Guest Speaker Summary: Vic Mitchell

Coach Mitchell’s main points included volunteering, the positives and negatives of coaching, and what it means to be a coach. He said that volunteering is the best way to get recognized. It shows you are willing to work hard which can get your name recognized. The positives of coaching were that it is a fun lifestyle and enjoyable. The negatives were that it requires a lot of time and little compensation for the amount of work. Recruiting is a very big part of coaching at the college level so it can be negative if you do not meet your recruiting goals for the year. Being a coach means that you are there to teach, motivate, discipline, and evaluate. You have to find that ways that people like to be motivated and go with it. These four objectives are the main responsibilities of coaching. A question for Coach Mitchell was  Q: What kind of work is a GA expected to do? A: They GA’s are expected to be there when the coach is there. They get travel information together and they are basically there when the coach is there and usually sometimes before and after too. They are overworked but it can be a big head start for them in the coaching world. It gets their foot in the door in bigger ways than volunteering or just trying to work your way up. Sport leadership I learned for Coach Mitchell is that it is very important to volunteer and to look for opportunities and not just wait on them to come to you. He said to find what you are best at and then start there. He also said to have a plan, especially when you are going in for an interview. Then you need to develop a philosophy that you are going to go by.