How Parents can Provide Better Coaching with HS Basketball Coach Greg Berge

[00:00:00] John Boruk: All right. Hello and welcome in once again to the podcast that makes youth sports a little bit better for everybody out there, to the coaches, to the players, to the administrators, and anybody who follows and has a little bud, little one in youth sports. I'm your host, John Bork. This is our first podcast of 2023, so happy new year.

I hope it was a safe and wonderful new year to all of you out there and wonderful. And I tell you what this podcast has been successful because of you. We already have more downloads. Here we are 10 days in the month of January. More downloads this month than we did in all of December. So this podcast is only made successful because you listen to it, you tell other people, you spread the word.

And by doing that, it's going to really propel us up the charts. We get we get up there by you can follow us on Spotify, on Apple, Google however you listen. You can even go to our website at www.raisingachampion.net to listen there as well. So [00:01:00] we appreciate it. You go on there, you subscribe to us, leave us a review and that's going to get us noticed and that's how other people are gonna find out all.

And with that our first podcast of 2023 is a guy who is a high school principal. He's also a varsity boys basketball coach in Lake City, Minnesota. And as of this podcast, as of this recording his Lake City Tigers are the number one ranked AA team in the state of Minnesota.

He's the author of a couple of books Coaching Gold and Culture Wins. He's got a free weekly newsletter. He's got a workshop about culture and even offers up the Sports Leadership Summit. He does it all. In fact, I found him through his Twitter feed at GB one 11. Two, one. So much good stuff just on Twitter, I can only imagine what's in his books and what's in his workshop and his newsletter.

But Greg Berge welcome to Raising a Champion. How are you Greg?  

[00:01:54] Greg Berge: I'm great, John. Thanks. Thanks for ha having me. I love what you do. I think this message is so important [00:02:00] and just grateful and honored to be on your podcast. Yeah. 

[00:02:04] John Boruk: And uh, you may like what I do. I like what you do.

And like I said, I spent a good, 20, 30 minutes just scouring your Twitter feed. But I guess as we get started here talk about yourself a little bit. How you got involved not only in coaching, but the administration side and really. What you get out of it, because you can tell by really, by reading what you put out there, how much pleasure you take out of educating kids and then coaching them on the basketball court.

[00:02:31] Greg Berge: Yeah. My background, I, I went to Winona State University. I was sort of a tweener. Athlete where I might've been able to go to Division III, but I chose to coach through college and so I coached helped out like varsity football teams in the area and some traveling youth basketball, and I got my first teaching job then in Lake City.

I jumped right into coaching. . I was a head basketball coach at a young age like 27 years old. A varsity coach replaced a hall of fame legend in Minnesota and Jerry Snyder. [00:03:00] But I'm a guy that I think have, I've always been drawn to leadership and shortly into my teaching career, I was a high school math teacher as well.

I got my administrative license. And 10 years into teaching I had to make a decision. I had a principal offer at a neighboring school. I loved what I taught. I loved coaching. It was a hard decision, but I took a leap of faith. Became an administrator two years in another district, and then Lake City opened back up.

A principal job opened up, and I was fortunate to, to get back here. And so I've been back where I started for I suppose 16 years now. A few years back. I'm on my 10th year now. The coaching position opened up again. I had a supportive superintendent who who let me apply for it. And I've been doing both now for 10 years.

A varsity basketball coach and high school principal here in Lake City. Like you said you know how I got into this. I've always had a passion for leadership. I think that's why I got into the administrative realm of things. I love working with kids. I love coaching. I love teaching, living the best of both worlds right now, and real happy that I get to do both.

[00:03:58] John Boruk: Yeah, it doesn't leave you [00:04:00] much free time between being a principal and then afterwards what, being a high school basketball coach and then you've got games on top of that, but it doesn't sound like that that, that really, this is what fulfills you is being an administrator and being a coach.

But a lot of coaches just like to do that. Just to go out. Lead kids, teach kids give them guidance, but you want to take that and then obviously take that and spread it to anybody who's out there. You also have your website, which people can go to@gb1leadership.com. And from there you'll see the books, you'll see information, you can subscribe to the newsletter.

At what point did you decide to take all this knowledge and information and then make it public?

[00:04:38] Greg Berge: That's a great question. And I think it honestly started, my high school and college. Like I said, I've always been drawn to leadership. I've got books galore. I'm, I'm just a book rat, a gym rat type of guy, and I had a opportunity a couple years ago where Jeff Janssen had looking for leadership summit facilitators throughout the country. And it intrigued me [00:05:00] cuz I had been following Jeff's work for a long time. I loved what he did and so I, I got hired as a leadership facilitator and one of about 10 or 12 in the country, the only one in Minnesota.

