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Seriously Fun: Bill Campbell on the Football Field by Jim Thompson
Bill Campbell, a member of PCA's National Advisory Board, was recently honored by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, which named its most prestigious award after him, the National Scholar-Athlete Award. Although Fortune Magazine profiled Bill as a mentor and coach to many of Silicon Valley's top executives, he is, at his core, a football coach. PCA Founder and Executive Director Jim Thompson spent some time with Bill at his 8th grade flag football team's practices and games. Here's his report.
 Bill Campbell, Chairman of Intuit, is famous as the "Coach of Silicon Valley" for his work with executives and entrepreneurs. But he is most alive and joyful on the football field where, for the last six years he has coached an 8th grade flag football team.
"That Fortune article did a number on me," Bill told me. "Since that came out everyone in the world wants me to coach them. But I have no time. The place where I find peace is between 4:30 and 6 pm on the football field. Coaching football is such a joy."
Watching Bill coach football is fun partly because he enjoys it so much. Although I would characterize him as a positive coach, he sees himself differently: "I'm not positive or negative. I'm enthusiastic! I'm a screamer and a hugger. I never yell at a kid for dropping the ball, but kids want to be told the truth. I might give a kid who makes an effort mistake a mental massage."
Here Bill puts his fingers on both sides of my head to demonstrate, "Charlie, I love you, boy, but you're not giving me the attention I need!"
He's more often apt to praise an unheralded action than the touchdown pass or catch: "That was a beautiful block!" When a player drops a pass, he's likely to just yell "Next!" to focus him on the next play.
Bill engages players in a personal way that makes them feel important and capable of great things. He is so enthusiastic that you just have to get excited yourself about what this team can do "if we all work together!"
He is obsessed with team-ness. "It goes back to when I played," he says. "It's all about the team. My team was good enough that they could hide me," he jokes. He cites college teams he's known with great running backs or great quarterbacks that still didn't win titles. "But at Columbia (where Bill later was head football coach) we won the Ivy League title with an unknown quarterback. Everyone playing together, completing their assignments. Precision makes the difference."
His love of football is deep. Speaking of his fellow flag football coaches, a veritable who's who of Silicon Valley, he says, "We love this game so much and we want to teach these kids what a wonderful game it is. Too many people think of trick plays and brutality when they think of football. The reality is somewhere between those."
Watching his team take apart a rival for the league title in a late season game, I was struck by the precision with which the players worked together. On defense they swarmed to the ball and made tackles (grabbing a flag from the hips of the ball carrier and raising it to the sky to let the officials know where the play stopped) with pride and intensity. They seemed to move to cover the field as a unit in a way that is rare for a high school team let alone a group of 8th graders.
"We focus on the fundamentals -- blocking, pass defense, containing the ball carrier, holding onto the ball -- things that will carry over to playing in high school."
Bill is proud that Sacred Heart Prep has become something of a power in high school football and that the kids he coached in 8th grade form the spine of the team. "We made football something serious and fun. They understand that it's important. Our locker room is like a classroom."
Bill fills the sideline with his presence but by football standards he is not a big guy. He told a mom who was worried that her son was too small to play football, "Your son doesn't think he's small, so don't tell him!"
Although his St. Joe's teams have been very successful (they were undefeated last year and won their league title again this year), he often mentions his softball coaching experience when his team won only a few games. He was proud of what the kids had done even though they were outclassed in terms of talent, and he had as much fun coaching a losing team as he does a winning one.
Bill wants to win -- no one should ever be confused about that. But his love of the game, of the kids he coaches and of the act of coaching itself is mostly what you come away with when you see Bill Campbell in his element. No, not the board room -- the football field.
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Ask PCA: Too Young to Watch Game Film?
Before presenting this week's question, here is a review of last week's question and PCA's answer.
"I have a two-part question: What age is the right age to start travel teams? Should we be cutting players as young as 8 or 9 if the goal of our organization (which is a PCA Partner) is to develop players for the long term?"
PCA Response by Joe Scally, Director of Training and Evaluation
There is a general progression from the pure and simple fun of a sport, to learning skills, tactics and strategies, to becoming accomplished and competing at a high level. When the fun goes away, players leave the sport.
I was talking with a friend whose daughter received a scholarship to play at a Division I school that consistently competes for national championships. She turned down that scholarship and others because she no longer enjoyed playing the sport. This is not an unusual story.
Most eight- and nine-year-olds are at the fun stage of their sports experience. Cutting that short often chases them away before they can progress to the next stage, meaning they lose the chance to learn the valuable life lessons sports can teach. The short answer to whether eight- and nine-year-olds should be cut is "no." Everyone should have a chance to play at that age.
With the right support and encouragement most players can reach the accomplished level. We should put little, if any, value on our assessments of the relative abilities of young athletes. Size, strength, motor skills, attitude, motivation, and other traits are fluid qualities for kids at eight and even at eighteen. An assessment of who is the "best" player will change over the course of a single season.
Travel teams for eight- and nine-year-olds are OK as long as the risks and benefits are carefully considered. At any age, travel programs should meet the kids' needs to play, have fun and grow into their sport.
Kids also need balance in their school, social, family and sports lives. Too often, travel programs are designed to meet adults' needs for winning, making money, or gaining vicarious prestige from a child's success. If the demands of a travel program burden players or their families, if the fun goes away, there is risk of the burn out my friend's daughter experienced.
Contrary to what many travel programs use as a selling point, specialization does not make for better players. Every college coach I've talked to looks for players who have played multiple sports, seeing that they become better at their primary sport and are often better teammates and leaders.
Before age 12, most kids are not looking for such travel team trappings as practicing with and competing against other committed players, technically advanced coaching, and extended training hours. In most sports, players do not need these things before age 13 or 14 to develop into accomplished athletes in the long run.
Now, this week's question:
"Is it normal, productive, healthy or wise to have a 6th grade boy's basketball team review their game film? Our coach seems to think so. We already practice twice a week and have a game on Sundays so this would essentially be a 4th weekly team event. The nature of the team is travel so they are playing in a 'competitive' environment."
-- Paul, Boston, MA
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PCA Supporter Terri Valenti: First Female to Officiate a Pro Football Game
PCA supporters are an accomplished group. Case in point: longtime supporters Doug and Terri Valenti. Doug is the CEO of QuinStreet, an on-line marketing firm. Terri has taught economics at Menlo College (CA).
But that's just her day job. Terri is also a football official with a number of firsts. In 2008 she became the first woman to work a Mid-American Conference college game. And in October 2009, Terri became the first woman to officiate a professional game when she worked a United Football League contest between the California Redwoods and the New York Sentinels as head linesperson.
PCA wishes Terri all the best in her quest to be an NFL official.
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Silicon Valley Shootout Features Women's Draw, Vivo Girls Sports Partnership
PCA's 9th Annual Silicon Valley Shootout 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, held Nov. 22 at Stanford University's Maples Pavilion, featured a first-ever women's draw. With 16 female teams in action, we thought it a fitting occasion to debut a new partnership with Vivo Girls Sports, Inc., whose mission is to inspire and empower female athletes ages 13 to 24.
 VivoGS also encourages girls to give back by nominating and supporting their favorite non-profits (including PCA!) in the VivoCares section of the site. Get the PCA-branded VivoGS cinch bag pictured here by being one of the first 25 new members to sign up here, using the referral code "PCA".
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Coaching and Sports Parenting Girls: Video Insights from PCA National Advisory Board Member Mike McCaffery
 The first-ever women's basketball draw at the Silicon Valley Shootout was the brainchild of PCA National Advisory Board Member Mike McCaffery, CEO of Makena Capital. Mike's vision, enthusiasm and financial support turned an idea into a reality.
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Support PCA
Positive Coaching Alliance is a non-profit committed to character-education though youth and high school sports. To achieve that mission, PCA relies heavily on financial support from members and donors.
Donate now and have twice the impact.
Thanks to the generosity of two anonymous family foundations, all donations made between now and December 31, 2009 to PCA's Annual Fund will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000.
To date, PCA has raised $76,030 toward this match, and we hope you can help us earn the entire match!
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VivoGS.com is the online resource for teen and college-age female athletes, including product recommendations, sports news, video-sharing and social networking. Once you register, you can 
