About Coach: Rules & Belief

When I started coaching MATHCOUNTS teams, I tired to channel my inner Jeff Bradley (Coach). I wish all the kids I work with could meet him. Beyond always smiling, he would be the most positive person I ever met and I'm happy he's still an influence in my life. No matter what he coached (track or MATHCOUNTS), one of his first day / week rituals was to read the rules. I bet he was impressed with the Olympic 400m dash in Rio (medal race) where the runner dove to victory. I think he would tip his hat to that (the American was leaning backwards / upright running at the finish line). For MATHCOUNTS he would read the form of answers rules in the first session - all of them - similar to what they do at competitions now (which makes me cringe since the rules should be known - you have 4 - 5 months to practice and learn the rules).

Back to his positive nature - he would recruit people for track and make them belief they could be good. Track is interesting - there's various distances,jumps, throws, and pole vault so you could be good at something even if it was not your first choice. He wanted his attitude to be infectious. He would sell anybody on joining the team. This also carried over to when he recruited people to try out for MATHCOUNTS. He wanted to make anyone believe they could succeed.

In homage to coach I emphasize many of his teachings (rules and personal belief).

Of course I have my own take and views, but I do emphasize knowing the rules of the contest and making kids believe!

I could go further, but another blog post at another time (to keep adding content to this amazing site!)!

Update 10/30/2016

Coach was honored with a local sportsmanship award:

http://lancasteronline.com/sports/trackandfield/highschool/jeff-bradley-longtime-hempfield-track-coach-wins-kirchner-award/article_88ec9d86-955c-11e6-b161-b7d38566a3a9.html

Hopefully he was a first ballot recipient - I don't know how the award is given, but it is well deserved for a man who dedicated himself to the local community!