And it really opened the door for me, and I've been doing that for a couple years and really doing a lot in Minnesota with a lot of schools. And last spring break I was down at my parents in Florida and I have so much going through my mind. I think I have so many experiences. I've been at this a long time.

And every, I got such a unique perspective. I think being. A school administrator at that angle, being a coach, I was a parent. I coached all my kids through youth sports. I've had kids that have been really successful state champions. I've had a, another son that, was just a role player on our team, but was a huge part of our team, but maybe didn't get a lot of plane time.

I've seen the whole gamut and this had a lot to share and so I made a commitment. Like March that I'm gonna write on Twitter every day. I'm gonna write a [00:06:00] few threads. I'm gonna be consistent for a year, and I'm gonna see where it takes me. And it's done things I couldn't even imagine at the time.

I had no inclination of writing a book. I've written two very practical books I think, that are just really practical for coaches. I've had over 20 some million views on Twitter in about nine months, which blows my mind. I started a newsletter. I've been doing that for. I think I've got, probably eight months of newsletter weekly newsletters and, it's just opening new doors and I'm doing a podcast with you, which I would've never guessed.

A lot of great things have happened and I'm just excited to see where it takes me from here. Yeah. 

[00:06:37] John Boruk: Podcast that's based in Wilmington, Delaware. You're there in Minnesota. We were having a little chat off air before we got started about how you've already had five snow days in Minnesota. I didn't think that the state of Minnesota was allowed to have snow days, but apparently and you've had quite a bit. We, I think we've all seen some of the snow flurries little closer to here in Buffalo. But let's put a little put a little crimp and some of your coaching in some of your days you've had to I think coach from home a [00:07:00] little.   

[00:06:59] Greg Berge: Yeah, we haven't missed a game yet, which is a good thing some schools have.

And it three of 'em happen around our breaks. So yeah, it's, we had some really cold weather and then we had some really nasty ice. We, yeah, five is not normal for us. We might have one or two in a year, but. We're already at five, so we'll see what the rest of the year brings.

 [00:07:17] John Boruk: All right, so let's get into what I think is gonna be the theme of this episode here, and that is, you talked about you have kids. I have three kids.   I've coached basketball, I've coached hockey I think even some flag football. I, I've coached and at some point, Every parent is gonna be a coach at some level, right?

You got a five year old, a six-year-old, a seven year old, you may even coach as they get to be 11, 12 or 13. And that's where we're really, that you can talk from experience and expertise. And one of the things that I saw that you put on Twitter was six ways that coaches can hurt their team without even knowing it.

I thought this was really good and really intriguing, something that I wanted to dig into, and that really extends to [00:08:00] parents because. Whether you're an official coach or not, you're always coaching your kid, even if it's on a home, because you're always, you may be showing them video, you may be telling them something that they like, something that they didn't like.

Or you may be given your personal opinion on the referees, which is not always a good thing, but you're always coaching. So whether you're an official coach or not. That I is as I think is an important perspective that you can bring. So let's get into the six ways that coaches can hurt their team without knowing and number one, monotony and boredom.

[00:08:32] Greg Berge: Interesting. Yeah. And I'm speaking as a basketball coach, it's a long season. And I'm a less is more guy. I think the more I've got into coaching, the more I've understood that it is so much less about X's and O's and it's so much more about relationships, managing people, managing the situation getting kids mindset ready to go.

Keeping things simple. And, we practice, this time of year we will, we might go an hour and a half when we get to the [00:09:00] end of January. If if we're going an hour and 15 minutes, that's a long practice. We get to February. An hour is good. I have a less is more mentality and I think, the monotony, boredom, sometimes we over coach, sometimes we do too much and kids lose their focus.

And I think that it's important to keep them fresh, especially in a long season like basketball. 

[00:09:20] John Boruk: Yeah. And one of the things that you added was involve your players in decisions. Let them be involved, let them be creative instead of dictating. 

[00:09:27] Greg Berge: Yeah, absolutely. You have your team leaders, you have your guys that you're gonna, connect with about practice and, might be your team captain or whatnot.

And, sometimes it's just to ask them, Hey, what do you think? Even if you have a lighter day or you're not prepping for a game tomorrow. What are the drills or what aspects of practice do they enjoy the most? Ask them mix it up a little bit. Do more competitive drills more fun drills.

Mix that in. I think that's important. We'll occasionally just take a break and play dodge ball for 15 minutes just to do something different. Yeah, monotony. [00:10:00] Can certainly hurt a team if you don't watch it. 

[00:10:03] John Boruk: Another one, no identity or direction. And I think this is important because players need to know, why am I doing this?

Why are we doing this drill? Why is the coach telling me this that they need to see that there is a correlation between what you're telling them and then where you're going with that.  

[00:10:18] Greg Berge: Yeah. I think especially this generation today they need to know why. And that's good.

I think we should tell them why. What is the purpose? Why are we doing things? Sometimes when you're just do drills to do drills it gets old, it gets, boring, it gets monotonous. There needs to be a purpose, and I think the more, we try to teach a lot of decision making. in our practice.

I'm not, I don't do a ton of individual skill development. I basically tell our guys, the off season is really your time for skill development. The in season is team development, and so we'll do a lot with decision making. But kids need to know the why. They need to know, they, they need to have clear standards on how we're gonna practice, how we're gonna act, [00:11:00] how we're gonna behave.

That's part of having an identity or a culture. and the coach's job is to provide that identity and direction. And then, I talk a lot about culture and in my book too. It just has practical things with culture. But, culture is simple. It's not the rah, rah, cumbaya in a circle stuff, I don't think it is.

I think culture is simply what we allow. Culture is what we emphasize. And then culture is every decision we make creates our culture and that's part of that identity or direction. As a coach, we really are creating culture each and every day. 

[00:11:32] John Boruk: It's interesting, Greg, I think probably when you and I were teenagers and kids and playing sports, that coaches pretty much drew a line in the sand is, I'm gonna tell you what to do and don't ask questions, don't question what I'm doing.

And that sort of mentality, that philosophy has certainly changed. You want to integrate you. I, maybe it's a different kind of athlete, but we're trying to look into their feelings a little bit. It's a little bit different. 

[00:11:56] Greg Berge:. And I think where a coach needs to [00:12:00] have a coach needs to have high standards on maybe some expectations, some broad things.

How are we gonna treat each other? How are we gonna. Are we gonna show up on time? Are we, those type of things. But I personally think that the coaching piece, the best thing we can do is teach kids how to play, especially a sport like basketball. I, to me, I've given up more control over the years as a coach from when I was a young coach and we've had more success.

And I think it's because we're teaching them how to play. We're teaching 'em how to adapt to situations as opposed to controlling the situation, which might have been more of an old school approach to coaching. 

[00:12:38] John Boruk: All right, number three, we're talking about the six ways that coaches can hurt their team without knowing it.

Number three, too many X's and O's. Not enough. Jimmy and Joe's. Now, I think we've already touched on this but go into what that means.  

[00:12:48] Greg Berge: Yeah. That's a phrase a lot of coaches have heard and, basically what it means is coaching is about relationships and first and foremost, it's about connecting with kids and it's [00:13:00] about building a team and all that goes into that.

And I think a lot of times, especially as a young coach, and I know I was guilty of this, you get consumed with the X's and O's and the plays and to me like we get to the end of the game. I'm not thinking of a play, I'm thinking of a player. I'm thinking of who do we wanna get the ball to and give them space to make a decision.

I'm not worried about making a great X and O play. Most of the time those fail anyway. I'm worried about getting the ball to the right kid in the right time to make the right decision. But it all goes down to just a people centered approach, a relationship centered approach and less of a focus on.

Xs and Os, especially at the youth sport level. I think way too many elementary, middle school, even high school coaches get obsessed with Xs and Os. It, teach the kids the fundamentals, teach 'em the concepts and then get out of the way, and teach them how to play and how to figure out your role on the team and make the team.

[00:13:59] John Boruk: Especially [00:14:00] when you're talking about young kids, maybe from ages six to 10 or six to 11. They can't even interpret the Xs and Os much less execute them. There's a lot to be, a lot to be said for that. And even a as you get to be, right before your teen years it's still about just.

Fundamentals and going out there and enjoying it, there's plenty of time to think to, to implement plays and all that stuff. Number four is a really good one. And I see this that. Coaches don't assume that. I guess coaches are able to communicate now. Now coaches may get on and it's funny because I've seen coaches get on a basketball court on a sheet of ice where it pertains to hockey, and they're really good, they're really vocal.

But number four on your list is not connecting and communicating with parents, and that's a whole different thing. Talking to kids, maybe they don't expect much feedback, but when a coach has to speak to a parent about something, that there's, that, that parent's gonna be pretty opinionated and that they're gonna give you some feedback.

And I think a lot of coaches aren't [00:15:00] prepared for that.  

[00:15:00] Greg Berge: Yeah. And I, I think everything with parents has ideally, is done in advance. It's very proactive and, I think of my situation and I know not all coaches have this same situation. We're a little bit smaller community. I try to get to know my parents at a young age, even at the elementary level.

And develop relationships with them. And so by the time they get to the varsity level they know how I care about their kid. They know the time that I put into coaching. They know our expectations, very clear and honest and upfront. I think a lot of coaches, get into trouble when they're not honest with kids or parents.

