Dave-ologies: Sports, leadership...and life

Walking on to the lacrosse field on Tuesday night, I looked around and thought, this is it. This is my final walk with any of my three boys onto the playing field. Football, Basketball, Track, Lacrosse…this was it.

This past Tuesday was Senior Night. After 3 sons and 24 years of coaching and cheering, my youngest son will play his last high school varsity lacrosse game this month and I am officially retiring as a high school sports parent. It has been twenty-four years of watching, coaching, learning, playing and working with my three boys through sports. Twenty-four years of teaching my boys and other young men about team work, hard work, and having fun. Twenty-four years of learning how to get the best out of your team. Twenty-four years of making mistakes and learning from them (which has carried over into my work life). Twenty-four years of watching my boys win and lose, celebrate and cry, have some luck – good and bad, and finally experience life lessons through success and failure. Twenty-four years of trying to not be “that Dad” and rooting for my kids quietly on the sideline. Twenty-four years of some funny stories – running all the way down the sideline in football a few times when my son(s) had a long run or catch for a touchdown, or cringing when my son broke a brand new lacrosse stick less than 48 hours after we purchased it, or when coaching and getting excited over a big basketball win and realizing the kids were more concerned about what the post-game snack was (Oreos by the way), or when boys came up to me to excitedly show me their cell phone wallpaper which was a football or lacrosse photo I had taken the week before. The stories are too many to recount in this blog. The memory is still fresh. The smiles endless.

And making an impact. Little things I love, like hearing “Hey Coach” when I am out in the neighborhood or eating somewhere. Or when my boys will recollect, “Dad, remember that time when…”. I love it when boys come back from college and tell me about leadership and they tie it back to a coaching moment. I love it when I look back at all the photos, enjoying all the memories and realizing it was all a wonderful time and opportunity in my life. Making a difference with so many young men – including my own. An opportunity to be with and watch my boys (and other boys) grow. I have learned so many things throughout this time, and as my youngest son heads off to college in the fall, here are just a few of those things:

Time flies by, every year goes by a little bit faster. Enjoy the moment.
Our children reflect ourselves (both good and bad). So are the teams we lead.
Change happens right beneath your eyes. Be part of it.
Milestones matter. They are the memories you hold onto.
Parenting is full of mistakes and regrets, but overtaken by caring and memories. So is leadership.

Whether you are parenting or leading, there are things which seem to transcend both: being accountable, having discipline, showing respect, acting with restraint, giving recognition….and caring.

As parents, we certainly make mistakes, and as leaders we do as well. The key is to rebound and learn from these mistakes and make personal change. While it is important to understand your mistakes, it is also important to keep moving forward and take on new challenges. Do not be afraid to admit your mistakes, your team will respond positively (believe me, I have made thousands).

I will leave you with this thought from something I read a day before I took my final walk for “senior night”. “Hold your boy a bit longer, rock him a bit more, always read him another story – you’ve only read him four. Let him sleep on your shoulder, enjoy his happy smile, for he is only a little boy for such a short while.” (Author unknown) Together. We. Win.

Dave Harmon

People Division

“Kindness is Currency”

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr