Walk Up to the Line of Scrimmage & Reveal the Play  

WALK UP TO THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE & REVEAL THE PLAY

Nearly 100 years ago (or close to it) I had the honor and privilege of playing high school football for a coaching legend, Coach Wally Huckno. 

Coach Huckno’s accolades include: 

• 3 New York State Championship Titles for large schools
• Greater Buffalo, NY Hall of Fame. 
• Coach of the decade for the western New York high school sports publication in 2000
• New York State Coach associations coach of the year in 1994 & 1995 and 2000
• New York State Sportswriters Association coach of the year 1996
• Overall 159-47-1 record

Coach Huckno was relentless.

He created a culture of discipline and winning.

With one exception…my senior year. 

I had the unfortunate honor of playing on his ONLY losing season in over 20 years of coaching.

UGH!! 

Our team simply stunk. No excuses. We were just bad.

We lost 5 games by the total of 21 points. Each game was a heartbreaker.

Anyway…

It truly takes a special breed to become a hugely successful coach.

Especially since a typical high school coach makes pennies per hour when you break down the amount of hours they dedicate to the sport, the players and the program.

Think of all of the coaches that actually volunteer and are paid nothing.

Enduring all of the challenges that comes with managing boosters, parents, games, administration, not to mention the players themselves. 

Next time you hear a parent ripping apart a coach, consider that they certainly have plenty of other things that they could be doing with their time rather than coaching their kids.

Tolerating all of the hassle, drama as well as frustration.

To become a successful high school coach, you need extremely thick skin as well as maintaining a laser focus on the big picture goal.

Most importantly, the ability to ignore the noise and clutter of critics.

Especially those Monday morning quarterbacks second guessing your every move.

 The same goes with entrepreneurship.

You need thick skin. 

Avoid the noise and critics.

Stay laser focused on your goal.

Be true to your convictions.

Well, Coach Huckno taught a profound strategy that still resonates today that I would like to share with you. 

Walk Up to the Line of Scrimmage & Reveal the Play  

One of the greatest takeaways from the experience of playing for Coach Huckno was this fascinating concept…

Coach Huckno preached, you should be able to walk up to line of scrimmage, tell the opponent across from you exactly what play we are running and still bury the player across from you into the dirt.

If you don’t….his philosophy was it was from lack of preparation and concentration.

You didn’t hit the weights hard enough during the winter and spring workouts.

Didn’t participate in off-season training.

You didn’t run sprints hard enough at practice.

Plays were not studied thoroughly. 

You didn’t study video of your opponent close enough.

You were too busy watching the cheerleaders during the game (Yes, I ended up marrying one of our cheerleaders).

There were plenty of factors that causes you to not beat your opponent.

Even if they are bigger, faster and stronger.

Technique and strategy as well as thorough preparation allows each victory at the line of scrimmage. 

Reveal the Play in Entrepreneurship 

This philosophy carries into our business philosophy as well. 

Unless you posses the Google algorithm, the Coke formula, the secret sauce of McDonald’s Big Mac, work for the Pentagon or possess some other type of “I’d tell you but I’d have to kill you” type of information. Simply put it out there.

Wait, you might be thinking, what if my competition finds out?

Then ask yourself, do potential customer’s have the ability to easily find you as well as additional relevant information about your company?

Is the proper information about you, your company, your skills, the problem you solve, the years of experience you bring to the table, your ability to help your customer benefit from your product or service readily available?

On the other hand, are you the best kept secret?  

If you are struggling to attract ideal customers, maybe it is time to ask yourself, is it better to have your wonderful attributes, assets and solutions hidden or should we reveal the play? 

Since you are SO GOOD at what you do, then go for it!

Walk up to the line of scrimmage, tell the competition exactly what play you are running and still bury the opposition?

Share your processes, prices, key executives, as well as all of the other powerful solutions that you deliver on a daily basis. 

Coach Huckno will be extremely proud of you! 

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