Danny Peary - Raising a Team Player: Teaching Kids Lasting Values on the Field, on the Court, and on the Bench

Raising a TEAM PLAYER

Teaching kids lasting values on the field, on the court, and on the bench

HARRY SHEEHY with Danny Peary

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers
by publishing practical information that encourages personal
independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Nancy W. Ringer
Art direction and cover design by Wendy Palitz
Cover photograph by Giles Prett
Back cover photograph Bob Daemmrich
Photo credits appear on page 152
Text design by Laurie Baker
Layout and production by Susan Bernier and Cynthia McFarland

Copyright 2002 by Harry C. Sheehy III

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information please contact Storey Books, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

Storey Books are available for special premium and promotional uses and for customized editions. For further information, please call Storeys Custom Publishing Department at 1-800-793-9396.

Jacket printed in the United States by John P. Pow Co.
Printed and bound in the United States by Quebecor World
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sheehy, Harry.

Raising a team player: teaching kids lasting values on the field, on the court, and on the bench / by Harry Sheehy with Danny Peary.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-58017-447-7 (alk. paper)

1. Sports for childrenCoaching. 2. Sportsmanship. 3. Conduct of life. I. Title: Teaching kids lasting values on the field, on the court, and on the bench. II. Peary, Danny, 1949. III. Title.

GV709.24 .S54

796.083dc21

2002
2001057640

To Mom,
who taught me to laugh every day.

To Dad,
who taught me that the applause of a single
human being is of great consequence.

And to Connie,
whose faith, balance, and perspective
are a constant source of inspiration.

I FIRST STARTED THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK YEARS AGO, BUT the idea finally came to fruition thanks to the people at Storey Books. Without their belief in the need for Raising a Team Player, the undertaking never would have gotten off the ground. My co-author Danny Peary and I are most grateful to our editor, Nancy Ringer, who provided patience, guidance, and a firm hand when necessary to move the project forward. We also wish to acknowledge the support and enthusiasm we received from publisher Janet Harris, editorial director Deborah Balmuth, creative director Wendy Palitz, designer Laurie Baker, art director Cindy McFarland, graphic designers Erin Lincourt and Susan Bernier, photo coordinator Laurie Figary, and publicist Stephanie Taylor. We are grateful to have worked with a team who all want to raise team players. We also want to express deep gratitude to Melissa Kay Rogers, Jennifer Unter, Karen Ware, Robert Rosen, Caroline Schechter, Maury Gostfrand, Gail Lockhart, Barbara Hadzicosmas, Suzanne Rafer, and Laura Peary. And many thanks to Yankees manager Joe Torre for contributing the foreword.

I have been fortunate to have many people influence my life through sports in a positive manner. John Bardong, my Little League baseball coach, not only taught me the game but also showed me that good teaching and fun can go hand in hand. My junior high coaches Richie Smith, Bob Allen, and Con Chigger constantly emphasized fair play and sportsmanship. I dont think any young athlete could have been coached by better people.

During my seventeen years as the mens basketball coach at Williams College, my players demonstrated work ethic, sportsmanship, competitive spirit, and enthusiasm on a daily basis. My sincere thanks goes out to all my guys, who inspired me far more than I ever could have motivated them.

The most important team in my life is my family. Thanks to Mom for rewarming countless dinners because I was at the park playing until the last glimmer of light faded. I have wonderful memories of Dad and I traveling to countless games as I was growing up, and of his constant message: The game is pure. I am grateful to still be taking these trips with Dad today. Finally, thanks to Connie, my bride of twenty-five years, whose beauty, poise, and faith are as irresistible today as when we first met over thirty years ago.

WHEN A NEW YORK YANKEE WALKS INTO A ROOM, PEOPLE WILL say, Wow, youre a member of the New York Yankees! They dont say, Wow, whats it like to play with Derek Jeter? What about Bernie Williams and Roger Clemens? This is fitting because, I am proud to point out, on the Yankees, the team is always more important than the individual players, and the statistic that matters most to my twenty-five players is the number of world championships weve won. We have been able to lure big-name players like Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina to New York because, despite having had tremendous individual success, they coveted the opportunity to play on a world championship team. Having captured four World Series titles in six years, the Yankees are regarded as winners, and when new guys walk into our clubhouse, they seem to want to fit in with the way we do things. They are after a ring of their own, proof that they were part of the best team in baseball.

In this insightful, challenging, and much-needed book, Harry Sheehy expresses numerous ideas that are similar to my own, and I certainly agree with his view that winning, while a great goal, isnt everything, especially in amateur sports. Still, there is no doubt in my mind that winning as a team is much more significant and rewarding than having success as an individual. I wouldnt want to downplay personal accomplishments, but winning as a team by doing all the right things well should be every athletes primary goal. This ideal should be taught much more often on the professional level; even more important, as Harry points out, it must be injected into youth, high school, and college sports.

Almost every professional athlete played in organized sports programs in their youth. Why have so many come through that experience without having developed good character traits, learned good sportsmanship, or discovered what it takes to be a winner, including sacrificing for the good of the team? Youth sports would seem to be ideal for introducing solid values to kids, but as Harry laments in this book, too few kids are allowed to have fun, enriching experiences. Thats because many win-at-all-cost coaches and misguided parents fail to teach the proper lessons that kids can carry into their adult lives, whether they play professional sports or not.