Name: Coach John Mothershed
Wife's Name: Suzanne
Children: Jared, Emily, Brooks & Brylee
Hometown: Sheffield/Tuscumbia
High school attended: Sheffield High School
Position played in high school: Linebacker/Guard
Shea Lowery: How many years have you been coaching:
John Mothershed: "26 years."
SL: If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently as a coach:
JM: "Enjoy the ride more. Don't always look toward the next game. Appreciate the journey not just the destination."
SL: How important is it for a coach to lead by example:
JM: "All eyes are on you, and the more successful your program, the more eyes are on you. It kind of goes to Matt: 5:14: "You are the light of the world."
"Those that are behind you look to you for leadership. Those that are against you watch closely to see if you stumble so they can pounce on that. Everybody is watching you including those who are for you and those who are against you."
SL: How do you withstand that kind of pressure:
JM: "You can just do what you can do. You're just a man, and you're not anything more than that. So, you just focus on your job and doing your job. You don't get too excited when they are praising you nor do you get too down when they are trashing you. You just go on and do your job. I think Coach Saban probably has the best policy. He said, "You don't stress on things that you have no control over."
JM: "You can just control what you can do. How people feel about you and what people think of you, you really have no control over. You don't spend time dwelling on it. That's not positive. You can't accomplish or get any better or make your team any better dwelling on things you have no control over."
SL: Character is:
JM: "What you do when no one is around. It is something embedded deep in you. And really very few people know what a person's real character is, but that person knows. People know what they think and what they see, but really only God knows what your true character is.
"So, I think that what you have to do is stress on making sure that God knows who you are and your heart. I go back to one of my hero's from the Bible, David. David probably made more mistakes than anybody, but his heart was true. People around him might not have known that, but God knew it, and He is the one you have to please."
SL: What is the toughest time you have faced as a coach, and how did you get through it:
JM: "When you have felt like you have let other people down. That is really tough when you feel like you have let your friends down or you let people that are close to you down. How do you get through it?
"I go back to one of the examples that one of my coach's gave me about a granddaddy who was traveling in a storm and his granddaughter kept wanting him to pull over and stop the car and the granddaddy said, "No, keep going." The storm got worse, and she wanted to pull over and he said, "No, keep going."
"Finally, they got out on the other side of the storm and when they did, the granddaddy looked at the young girl and said, "Now remember, in a storm, those who stop are still in it. Those who keep pushing on eventually come out of it." So, that is what you do. You keep plotting ahead. You keep working. You keep doing your thing and eventually you will come out of a storm, and there will be sunshine on the other side of it."
SL: Favorite Food:
JM: "Blue Bell Ice Cream at 9:00 o'clock at night is really good. Dream Land ribs are my all time favorite."
SL: What do you do for fun time:
JM: "Just spending some down time at home. I enjoy doing that. I enjoy going home. Home to me should be a harbor where you go and recharge."
SL: What are some things you would caution young coaches against and what are some things you would tell them to always uphold to and never back down from:
JM: Cautions: "Getting into coaching for the wrong reasons. If you are getting into coaching because the sport is your number one reason to get in, that's going to fade. If you are getting into it to help kids, then that is the main reason to get in it.
"Don't ever get off track that, in coaching, the purpose is your relationship with kids and what you can do for the kids and not the sport itself. I think a lot of young coaches are too caught up in the x's and o's of it more than they are the psychology of it, and the leadership of it in helping to develop kids. That would be my biggest caution.
"If you are doing it just because you love the game of football, that is not a real good reason for going into high school coaching. It's got to be a love for kids or it's not going to work and you will not stay in it long. I think the coaches that stay in high school coaching for a long period of time do it because they feel like they are having an impact on kids more than the sport itself."
JM: Uphold to and never back down from: "Don't get involved in the politics of the game. Some communities will try to control the football program, and they try to control the coach. You always need to stay true to yourself. Stay true to what you are trying to accomplish, and don't be afraid to listen to people.
"There is a big difference in listening to people and having them control you. You gotta have enough confidence in what you are doing so that you're not scared to hear what somebody else has to say. You have got to have enough belief in what you are doing that you can hear what other people say without it impacting how you do your job.
"And you also can't be bull-headed. You have to have an open mind because sometimes you may be wrong, and you have got to have enough self-esteem to admit when someone else's idea is better and not be afraid of what people will think if you change what you do because of what someone says."
SL: How important is finishing:
JM: "It is important in life, in everything, and in the football game. As a coach, you have to decide what your number one goal is in coaching, and why you are in coaching because your opinion of what it means to finish and somebody else's may be completely different.
"Someone else may think that finishing means how you finish up the year or how many games you win. If that is what your goal is, just the game itself, then it's kind of a shallow finish.
"If you are trying to change kids and make kids better regardless of what your record is and regardless of how you finish up in the playoffs. If you finish, and if you have taken a kid that is right there on the border line or a kid that is half in the street and half not in the street and you have changed that kid and helped him be a better person, then I think you have finished and you have done your job.