I think it's the worst thing we can do for kids is clearly define roles, talk about it, be honest. And when you do that, kids can accept it. But, don't be afraid to communicate with parents. You have to be confident. You have to, lay out your expectations, and really make sure you're not worrying about pleasing anyone.

But [00:16:00] sometimes when coaches fear that communication, they avoid it. I've known coaches that, are sometimes afraid to go to the grocery store cuz they might run into someone. And I understand that at a young age. But one thing I've written about a few times is what I call the 20-40-60 rule.

I found this online somewhere and I just love it. But in, in your twenties, you're worried about, everyone thinks about you as a coach in your forties. You don't care what anyone thinks about you as a coach. And when you hit your sixties, you realize no one is thinking about you to begin with and you know , the sooner that as a coach you can work through that I think the more successful you're gonna be.

But being proactive with parents, laying out expectations, know, letting them know that you love their kid and you're gonna do anything for them, goes a long way. Working with parents. 

[00:16:47] John Boruk: All right, so what do you tell the parent as a coach and maybe this has not happened because you said your kids are all older now, but at some point you coached a team where your son or daughter was a member of that team and you're already gonna [00:17:00] be under a microscope because I think parents are gonna see, is the coach gonna play their kid more? Is their child not as good and do they, are they getting preferential treatment and nepotism because they do coach their sibling? And that a lot and it does rub parents the wrong way.

So how should a coach approach this? And then secondly, how should a parent approach that if they feel that is the case? 

[00:17:24] Greg Berge: Yeah. You know, my situation I've lived it and I, anyone wants to, I have the advantage that I've lived it and I've had very few. I can probably count on one hand or, four fingers, the amount of parent issues I've had in my, 19, 18 years of being a varsity coach.

I think number one, philosophically at the youth level, we would always try to only bring nine kids to a tournament on purpose because everyone's gonna play. And when you bring 10, 11, 12, 13 kids, it gets really hard. And so we would rotate kids through tournaments to make sure when you play or when you come, you're [00:18:00] gonna.

We really do that through eighth grade in our program where all kids are gonna play. We don't never use the word equal playing time, we use the word quality playing time. If you're showing up at practice doing everything that's asked of you, you're gonna get quality playing time. And we tell our parents this, we're very upfront and honest.

We get to ninth grade and things start to transition to more competitive and the amount of playing time changes, and we're gonna reward kids that are more committed or more skilled. And then you get to the JV level and the varsity level. Now, my own son he was about our ninth man on our varsity, ninth or 10th guy.

I typically in a typical competitive game, would play seven, eight kids. He was often the odd man out. And it, he was still a huge impact on our team. He is one of the best leaders on our team. He is one of our best, energy guys on our bench. He helped us win. We ended up taking third in state that year.

We had a very successful good team his junior year, our senior team, we were a ranked team all season long. That was the covid year. But. . I think it's important for parents to understand that [00:19:00] there's a lot of ways to contribute when you're on a team. And some of it is playing, some of it is practicing.

And we just gotta be very honest and upfront in those situations. But I've lived it as a parent, I would've loved to play my kid, but there were kids better than him and he was a late bloom. . He was young for his age and it, he just needed a little bit more time to develop than maybe some other kids.

[00:19:22] John Boruk: Yeah. We're talking with Greg Berge. He is the high school principal and varsity boys basketball coach in Lake City, Minnesota. In fact, if somebody's out, there's wondering, where is Lake City, Minnesota, I believe it's right there on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border, about an hour and a half away from the Twin Cities.

Is that right? Yeah. 

[00:19:37] Greg Berge: Beautiful. Beautiful area of the country. It's in the Mississippi River Valley. It's the, actually the largest a town of 5,000 small town, but the largest, one of the largest marinas on the entire Mississippi River.  

[00:19:49] John Boruk: I've seen the pictures. It is, it looks beautiful. I think that it would be a great place to, to hang out during the summer once a little bit warmer.

But anyway, we're talking about six ways that [00:20:00] coaches can hurt their team without even knowing it. And you talked about how you coach basketball, you carried nine players to a tournament. He sometimes was that ninth player didn't always get the playing time. I'm sure that was tough as a parent because you wanna see him succeed because you're invested in him mentally and emotionally.

But that goes right into number five. Ignoring the leadership development of players and as coaches that could be hard to do is how do I develop that leadership? 

[00:20:24] Greg Berge: Yeah. And just really quickly John, to clarify that at a young age, what I meant by, we bring nine guys because all nine were gonna play a lot.

