Positive Coaching Alliance and MaxPreps to honor Double-Goal coaches

Delwyn Showalter doesn't talk to many college football coaches. Few metropolitan newspapers or televisions stations have stopped by his small but successful football program over the past 30 years at the 200-student strong Mt. Ayr (Iowa) campus, which is located on the Southern central tip of Iowa, about 15 miles North of the Missouri border.

The city of Mt. Ayr (pop. 1,691) sits in Ringgold County, the least populated county in Iowa, which is regarded as one of the safest states in the nation, in the middle of America's Heartland and Corn Belt.

"We're a rural, farming and agricultural community," Showalter said. "We have great, hard working kids."  

A longtime assistant, Showalter and Derek Lambert took over the program as co-head coaches in 2001 and have compiled an impressive 92-37 record and made a school record six straight postseason appearances, including the 2013 team that went 8-3 and won a road playoff game for the first time in the 110-year history of the school.

This came right after the 2012 squad won a district title, a school record 11 games and reached the state Class A quarterfinals, which is as far as the Raiders have ever gone.

"Once we get to that point, we see some of the schools from the metropolitan areas and we don't really match up," Showalter said.

But the playoff runs, the winning records, the school marks aren't the measuring tools with which Showalter gauges his worth or job performance. It's certainly not by press clippings or television lights either.

Showalter said his payoff doesn't come until years after the final gun or the playoff run finishes.

"It's usually 15-20 years down the line, after the kids graduate," he said. "When I see them in the community, as good dads and parents, serving on school boards or coaching Little League or coming back to teach or coach some of our students.

"I think that's when I feel the most pride and feel good about what I'm doing."

That pride and bigger giving is largely what bonds Showalter with the other 24 men and women who have won Positive Coaching Alliance's coveted Double-Goal Coach Award presented by MaxPreps. 

Of the 25, 18 are high school coaches and all will be honored for their positive impact on youth athletes Saturday night at the 13th Annual National Youth Sports Awards Dinner and Auction presented at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto.

The Double-Goal winners were selected from a pool of more than 1,700 who were nominated.

The PCA was founded within the Stanford University athletic department in 1998 and has partnered with 2,000 schools and youth sports organizations nationwide while conducting more than 13,000 workshops that have impacted more than an estimated 5 million youth.

The Double-Goal coach standard is one "who strives to win while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports."

Showalter, no relation to Orioles manager Buck Showalter, said winning this award truly caught him off guard.

"It is really, really a great honor and very humbling," he said. "To be recognized for this particular award means more to me than anything I've ever won because of what the award represents."

Showalter, whose responsibilities as athletic director won't allow him to attend the dinner, admits he wasn't a great athlete at Mt. Pleasant (Iowa) or Northern Iowa University, but was always attracted to teaching and coaching. There are some educators scattered amongst his extended family, but his parents ran a nursing home and grandparents were farmers.

The greatest impact in teaching, he believes, is through coaching sports or extra curricular activities. For him, coaching football worked best.

"You see a different side of kids," he said. "All the skills a student needs in the real world — problem solving, time management, relationships — can be taught best in my opinion through team and athletics. Football worked best for me. You get knocked down every play and you have to pick yourself right back up."

Grace Academy (Georgetown, Texas) volleyball coach Venessa Barnard knows all about resiliency and has taught it well. She's one of the four Double-Goal coaches who will be speaking Saturday during a question-answer session.

Barnard is a cancer survivor, who in November had surgery just six days before leading her team to a state TAPPS title.

"I was clearly sick and I was not going to avoid it," she said. "So I brought it into the open with families. I got to use it in a positive way to show our girls that you don't have to cave in to a challenge."

And teens face many, she said.

"Kids these days are up against so much," Barnard said. "It's hard for them to be confident and to carry themselves in certain ways. My players understand that we can talk about any problems and move beyond them. "

Drake (San Anselmo, Calif.) girls soccer coach Rene Ayala, who will also be speaking on the panel, said in this era teaching the fundamentals of sports and how to win simply aren't enough. The layers of issues for kids are growing, and with it are the responsibilities of coaches.

