Alliance for Catholic Education
You’re welcome to judge me, but I’m gonna be honest: I’m still fired up about Notre Dame football. You may (perhaps appropriately) quote me the invitation to detachment that Princess Elsa sings in Frozen, “let it go!” … but I’m not there just yet.
It didn’t help that last week, our outgoing Defensive Coordinator (speaking of things I’m not over!), Al Golden, received the Broyles Award for being the top Assistant Coach in the nation. As he did so, he gave an incredibly gracious speech where he thanked a number of people throughout his career. But in particular, he talked about the environment and culture that Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman created so that he and others could thrive. He said,
“Thank you to Coach Freeman for believing in me. But not just believing in me, but to create and foster an environment that allowed me to be the best that I could be—that allowed all of the coaches on his staff to be the best that they could possibly be.”
Coach Golden recognized that it’s not enough for great leaders to just believe in their people, they need to create an environment where they can use the gifts that God has given them to the best of their ability.
We believe that transformative Catholic school leaders are ones that “Champion Culture,” which means creating and cultivating an atmosphere throughout the hallways of your school and beyond where people see the best in one another and cheer each other on to educational victories. Practically speaking, this can mean inviting others out of their comfort zone, finding ways of restoring trust that has been lost, holding people to high expectations, and promoting the dignity of all people (even those we disagree with!).
I will leave you with what I thought was Coach Golden’s mic drop moment in his speech when he was talking about Notre Dame and the football players. When you read it, just replace “head coach” with “principal” and imagine someone is saying this about you in the not-so-distant future.
“There is a place in Northern Indiana where young men go that still think it’s important to be great in the community. They still think it’s important to be awesome in the classroom. They still think it’s important and vital to have a spiritual component in your life. And it’s all fostered by a head coach that provides a culture.”
Fr. Nate Wills, CSC
Faculty, Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program
Director, Higher-Powered Learning