Coaches, athletic directors ready to receive different kind of playbook from Ehrmann
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By DAVID BOSSICK david.bossick@lee.net
Thursday, January 18, 2007 12:44 AM CST
It’s a coaching seminar, but it’s not about the Xs and the Os.
The Northwest Wisconsin Fellowship of Christian Athletes is bringing in nationally renowned Joe Ehrmann for a clinic on working with the youth in athletics Jan. 27 at Eau Claire’s Ramada Inn Convention Center.
“Hopefully, the coaches and athletic directors who attend will begin to re-think why we’re doing (sports),” fellowship director Mark Hull said.
Joe Ehrmann, and his wife Paula, began Building Men and Women for Others. It is a non-profit organization where Joe Ehrmann travels the country delivering keynote speeches and InSideOut Seminars, such as the one in Eau Claire.
Hull said having Ehrmann come in is a move to show coaches that the winning of the games necessarily shouldn’t be the goal of athletics.
“We use football to teach boys to become men. You find out about relationships, to love and to be loved, and to give yourself to a greater cause,” Hull said.
The Christian group has had speakers in the past — Pat Summerall of NFL legend and broadcasting fame visited within recent years — but it wanted someone to strike a chord within those within athletics about working with youths in sports.
Hull was taken in by a story on Ehrmann in Parade Magazine, a supplement to newspapers across the country including The Chippewa Herald. In the story, Ehrmann’s messages of relationships and working for causes comes through. It grabbed Hull so much that he ended up buying books and other materials about Ehrmann’s message.
He shared the message, too.
Rice Lake coach Kevin Orr, according to Hull, was one who got that message.
“I gave him a book and he got around to reading it,” Hull recalled. “It resonated in his soul.”
The duo contemplated the chances of going to a seminar or clinic with Ehrmann as a speaker, but eventually came up with the plan to bring the high school coach near Baltimore to the Chippewa Valley. The financing for the seminar as well as connecting with coaches within the area and contacting Ehrmann got the process rolling.
Ehrmann’s not the only one coming to the region, either. Hull said a busload of athletic directors and coaches from the Chicago area are headed this way for Jan. 27 as is a group of coaches from the Green Bay area.
“We’ve got about 200 coaches and athletic directors signed up for the seminar,” Hull said Wednesday afternoon.
The cost for the seminar is $30 from today until Monday. After that, it’s $40 per person. The cost includes handout materials, lunches along with snacks and refreshments.
Following the clinic that runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., there is a desert banquet at 6:30 p.m. also at the Ramada Inn in downtown Eau Claire. The desert banquet is free and open to the public.
When that time rolls around, the coaches and athletic directors in attendance should be ready to extol some of Ehrmann’s virtues.
“The transformation is not a clinic,” Hull said. “It’s a journey.”
The journey gets underway Jan. 27, without the traditional playbook.
Reach David Bossick at david.bossick@lee.net.
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