Yes. And we would rotate them through as he got up to the varsity level. He was about the ninth or 10th guy in our rotation. So at that level, we're playing seven or eight, and he was the odd man out a little bit there. But that's what meant by that. I just wanted to clear that up.

But yeah, number five to me the longer I've coached, without question, what separates great teams from average teams year in and year out is player leadership. And as coaches, we have two. [00:21:00] I think, we have two things we can do. We. Hope for leadership. We can shake the Magic Eight Ball Okay.

And look at it and say, am I gonna have good leaders this year? And if it's yes you're all excited. And if it's no, you're like here we go again. Or we can purposely develop the leaders on our team. And I've learned over the years how important that is. The success of your team so often comes.

To the leaders of your team, and I'll just give you an example, and I share this a lot when I do leadership summits and working with Jeff Jansen. On every team you've got your team leaders and then you've got the rest of the team and the co and then you have the coach. And the coach has is, or her standards the rest of the team has peer pressure.

So the rest of the team naturally with peer pressure is gonna try to pull people down. A lesser standard. That's what peer pressure does. When you have good team leaders, your good team leaders do not let peer pressure pull people down to that standard. They pull people up [00:22:00] to the standard that's needed to win and be successful.

And so as coaches. We cannot ignore the leadership development of our players. It has to be purposeful, it has to be ongoing. You have to select the right leaders. One thing we talk about in our summit is how do you select your team captains? I do this pre-season self-perception handout, which actually there's a free copy on my newsletter if you go on my Twitter feed and click into my link, I give that away for free.

But, selecting your leaders is really, I. and how you select them. It can't be a popularity contest. It has to be purposeful. There's a lot, I just posted something today on, there's multiple ways that players can lead. It's never about one person. I'm a big believer in collective leadership, but as coaches, we have to be purposeful in teaching our kids how to lead cuz they're the ones that are in the locker room.

They're the ones that are putting out all the little fires behind the scenes. And if they don't put those. They turn into [00:23:00] infernos that we have to deal with as a coach. And so ongoing conversations about leadership and working with your team leaders is essential to having the type of success that I think we all want.

[00:23:13] John Boruk: Obviously I think you want your leaders to lead by example, and that's number six on there. On your on your list is you want players to lead by example, but what other attributes are you looking for in, in a person who can be a leader and say, okay, that guy's gonna be my captain and that guy's gonna be my assistant captain.

How long before you, you were able to dive into that and know exactly who those players are out there?

[00:23:37] Greg Berge: You can see the kids who are committed, and I think molding them at a young age is really important. It's a benefit I have. We're a 7-12 high school not a huge high school. I see these kids from seventh grade on.

I have relationships with them from seventh grade on and I can kind of mold them and really work with them as a leader throughout those years, but leading yourself and [00:24:00] leading by example is the most important thing. You have to be committed, you have to have high character, you gotta make the right decisions, you gotta be confident and you gotta have kind of poise and positivity.

I think those are the steps to leading by example and leading. That's step one that a leader has to have ideally. And the tougher thing for high school kids especially is how do you lead out loud? How do you lead others? How do you challenge your teammates? How do you confront your teammates? How do you connect your teammates?

How do you cheer for your teammates? That's the goal that we all want as someone that can. , raise the standards, hold their teammates accountable, and help the coach move the team in the direction that they want. That's the process that you go through, but it starts at a young age and it's all centered on relationships.

But I think it's really important to understand it's never one kid. We talk about collective leadership a lot. We have kids that are captains on our team, okay. They've earned that, right? As a captain, that doesn't mean they're always the [00:25:00] best leader on our team. Sometimes. One thing, talked about it today in my Twitter post, but we have five types of leaders.

You've got game leaders, you've got practice leaders, you've got locker room leaders, you've got energy leaders. And there's all different types of leaders that we have. And so I think it's really important that kids know. Hey, just cuz you're the captain you're not the only leader. We have humor leaders.

I think that's the fifth one, the one I, I forgot. You got communication humor leaders on your team that the kids that kind of lighten the mood when you need to in the middle of a long season. That's a leadership skill. It's underappreciated. Those are all important in developing them and communicating with kids is really critical to that. 

[00:25:38] John Boruk: Yeah, I think that's a great point. The kids out there who can lighten the mood who can take the tension off because sometimes it's so pressed upon them to succeed. That sometimes, you're part of a group of kids and you're just have.

Yeah, just enjoy each other's company. So I really like that last one. Something else that I wanted to bring up, and I don't know if I saw this on the website or is on the [00:26:00] Twitter feed, but I like this line a lot and you can elaborate. The best players do boring better.  

[00:26:04] Greg Berge: Yeah. I think so many people from the outside think kids are just naturally gifted and they end up being these great players.

