Steve Carrera, Orange Lutheran High School Water Polo Coach, Wins Positive Coaching Alliance’s Double-Goal Coach® Award Presented by TeamSnap
March 18, 2015, Mountain View, CA – Orange Lutheran (Calif.) High School Water Polo Coach Steve Carrera has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted Double-Goal Coach Award presented by TeamSnap for his positive impact on youth athletes.
Carrera is one of 25 national recipients of the Double-Goal Coach award, named for coaches who strive to win while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports. The award includes a $250 prize, a trophy and mention within the websites and newsletters of Positive Coaching Alliance, a national non-profit dedicated to using youth and high school sports to develop Better Athletes, Better People.
“Steve helps his athletes win in and out of the pool,” said Jim Thompson, founder and CEO of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) and author of nine books on youth sports, including The Power of Double-Goal Coaching. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience, and serving as a Double-Goal Coach, Steve helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”
Carrera articulates a well-developed philosophy on how to get the most from student-athletes while also giving them the most as a coach. “The values we’re bringing to the pool have to start from the top,” he said. “You can’t expect the kids to have values of respect and honor and camaraderie and trust unless we as coaches show those as examples. We’re trying to create a level of trust and understanding that revolves around love. Once we’ve established that, we can push student-athletes to the absolute limit and maximize their potential.
“Their knowing that I’m all in for them allows them to be all in for me and to buy into what we’re trying to get across. There’s never a sense of degrading or putting down. We’re always trying to lift up. That doesn’t mean we’re not pushing them and getting them to excel. It only means that our approach is positive and uplifting.
“I’ve had this philosophy from day one of my coaching. I learned it from one of the greatest aquatics coaches, Flip Darr, my coach at Saddleback College. He was the kind of person I could have gone to and asked for anything, and he would have helped me. I want to be that coach for my students. I want them to feel comfortable asking me for help if they need it. That could be in anything -- sport, school, family. I want that sort of relationship, and I want that responsibility.”
List of national winners of PCA’s 2015 Double-Goal Coach Award Presented by TeamSnap >>.
About Positive Coaching Alliance
PCA develops BETTER ATHLETES, BETTER PEOPLE through resources for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, administrators and student-athletes. In addition to hundreds of free audio-video and printable tips and tools at www.PCADevZone.org, PCA has partnered with roughly 3,000 schools and youth sports organizations nationwide to deliver live group workshops, online courses and books by PCA Founder Jim Thompson that help those involved in youth and high school sports create a positive, character-building youth sports culture.
PCA workshops and courses, which have impacted more than 7.5 million youth through 2014, strive to transform high school and youth sports into a Development ZoneTM, where the goal is to develop Better Athletes, Better People and the following become the prevailing models in youth and high school sports:
The Double-Goal Coach®, who strives to win while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports
The Second-Goal Parent®, who concentrates on life lessons, while letting coaches and athletes focus on competing
The Triple-Impact Competitor®, who strives to impact sport on three levels by improving oneself, teammates and the game as a whole.
PCA gains support from a National Advisory Board, including National Spokesperson and 11-time NBA Champion Coach Phil Jackson, and many other top coaches, athletes, organization leaders and academics who share PCA’s mission.
Contact:
David Jacobson, Positive Coaching Alliance
Phone: 650-210-0808
E-mail: david_jacobson@positivecoach.org
