchup of 2 teams who I’m actually very familiar with. The matchup was the Class A finals, between Grundy Center and West Hancock. West Hancock had a very clear and obvious identity; run the ball. They had 3 players with over 1000 yards rushing, as well as the leading rusher in all of Class A. Their offense was straight forward, run, run, and run some more. By the state finals game, their quarterback had passed it a total of 37 times! For reference, they played 13 games, meaning they called a pass play on average about once a quarter… if you round up. The coaches knew what they wanted to do, they players bought in to that idea, and they were able to run with it.
Talent
So this is the obvious one. Like I said I played on teams that were super fun and everyone knew what we needed to do to win. The problem is, we just weren’t that good. You hear a lot of negative things about people with talent. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. This is very true. But after all, it’s hard to overcome a team that is naturally talented. A team that naturally has an advantage over other teams strictly because of genetics is very difficult to overcome when they are working hard.
Hard work
Yeah, it’s not glamorous. I am definitely one who is tired of hearing the old adage of out working someone. But that’s really a huge part. Nothing breeds success like trial and error. Teams that compete at the highest level put in the work. Not only that, but they are focused. They get good grades, they are focused in the weight room. They study the game. They just push themselves, and like I said above, when talent works hard, at least from an individual standpoint, it’s hard to get even a slight edge.
Coaching
A team needs coordination to work. Some people are just naturally inclined to buy into coaching, coaching methods, lifting programs. Good teams have coaches who can get all the rest of the people to buy in. These coaches know how to maximize the potential in every player. They don’t just teach, they have programs. A lot of the most successful teams have coaches who have been there for an extended period of time. These teams stay on top because that coach knows what it takes out of the players, and what he needs to do to get those players to do to be on top (if you can follow all that). Coaches know the process, and how to fit each individual player into said process.
Attitude
Attitude not in the mean or arrogant sense per say, but attitude in this case can also double as charisma. A lot of great teams have a lot of fun at what they are doing. They never take themselves nor what they are doing too seriously, to the point that they forget why they even play the sport. Every year our wrestling team wrestles Lake Mills. Last year, when we faced them in a dual, I just noticed how much fun all there guys had. There bench was super energetic and active, something you don’t often see in wrestling. They were really good to. They would later go on to State Duals, and made a nice run while they were down there. This attitude allows for teams to not over-complicate things, and also gives them the motivation to compete and win.
Intelligence
While this one isn’t as 1:1 as the other characteristics, but most teams who are the best of the best, have a lot of knowledge for what they are doing. They know the philosophy of the sport, why things are taught a certain way, what to do in certain situations during a game or match, and so on. Some teams are so talented they can coast on the fact that they may not know a ton about the game, but I would say a good majority of teams are very intelligent in their sport.
Balance
Good teams are good in all areas. For instance, a team may lead the state in 3 point shooting percentage, but say they also score in the paint at a JV level. This team is not going very far. Even if the coach draws up an offense designed to primarily shoot 3’s, eventually they will be exposed. Look at the best players on each team. Often times, the best players are amongst the best in all areas on there team. The best scorer is also probably one of the best rebounders, and one of the best defenders, and so on.
There are many other things that you could make a case to include in this list, but this is what I came up with. When I think of great teams, these are what I think of, more than most anything else.
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