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on July 30, 2022 in Sports Leadership

As shown in the tweet above, last evening I had the privilege of being the keynote speaker at Pope High School’s Athletic Department’s Kick-Off Night for the 2022-2023 school year.  Led by Athletic Director Josh Matthews, this is one of the premier academic and athletic institutions not only in the state of Georgia, but the country as well.

To give you a picture of this program’s impact, the following are just some of their accomplishments from the 2021-2022 school year alone:

  • 3.59 GPA for its 675+ student-athletes
  • 4.06 highest team GPA
  • 6-A state baseball champions
  • Joey Robinson was the state wrestling champion for the 160 lb. division
  • Piers Cameron was the state champion in the shot put and discuss
  • They were the region champions in Volleyball, Boys and Girls Cross Country, Wrestling Duals, Baseball, Boys and Girls Tennis, Fastpitch Softball, and Boys and Girls Track and Field
  • 28 student-athletes from the 2022 graduating class signed college scholarships
  • and I could go on and on.

As I spent time with the administration, coaching staff, spouses, and boosters, I found myself interacting with one great leader after another.  By the end of the evening, my wife and I considered ourselves “friends of the program.”

As Josh gave his State of the Program address, I discovered why Pope High School has such a winning culture.  Josh went over their eight core values.  These were not created in a vacuum but rather are a composite picture of what was most important to them as coaches and the type of program they wished to be a part of.  A picture of the values is shown below:

I will now type out the value and add some comments of my own.

  1. I Believe In Excellence.  As their mission statement says, Pope’s athletic department is “using high school athletics to facilitate, empower, and inspire excellence that drives a level of consistent, elite success in competition, classrooms, community, and in life.”  In short, excellence drives consistent, elite success.
  2. I Believe In Growth.  Growth is a choice.  Growing organizations are led by growing leaders.
  3. I Believe In The Experience.  Teams who focus on daily growth and the process will be more successful than results-oriented programs.
  4. I Believe In Coaching.  Everyone gets better with a coach.  As Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin says, “I don’t run from coaching.  I run to coaching.”
  5. I Believe In Family.  My wife and I commented about how the athletic department felt like a family.  Being a family is a sign of not only a healthy culture, but a winning one as well.  When you are competing first and foremost for your friend, the person beside you, your odds of winning increase dramatically.
  6. I Believe In Citizenship.  Because of the type of young people the program is producing and its growing relationship with local businesses, the community of East Marietta (Ga.) is better because of Pope High School.
  7. I Believe In Sportmanship.  It is cliche but Pope High School wins the right way.
  8. I Believe That We Will Win!  I love this but a couple of reasons.  One, the department is crystal clear about its goals and objectives.  There is complete clarity for what success looks like with no room for ambiguity.  Second, when Pope’s teams win games, you can hear their fans chanting, “I Believe That We Will Win!”  When fans are chanting your core values, you know have created a winning culture.

I can’t thank Josh enough for the invitation to invest in the school’s athletic department.  He is simply a world-class athletic director and his staff contains dozens of great leaders as well.  It will be a joy watching them have continued success in the years to come.

One more thing I must add, I Believe That They Will Win!  You see, I told you I was a friend of the program!

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