The reality is the kids who are best in most cases are putting inordinate amounts of time into the sport, and they're getting, they're finding love in the monotony, the boredom of the grind, the day-to-day. And do boring better is all about. Doing all those little things that make you a better player, that make you a better team.

And doing those each and every day. Because in the end it's about habits and it's about consistency. The kids show up early, they focus on fundamentals, they do extra reps, they're detail oriented, they stay late. The, these are the things that separate good from a great, and it's all about the process.

Atomic Habits is a great book written by James Clear, and he talks. Breaking things up into little small habits, not big goals, but little [00:27:00] five minute habits, and if we start doing little habits better, if we do the boring stuff better. In small increments, that's gonna turn into something big, and that's how we start to do great things.

[00:27:10] John Boruk: Yeah. There's something else that I think that you just put out there recently too. Parents how to come to grips with playing time. Man, I think when your kid is young, you even talked about it earlier in our podcast here, in this episode how to come to grips with that.

And you put three things out there. One of 'em was accept the struggle and it's that it's all about competition and don't. There, there's, I guess there's life lessons to be learned when you don't think that your child is receiving the playing time that he necessarily deserves. It happened with my kid early on.

He transitioned to a new team and it wasn't coming as easy. The team had a little bit more talent, but I said, you know what? This is an opportunity. Go out there and keep proving it. You got just outwork, outwork the other kids or just keep outworking everybody. If you do that, [00:28:00] then you know your concerns about playing time will be answered.

But it's all about what you can control 100%. And I think, the most important thing for parents to remember is number one, it's your child's experience, not yours. I think a lot of times parents that struggle with. They, they can't separate that they think it's a reflection of them or it's their experience, or they wanna relive something that maybe they didn't get or whatnot.

And so step one is to do that. Step two is understand it's gonna be a struggle. Anytime you're a part of a team, there's gonna be challenges. That's why we have team sports. That's why it's so good for kids to learn how to work together to a common goal, to sacrifice yourself for the betterment of the team to understand there's gonna be good and bad.

There's gonna be struggles with that. And that's what is so beautiful about team sports. But you gotta accept the struggle and understand what the struggle is. And those are two real important things that I think it puts off the Duke or a parent has to do. [00:29:00] 

[00:29:00] John Boruk: Yeah. And your third example, your third way that parents can help understand this is that the struggle's not the enemy. 

[00:29:04] Greg Berge:  No. The struggle is what makes kids great. And I think I talk about it at the end of that. Let your kid go through that struggle. Your job as a parent is to help support them through it. Not solve their problems. I think, we talk about snowplow parents sometimes where snowplow parents want to clear the path in front of their child, so there's never any adversity thrown their way.

And then what happens is they get into the real world and that's not how it works. And team sports is the best. Lab setting for life, in my opinion, where kids are gonna learn things that they cannot learn in any other aspect as well growing up. And so our job as parents is to help them navigate that even though things don't always go our way, it's the lessons learned that are gonna benefit in the end.

And when they have some of those challenges thrown their way in their twenties and thirties, you're gonna look back on it and say, you know what those experiences they had on that [00:30:00] team. We made them be able to handle that because I think a lot of people would say and I agree with this, but the lack of resilience in handling adversity is a big challenge with kids today.

And we need to do a better job of helping our kids navigate that by letting them have a little bit of adversity and then teaching them the skills to be resilient and work their way. 

[00:30:23] John Boruk: And I like that analogy, the snowplow parent, right? You're paving the path so that the obstacles are easy, right?

It's like a nice groomed hill to, to go down as opposed to, you get you're skiing in 12 inches of powder. But I like that. And it's true. It because it sets you up for everything in life. And you mentioned that health issues, finances, when these kids get out of college, they're probably not gonna be making $250,000.

And they're gonna have to find a way to make everything work. Put all your finances, pay your apartment, rent, whatever it is that you're doing. And it, it's like a big reality check that's staring them in the [00:31:00] face, and to me, this is really where sports can have a I think such a tremendous impact is that you can get these athletes who have already had to deal with this type of adversity and put them on a whole different path in comparison to kids who don't play sports.  

[00:31:16] Greg Berge: Yeah. And I think you can look at all the research on that, on the, I, I believe it's like over 90% of female CEOs in the business world played high school sports. And for men it's not quite as high, but it's very high. And it's because all the skills you learn about building a team, working together those skills are.

People don't understand how powerful they are until they, they get into the real world and those that have competed know and they know how much it helps them. And so that's why youth sports is so important for kids because. Of these skills that, again, it's the ultimate lab setting for life that we can teach.

