Building Men for Others: Empathy

As a part of Building Men for Others, I gave the players a homework assignment on Tuesday night. They were all to look the meaning of the word empathy.

Webster's Dictionary describes Empathy as: Identification with and understanding another's feelings, situation and motives.

Identifying with another persons feelings or situation. I want our players to put themselves in the shoes of another person. Think outside of the norm and think about what other people must be thinking or feeling. To show empathy for another team mate puts us all in a position not only to understand others, but to build a bond of trust with one another.

That is what building a team is about. That is life.

Last night's conditioning session was a good lesson in empathy. Some players had a hard time getting their conditioning done in the allotted time limit. Failure to do so would result in having to do more sprints.

A group of lesser men would have yelled at the perpetrators, blaming them for the extra sprints. Not our players. They sucked it up, encouraged one another and gave their best effort. They put themselves in a position to think of the other person's feelings and situation. That is all I can ask of our players.

Winning is not the top priority with Freshman football. Learning the fundamentals of football and building men are my top two priorities on this team. We are building a good foundation with our players. You parents should be proud of your sons and their development not only as football players, but being a man.