Jared Engebretson

Q1: You’ve coached numerous different sports throughout the years, which sport would you say was your favorite to coach and why?

A:  My favorite sport to coach was baseball.  The biggest reason is my love of the game and the strategy that drives the game.  Players need to know what to do on each pitch, who is on base, the count, what to do if they get the ball, etc.  Coaching the intangibles of baseball is one of the best aspects.

 

Q2: What influenced you to coach these sports?

A:  Basically my love of the game and wanting to pass that onto other people.  I was also frustrated watching coaches of youth teams only focusing on winning and playing the best players.  They really were not focusing on developing all players, just some of the best ones or their own kids. As I have said many times, you want to make playing a sport a positive experience for all of the players as you never know how they will develop over time.  Additionally, you do not want to chase them out of the game at a young age before they have time to develop. All players develop at different rates and the best players today may not be in 5 years.

 

Q3: Of all of the teams you’ve ever coached, which would you say was your personal favorite? What made it so special?

A:  My favorite team was the first year I coached travel baseball.  We were a collection of players that other travel teams did not really want but the kids practiced hard, were coachable and had a desire to prove other people that they were better than they thought.  The team had great chemistry, playing time was fairly equal and everyone had a great time. To top it off, we way over performed on the field. I still have players from that team that come up to me to talk even though it was over 10 years ago.

 

Q4: Could you just describe in a few sentences what you view as the ideal coach-player relationship?

A:  Strong coach-player relationships are important for the development of the player and coach but also for the performance of the team.  To me, the ideal coach-player relationship the players feeling they could talk to me about anything, good or bad and vice versa. This allowed for open, healthy communication.  As part of this, I attempted to be as non-judgmental as possible and think of the players needs first.

 

Q5: How would you describe your coaching style?

A: My coaching style is more of a cooperative/player engagement style in which I encourage the players to have a voice in what we do and how we do it but I still have the final say on setting the strategy and direction.   This approach has worked as the players feel they have a say in things but it also allows me to determine how best to reach, connect and motivate each player. It also helps me to show them my understanding of the game, how I develop strategy and the importance of solid execution.   This also helps create a better relationship with the players, boosts participation and generally leads to over achievement.

 

Q6: Do you think that this was unique to yourself, or would you say that it was modeled after another coach’s style? If it was, who was it and why?

A:  This style is more of an outgrowth of playing for coaches that had a stern disciplinarian style that lead by fear and intimidation.  You were fearful of failure and the potential repercussions. Having played for many coaches and worked for managers like this, I took the things I didn’t like the most from those people and focused on doing the opposite.  It helped me tremendously in coaching sports but also managing people at work.

 

Q7: What coaching style did you find was the most effective in growing your players not only as athletes, but also as individuals?

A:  Most definitely the cooperative/engagement style.  Most of my teams reacted the best to this and their performance improved.  More importantly, they learned that it is ok to question people in leadership positions as long as it is done in a respectful manner.

 

Q8: What was the biggest takeaway you took from coaching?

A:  Coaching is like parenting.  You need to instill discipline, set expectations on behavior and performance and be compassionate and understanding.  Above all, no matter what, you need to be positive and supportive even when things do not go as planned. The player already feels bad when things do not go as planned so there is no need to pile on.  I also learned that I was harder on the team when they did well than when they did not perform as expected.

 

Q9: What did you hope to accomplish as a coach?

A:  I wanted to help the kids develop their baseball skills, a passion for the game and in some ways, positively impact some of their lives.  One player from a team many years ago told my oldest son last year that I was the only coach who believed in him as a player and that his own dad didn’t believe he was good at baseball and didn’t select him for his team.  This kid continued to develop and played on the high school team.

 

Q10: Did you ever encounter a player who was difficult to coach? If so, how did you go about getting through to them?

A:  I had a player my second to last season of coaching that thought he was the best on the team and that he knew more than my assistant coach and I.  He expected to play a certain position, did not take instruction well and would give up when he did not play well. We tried a lot of things with him but nothing seemed to work.  Finally, we realized who he thought was his main rival was on the team and let that person play his position for a few practices and games. The kid played very well and it was clear we had a decision to make going forward on playing time.  We sat the kid down and told him that while he was a major part of the team, he was not indispensable. We reiterated our expectations with respect to practice and games and it was the turn around was amazing once he realized he could lose his starting spot.  We ultimately rotated the two players at that spot and the kids behavior and performance dramatically improved.

 

Q11: Given the fact that you’ve coached your own sons in the past, how did you ensure that you did not exhibit “favoritism”?

A:  I always expected more out of my sons than the other players on the team.  Fair or not, I expected them to be the example for the other players on how to act, how to practice, how to play the games, etc.  They had to try out for positions like every other players and if they were not the clear cut winner at the position, they were not given the spot.  I didn’t worry if they were the best or not, I just wanted to instill the love for the game in them and hope they developed their own passion for the sport.

 

Q12: Were you ever interested in coaching at a higher level? If so, what deterred you from pursuing this?

A:  I did think about coaching at a higher level and was asked to be an assistant coach on my son’s high school baseball team.  I declined the offer as I had coached my son for years and thought it was better for him to get his day to day instruction from another coach.  It was a tough decision due to my passion for the game but it was the best decision for my son.

 

Q13: Looking back on it, is there anything that you would’ve done differently as a coach?

A:  The biggest thing I would have done differently would have been to do a better job of blocking out the parents and their various complaints.  Sometimes I would get very frustrated at the constant second guessing on the playing time or use of their kids. There are many parents that think their kids are going to the Major Leagues and as such, they had expectations on how much their kids should play and at what positions.  While I never gave into the constant questioning or complaining on either issue, it did sometimes distract me from the time I wanted to spend teaching the players.