 [00:31:58] John Boruk: We are talking with Greg Berge. He's a high school [00:32:00] principal and he's a varsity boys basketball coach. Not only just the basketball coach, but the coach of a team that is currently undefeated. And rank number one in Class AA in the state of Minnesota. He's got a website, GB1leadership.com.

It's certainly worth visiting. You can subscribe to his free weekly newsletter and if you're on Twitter, I highly recommend that you follow him at GB1121. A tremendous false. So much information that you put out there, Greg here locally. As you probably know, Philadelphia is huge into college basketball.

They've got the big six and we just had one guy who won a couple of national championships in J Wright who just recently retired, but did tremendous things here and there's such a deep, rich basketball history in the city of Philadelphia. But I guess when you look and you compile your information and I'm sure you're.

Tidbits here and information and parcels of info. Who do you look at? What coaches and [00:33:00] do you look up to and do you listen to? And is there any coach that say, wow, I've never heard it that way. I've never heard a coach describe it quite like that.

[00:33:08] Greg Berge: First and foremost, I've always been a huge, excuse me, John. And John Wooden's arguably one of the best coaches in any sport to ever coach and some of his books are really turned into my second Bible. He's got, wooden a lifetime of reflections on and off at court. And the stuff in there from a life perspective and a basketball perspective is unbelievable.

Jay Wright, I'm a huge Jay Wright fan. I've written some long threads. Culture because I think Jay Wright was a culture king. He really, and he learned that. I think one of the neat stories with Jay Wright is, they had a kind of, I think it was a Final Four run and all of a sudden they had all these blue chip recruits that wanted to go to Villanova.

He had some four and five stars. So he recruited them. They had some of their worst years with some of their best quote unquote talent. And he had to, meet with his staff and figure out and say, we need to get the kids, the type of kids, the culture, [00:34:00] kids here that fit who we wanna be.

And he did that and then they started going back to the final four and having the success they did. So you wanna talk about a culture King Jay Wright was a big time culture king and I've written about that on Twitter and it's been some of my I guess most view. Stuff out there because I think people appreciate what Jay Wright has done.

But those are the first two that come to mind would be John Wooden and Jay Wright 

[00:34:24] John Boruk: I, I watch, and I look at some of the stuff that comes a across social media when it comes to Gino Auriemma. Clearly he the winning streak that he compiled the teams that he has put out there he became the gold standard when it came to women's basketball.

I just I have tremendous admiration and respect for some of things that he's done and obviously the championships that he's won and the way that he. Gets his players to buy in. And you're here, you are in a similar position coaching a very good high school basketball team.

does that 

[00:34:57] Greg Berge: When we talk about buying in, what does that look like to you? You're buying into the culture, right? So [00:35:00] you're, I talk about culture, the coaches with what you allow every day with what you emphasize every. , you really gotta simplify what's important to you, and then you gotta sell that.

And you build that each and every day with your decisions. And I think a lot of times people think once you create your culture, then you're done. And don't really have to think about it. . I've been at this a long time and I, every day, every decision I make it's because I want to maintain our culture a certain way.

And kids are kids are gonna make mistakes and there's no such thing as a perfect culture. What happens is if you don't address an issue, it starts to eat away at your culture. So it's about constantly having these standards. Gino Auriemma has incredibly high standards. Nick Saban's another one that you could put on that list.

Great standards and he holds kids accountable to that, but they buy in when they know. I think communicating that to kids and making sure you're clear and concise with what you expect is how you get buy-in and then you build the team chemistry and buy-in with everybody, believing in each other and understanding [00:36:00] their role on the team.

 [00:36:04] John Boruk: Coaching The Lake City Tigers as we've mentioned a couple of times on this episode, currently on defeat. Have you ever won a state championship?

[00:36:09] Greg Berge: We have not. We've we've been very fortunate. We've won our conference, which is a very strong conference eight years in a row, which still boggles my mind to be honest.

We've been to the state to. twice in the last, I think, five or six years. We took third place once. So no, I mean it's it's a hard thing to do as you would know. And it's a long season. We're having a great season right now. But my message to the KISS teach and every day is, this season is not gonna be defined with basketball.

It's gonna be defined with how we handle. Everything that goes with it. Are we gonna be humble enough to win? Are you guys gonna be humble enough to handle everyone telling you how good you are? Because everyone on the outside is gonna tell you a whole lot of things. Our goal is to get 1% better each day and be playing our best basketball at the end of the season.

And remember, Why you're in this position and remember the work and the commitment you've put in, [00:37:00] that's why you're in this position. I we say a lot, you earn the right to be proud and confident you earn the right to be here. But if you lose sight of that's when you get, you get bit and , you can't do that.

So how do you handle success? That's a big part of it. 

