Brain Game

Asbury Park Press
Saturday, October 3, 1998

Why are there fewer football coaches with personalities like Mike Ditka, Dick Vermeil and Woody Hayes in the game today?

Why are there more stoic, stone-faced coaches like Tony Dungy, Jim Fassel and Bill Walsh? Why are coaches like Joe Paterno revered in America?

Why is it more important to be a player's coach, like Bill Parcells or Bill Cowher?

"Society is more sensitized," said Dr. Ronald Kamm, a sports psychiatrist and family therapist in ocean Township. "It is a more legalistic environment. There's been a line drawn. Coaches, on all levels, are held to standards now."

Of the many hats a high school football coach must wear - motivator, communicator, disciplinarian, organizer, optimist - the most important one is teacher.

"Kids today re hungry for identity and approval," Kamm said. "Kids don't want in to be known just by a uniform number."

"If a kid feels a coach is interested in them as person, they will related better play harder."

"Kids are raised differently and society is different, but kids today want the same thing I wanted when I was playing," Toms River South coach Ron Signoino said. "I wanted the coach to say something about my brother, I wanted him to know I was a Yankee fan. I don't think our program today is much different than it was when I came here in 1964. The approach to treatment of the players is the same.

"I haven't grabbed a facemask or smacked a kid's helmet in 20 years, and I used to do it frequently", Singorino said. "Without the kids, you don't have a team. Our motto is to preserve each kid's dignity. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be coaching."

"I'm less physical with the kids now that I was earlier in my career", said Manasquan coach Vic Kubu. "but I still believe that when a kid leaves the field h has to like you or respect you. If he doesn't like you, you better make sure he respect you."

Kamm said it is important for coaches on the high school level "to develop the person and not just the player."

"Parents who send kids to coaches like Bela Karolyi are in it to win," Kamm said. "He isn't there to develop the individual .just the gymnast."

"Coaches who teach fundamentals, who understand that sports are a game, will get the most out of their players."

Coaches who are strong fundamentalists tend to be the most successful. Coaches like Signorino, Warren Wolf, John Amabile and Vic Kubu are perfectionists and their teams tend to be successful whether talent is abundant or not.

"The mark of a good coach is not somebody who wins when the talent is good, but somebody who wins when the talent isn't so good," Signorino said.

"The saying is you can't make chicken salad out of chicken manure, but a good coach who can prepare his players will always be competitive."

"Look at coaches like Signorino, Wolf and Kubu," said Jackson coach Chris Barnes. "All have great attention to detail. The things they do are never complicated, just sound."

Kamm said the most successful coaches are those who are flexible.

"Coaches need to adapt a team philosophy to the talent they have are going to be successful," Kamm said. "Forcing kids into a system is not usually effective."

"Coaches need to set realistic goals for each individual," Kamm said. "It's like putting the right foot in the right shoe."

Kamm is also an advocate of letting the players participate in the making of team rules.

"Instead of the coach being an authoritarian, let the players have a say in the punishment," Kamm said. "Let the kids feel like they are part of the structure and the disciplinary process."