"These days with all the pressure of coaching, winning and losing seems to impact people's jobs constantly. Well, if you get caught up in that, the stresses of this job will eat you alive. But if, in your mind, you are doing a good job of helping kids and you are changing kid's lives then regardless of what they do with your job, you're going to be OK because God is going to protect you. If you are trying to help His people and help His kids, you are going to be fine."
SL: What would you say to a leader who has fumbled, who has messed up and blown it:
JM: "When Jesus started looking for the people to help Him, He didn't go to the Pharisees and the Sadducees that thought they were perfect. He went to common people who had messed up with all their flaws. God likes to take people who have flaws and build them up because it shows the power of God.
"He doesn't take a perfect creation and try to make it the shining point. He takes people that have fallen and have messed up and through His grace shows that with God you can take something that is broken and make it whole.
"One of my favorite movies is Sea Biscuit. There is a quote in that movie where the guy says, "Just cause something is beat up a little bit you don't throw it away." And I think that is how people are.
"All of us have stumbled, all of us have fallen, and all of us have made mistakes. Now some people's mistakes may be more visual or public than others, but nobody is worthy of what we have.
"I think you can't get caught up in what people think. You can't get caught up in what people say. You gotta stay true to yourself and stay true to God, and let God take something that is broken and build it back up for His glory. I think that is what can happen. God can use something that is broken to glorify Him."
SL: What life lessons can be learned in a fourth-and-one that can help you handle the tough times better in life:
JM: "In life, you always face fourth-and-one. I think fourth-and-one is something that as a coach you've got to have a plan for. I don't think it is something you think about when it is fourth-and-one. I think you better already have a plan in place so that when it is fourth-and-one you don't have to make a decision, the decision is already made.
"I think in life, just like in football, you build a plan. You make a plan for those hard times like fourth-and-one, and then when you do face those hard times you don't have to think about it.
"It's not an emotional decision. It's not based on emotion, but it is based on preparation. I think you prepare for fourth-and-one in football just like you prepare for fourth-and-one in life. What are you going to do when the chips are down, and you make the plan. You implement your plan, and you just do your best."
SL: Coach John Mothershed's Building Blocks for a successful football program:
JM: "You have to remember that it is based on the kids. There would not be a program if it were not for the kids. I think these days one thing you have to do is keep it fun for the kids, but in keeping it fun, you can't get away from the basic discipline of the game. It is a hard game. It is not easy, and it's not fun all the time.
"You have to build a base with your program so that the kids are disciplined and so that they can face those tough times in practices and things and know that better times are ahead. Discipline is key to building a program. Not only discipline with your team, but how you run your program.
"So often you have to have support and help. Probably the biggest mistake I made when I was head coach early in my career was when I tried to do everything myself. I have a hard time of delegating authority. I would rather do it myself, but as a successful head coach you have to trust your assistants and you have to give them responsibility.
"You have to hold them accountable for that responsibility and trust that they are going to do their jobs. I think that is a big mistake I made earlier in my career. I tried to do everything myself. You can't do that as a head coach. You gotta have good people around you that you trust, that you can delegate authority to or you can't do it. It won't work."
SL: Define Team:
JM: "Family, that's what it is. It's family. Everything is not always going to be perfect. Everything is not always going to be good. You are going to fuss and fight, but there has got to be a love and respect for each other. It needs to be a community feeling.
"Just like in a family, you are going to have some that have different personalities as well some who stray and then want to come back. I think that, as a coach, you build that family atmosphere with your team from one year to the next, not necessarily for one season.
"You show the team how they are kin to last year's team, and all the other teams who have come through Deshler. You want them to feel and know they are part of an extended family. I think that is the key to teammate."
SL: "Nothing so more proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." How important is it to evaluate yourself every day so that you can lead the people under you:
JM: "I think you have to establish a policy, and you have to stick with it. I think as a leader it is your responsibility whether you are in the mood or not in the mood, feel good or don't feel good, to be the optimistic one. I think you have to be bouncing around because the whole team feeds off the head coach, from assistant coaches to the managers.
"There are times when you just don't feel good or times when you just don't have it. There is no way you can coach for a long time and come out everyday 100-percent on. But, I have noticed through my career that on days when I have not come out and been fired up and emotional, the whole practice has been bad. I think a head coach influences your practice more than anything."
SL: What do you look for in hiring assistant coaches:
JM: "It's a look in their eye. I wish I could write down what I am looking for. Really, it's a feel that you get when you see them. You see a brightness in their face and a brightness in their eye. You see they are concerned about children and the kids. You see they are not just re-living their high school football and college days.
"I don't necessarily want a coach that is only sports-minded. I want a coach that does have more of a life than reading a sports page everyday. I want someone that is a little deeper than that. I wish I could tell you what I am looking for. I just know it when I see it."
SL: What is your greatest goal as a person and as a coach:
JM: "Greatest goal as a person is to be a good leader for my family, watch my kids grow up, and be successful. The greatest goal would be that when this life is over for God to say, 'well done.' Greatest goal as a coach would be when it is all over, for the rest of my life to be called coach."
Favorite Quote:
JM: Colin Powell: "Don't let your ego get so caught up in what you do that when what you do is over your ego goes with it." (In other words, you are more than just what you do.)
Shea Lowery is the Director of Quinn's Ranch Children's Home.
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