The Best Coach I've Ever Worked With: Coach Erin Hoffman

Happy Sunday to all my JWT friends out there. I wanted to write something with a "back to school" feel to it. I was going to write something like "the best teacher I've ever worked with." I thought and thought about it, but I just couldn't pick between Melanie Tipton or Samantha Jones or Nicole Scarpaci or Sara Stidham or etc etc etc...

I will write that article, maybe next week, but instead I'm going to write about the best coach I've ever worked with, Coach Erin Hoffman.

Now let me be clear. I'm not saying she's BETTER than Kenyon Wright, who played for me and then was my assistant coach and then won three state titles of his own. I'm not saying she's BETTER than Matt Asher, who was my assistant at Bell City and is now the superintendent there and they've won all these state titles in basketball and baseball and volleyball, etc. I'm not saying she is BETTER than Lamont Bell (former assistant, not the head coach at Caruthersville) or Nathan Morgan (the head football coach when I was at Cville) or Jimmy Jackson (now the head football coach at Cville) or any of the other really good coaches I've worked with.

Let me explain.

I should probably say at some point that Erin is a volleyball coach, not a basketball coach! After my third year at Bell City our volleyball coach retired. Erin was coaching at Meadow Heights. She applied and we hired her (more on that in a minute). She won the state championship during that first season (more on that in a minute). She won something like (guessing here) seven straight district championships and went to the Final Four again. She went to Scott City, then Bernie, and now she's at Advance. At every stop her teams not only get better, they go from "yeah they're okay" to WOW WE MIGHT GO TO STATE. I don't know her career record or anything, but I know when she got to Bernie, she took them to state. I know when she got to Advance they won their district championship.

She is a PHENOMENAL coach.

So now for that Paul Harvey "rest of the story" about why I think Erin is so great. She came into a really tough situation at Bell City. Not naming any names, because this isn't a shot at anybody. This is to show how great Erin is. The outgoing coach that preceded Erin had been at Bell City forever and was really successful and really popular in the community. The assistant coach was a Bell City alum, and everybody - including me - just knew the assistant was going to get hired to replace the outgoing head coach.

Our superintendent, Rhonda Niemczyk, had a daughter, Katie, that was going to be a junior the following season. I could write a whole other article about how awesome Katie was as a player (she set the state championship game record for kills AND digs in the same game. 'Nuff said). Anyway, Rhonda made the gut wrenching decision to hire Erin instead of our current assistant coach, and that assistant also happened to be family to the Niemczyk's. It did not go over well locally. It was a very hard decision for Rhonda and the Board to make.

So that is what Erin came into, a tough situation "politically." Then to top that off, we had just graduated our biggest, best hitter. We were small, We had several girls just moving up to varsity for the first time, or role players that were having to be step in as starters. Erin is a very quiet, humble person. I've never heard her get loud. She just came in and WORKED.

I'll never forget the first day of practice, she had these charts taped up on big poster boards around the gym. She was walking around laying out hula hoops and jump ropes. I asked her "what are you doing?" She said something about a training circuit, which these girls had never done before. She just worked these poor girls to death, and she absolutely DRILLED them on passing and defense.

Erin's teams are going to be phenomenal on defense. It's just hard for the other team to get the ball to hit the floor. They don't make a lot of mental mistakes. They don't get down on each other. That is a direct reflection of her coaching and her attitude toward her players. She's tough, but she's calm. That is how her teams play.

Our volleyball team entered the district tournament as the 4th seed. We barely won our first round game. Then in the semifinals we had to beat Advance, who was AWESOME that year and had just killed us in the regular season. We upset them and then had to play Bernie, who had beat us bad that year. We upset them and won the district championship.

In the sectionals, we had to beat Gideon, who maybe had lost one or two games all year. Next up we had to beat Bismark, who had one loss all year and was a phenomenal team. When we got to state we those teams were all really good, too. The point being, to win the state championship that year, our team had to pull off six straight upset wins. We weren't "better" than anybody, but I'm telling you no matter how talented that other team was, they just had a hard time getting the ball to hit the floor.

That is because we had girls that worked really hard, and we had an awesome coach.

So here is why I think Erin is THE BEST coach I've ever worked with. There are different kind of high school teams, or different levels of where a program is at. Some teams just have a lot of talent. Some coaches can coach talent and get the most out of it, massage those egos, figure out how to get really good players to play together, etc. Some coaches can't, the team is always fighting, guys aren't getting enough shots or playing time, etc.

Then there are teams without as much talent, or maybe a young team that might be good eventually, but they're not quite there yet. Some coaches can take that team and make it better, or make those young kids reach their potential, get them to believe, etc. Some coaches can't do that. They just can't figure out how to get the most out of those teams.

Erin Hoffman can do all of the above. She can take a really gifted team and get them to play at a high level. She can take a minimally talented team, put every player in the right spot, get those kids to believe in themselves, and get every ounce out of their ability.

As a coach, every single year, she "moves the needle." She's does this because she's smart, she's driven, she's patient, she's tough, and she just has a rare talent to get kids to listen to her.

So now for the moral of the story. We're about to go back to school. For the teachers and coaches reading this, or for the parents reading this... I say this all the time... these kids get ONE YEAR in fourth grade (if we do it right LOL), or ONE YEAR to be a sophomore athlete, or ONE YEAR to a junior playing in the band, etc.

Teachers and coaches, what we do with that ONE YEAR is critical to the future of this kid. We should all be trying to move the needle like Erin Hoffman does. Parents, try to work with those teachers and coaches in a way that is going to move the needle, because in the big picture of your child's life, how many points they scored or whether they got a C or B in English isn't going to matter as much as how much did your kid improve this year?

And to close, do you know the best way to get from here to there? One day at a time. If yesterday was a bad day, put it behind you. If yesterday was a great day, that's fantastic, but it's over. Today is the only day that counts, the only thing you can control. JUST WIN TODAY.

Thanks for reading. If you're not doing anything tonight (7-30-17) tune into The Live Show on www.justwintoday.com. We have Coach Pete McBride from Eminence coming on to talk about his basketball program. #JWT