[00:37:13] John Boruk: Yeah, it is. And getting your players to obviously I think take accountability is another thing. And we've thrown out so much information and so many tidbits here throughout this episode. The one last thing that I wanted to to get your take on is that you put out there called the mirror test and how that applies to today's athlete. Discuss what the mirror test means to you. 

[00:37:33] Greg Berge: Yeah, the mirror test it's really a poem and I wrote about it in my last, I guess my last week's newsletter. And there's a great, I'm gonna call it a poem that basically says, in the end we're really only accountable to our.

And if we can look at the man or woman in the mirror each and every day, each and every night and say, you know what? I made a commitment. I gave it my all. I, I did all of the things that I could do to help our team and help me be successful. Then you're a success. And getting kids to really [00:38:00] reflect and think about, what is success and how do you define success?

And passing that mirror test, I think is one, one big way that you would measure the success of anyone. And that, that's, that. I talked of a little bit more in length of that on my last newsletter. This week's newsletter, which is gonna come out and I don't know when this will air, but it'll.

Come out in a couple days is a team leader to-do list. We've talked a lot about leadership and so I'm gonna talk about what coaches can do. What are the conversations you can have with your team leaders on what their job is as you start your seasons or reflect on your seasons.

But yeah, the mirror test is critically important for kids to. 

[00:38:37] John Boruk: 17 years, you, I think you've been at the helm as the Lake City Tigers varsity basketball coach. Am I correct or did I under, did I sell you short there?  

[00:38:43] Greg Berge: No, 17 years is correct with a little sabbatical in between because like I said, I seven years and we had success my first seven years.

We had winning records I think about every year. Won our conference, had a great season, and then I was off for nine as I went into administration. [00:39:00] now I've been back for 10. Yeah. So I've, seen it from a couple different perspective has been very unique for me. But yeah, 17 years and hopefully a few more.

 [00:39:10] John Boruk: Greg Berge is the coach. He's the principal at lake City High School. He's at the website. Go check it out. GB1leadership.com. He's got the two books that he has published, coaching Gold and Culture Wins. You can subscribe to the, to his weekly newsletter the workshop. And then you have a Sports Leadership Summit. When when, what time of the year do you have that and what is that? Tell me what's is comprised in that summit. 

[00:39:33] Greg Berge: Yeah it's working with Jeff Janssen and the Janssen Sports Leadership Center. Put on Sports Leadership Summits. I've done probably 15 to 20 over the last year and a half across Minnesota.

We basically meet with emerging existing leaders in schools, probably up to, 60 to a hundred student leaders. And we use Jeff Janssen's leadership book as a guide, and then we have a little bit of break and we bring in the coaches and we talk about some of the same principles. It's a train the [00:40:00] trainer type of model.

We want the coaches to take that message and apply it with their teams and really start building leaders within their teams and within their schools. And so I, I do the Sports Leadership Summit through Janssen, Jeff, and then I also do my own stuff. Like culture wins workshops throughout the state of Minnesota.

And, I'll do some sportsmanship type of leadership things as well. So it's branched off into a lot of different areas. But like I said, the writing on Twitter is, has changed everything and opened up a lot of doors and, I, I appreciate you promoting it. I think at GB 1121, there's a lot of practical, useful content that been sharing for a number of months and I'm really appreciative of.

The response. I'm glad that it's making an impact and doing the same thing with my newsletter, which is growing tremendously and I think, 

[00:40:44] John Boruk: For listeners of this podcast, you may have a few Lake City Tigers fans out there. I know I'm gonna be following this season and see how it plays out for you.

And I really, I wish you all the best. And I think that you know that good things are obviously headed your way. You've had a lot of. There and it's so good to see. So Greg Burke, thank you [00:41:00] so much. We'll have to have you back on again sometime and maybe this summer we can talk about a state championship.

 [00:41:06] Greg Berge: All right. Thank you, John. I really appreciate the opportunity and I'd be happy to chat at any 

[00:41:10] John Boruk: time. All right. That's Greg Berg. We end our show as we usually do with our quota of the week, and we take it from Greg's website. The quote is, danger is real. But fear is not. Your fears are just the way you perceive a situation.

Fears tell you lies. Don't let fear hold you back from rewriting your story, and that's gonna do it for raising a champion. Hey, once again please all the help that we, that you guys can give us goes a long way. So subscribe to us. You can do that on Spotify. You can do. On Apple, Google Podcast, wherever you listen.

Subscribe to us and write us a review. The review certainly help us jump up the charts and you make this show a success. Not us. We just put the information out there. But by having you subscribe and listen and being a loyal follower that's gonna go a long ways. You can also listen to [00:42:00] the show at the website, raising a champion.net.

So happy new year to all of you, and thanks for listening.