008 - Program Culture with Messiah College Athletic Director Jack Cole

At Joshua House, we believe coaching is an amazing platform that can be used to shape the next generation. Coaching with Purpose is designed to encourage and equip you to use your platform to make a transformational impact in your players lives.

In this episode, we tackle program culture.  Jack Cole, the athletic director at Messiah College gives us the insider on one of the most successful college sports programs in the nation.  

Click here to learn more about Messiah's athletic program culture.  

Here is a link to Michael Zigarelli's book The Messiah Method highlighting Messiah's soccer program - the seven disciplines of the winningest college soccer program in America. 

A little about Messiah's sports program (from Messiah's website):

Pursuing Athletic Excellence … Developing Christian CharacterThese are the two goals for which Messiah Athletics is known. Our student-athletesand coaches know our philosophy is that, if we don’t accomplish both of these goalsin a season, then we have not had a successful season. Doing one without doingthe other is not good enough at Messiah, we hold each other accountable to meetingthese goals.

This is intercollegiate athletics – not intramurals. There is a scoreboard.  We compete against other institutions; one team will leave the event with a win, and the other witha loss. Conference standings are published. There are championships in every sportin which we compete. Pursuing athletic excellence is important.

But equally important is the way we compete. As we work at developing character,how do our student-athletes carry themselves during competition? How do they doin the classroom? Are our athletes serious students? Do they demonstratesportsmanship as they compete? Does their faith impact the way they approach theygame.  Developing Christian character is every bit as important to us.

How Athletics Supports Messiah’s MissionAthletics is part of the cocurriculum and an integral part of the educational side of the College – and we believe that this is where Division III programs should be.  We’re housed in the Student Affairs Division at Messiah.  Our coaches are members of the Community of Educators, and that supports our conviction that we are indeed educators.  It’s just that our classrooms and laboratories look different than the typical classroom and lab you might find in Boyer Hall or Jordan Science Center.  Our classrooms are the soccer field, the track, the artificial turf field, the baseball and softball fields, the volleyball court, the basketball floor, and other indoor and outdoor venues. Our classrooms include the locker room, the training room, and practice fields as well. 

And we know that the impact coaches have on their student-athletes is significant – student-athletes will see coaches and staff every day during the season for several hours; will travel with them in buses or vans; will see how they react to bad calls from officials; and will share tears of joy after a big win or tears of sorrow after a tough loss.  The lessons taught by the coach over four years will last a lifetime.

Our mission in Athletics supports the College’s educational mission:  The Department of Athletics at Messiah College seeks to develop Christian character while pursuing athletic excellence.  In doing so, the Department fulfills Messiah College’s mission to educate men and women toward maturity of intellect, character, and Christian faith.