It's a challenge he takes full force.

"As coaches, we have the responsibility to not only teach the game but we have a transcendent cause that goes beyond the sport to what these young people are going to take from this experience that they can use to become better people and make others around them better," he said. "To me, that's explicit, not just a byproduct and not just icing on the cake."

Another panel member, Shepherd Hill Regional (Dudley, Mass.) football coach Chris Lindstrom has definitely experienced the icing of winning. His teams have won the last two Super Bowl titles in Massachusetts.

Lindstrom, a Boston University football Hall of Famer who spent three seasons in the NFL, said more rewarding than the titles his teams won is the fact that his team won three of the last four Central Mass Football Officials Sportsmanship awards.

"We start with ultimate respect for each one of our players as a human being, as a child, and understanding that that's exactly what they are," he said. "My job with 90 percent of them is to build their egos, and with the other 10 percent, maybe you want to trim that ego a little bit. … They need to know how to be a good man, how to be a good father, how to love, how to show emotion. All those things that a lot of people think are contrary to football are football exactly."

NOTES: Among the noteworthy sports figures on the PCA National Advisory Board (alphabetical): Shane Battier, Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Larry Brown, Brandi Chastain, Nadia Comaneci, Herm Edwards, Julie Foudy, Phil Jackson, Tony La Russa, Dean Smith, Ronnie Lott, Summer Sanders, Kerri Strug and Steve Young. ...

Among those PCA members scheduled to attend are Olympic gold medal basketball player Jennifer Azzi, former NFL receiver Willie Gault, Cal women's basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb, Stanford's 17-time NCAA tennis championship coach Dick Gould, Sports psychologist Charlie Maher, Olympic volleyball medalist Kim Oden, Olympic water polo medalist Heather Petri, Santa Clara women's soccer coach Jerry Smith and Olympic water polo medalist Brenda Villa. ...

Former NFL Pro Bowler Joe Ehrmann is being awarded with a lifetime achievement award. ...

Below is an alphabetical list of the 25 winners for the PCA's Double-Goal Coach Award Presented by MaxPreps. Chosen from a record 1,700-plus nominations,18 of the 25 winners were high school coaches.

Rene Ayala
Drake (San Anselmo, Calif.)
Girls Soccer

Venessa Barnard
Grace Academy (Georgetown, Texas)
Volleyball & Alii Volleyball Club

Bob Baxter
Menlo-Atherton (Menlo Park, Calif.)
Little League Baseball

Charles Bell
St. Joseph (Santa Maria, Calif.)
Girls Water Polo & One Way Water Polo Club

Tim Bristol
Briscoe Junior High School (Richmond, Texas)
Football & Track

Steve Campbell
Williams Field (Gilbert, Ariz.)
Football

Quinn Delgado
Crespi (Encino, Calif.)
Boys Water Polo

Karyn Domzalski
Riverside-Brookfield (Riverside, Ill.)
Gymnastics

Paul Eckley
Solid Rock Community (Tarpon Springs, Fla.)
Football

Michelle Hargreaves
Hidden K Stables Pony Club (Pfafftown, N.C.)
Riding

Cecil Hinds
Madison Central (Madison, Miss.)
Boys & Girls Soccer

Matthew Hittenmark
Hyde Leadership (New York) & Harlem RBI
Basketball, Baseball & Softball

Jackie Hlavaty
Highland Park (Dallas)
Girls Soccer

Tiffany Johnson
Bedford Sprint Masters Club (Bedford, Ohio)
Track & Field

Eric Kartheiser
Rochester Royals Prep Club (Rochester, Minn.)
Softball

Deanna Knobloch
Moorestown (N.J.)
Girls Lacrosse

Dawn Lee
Cathedral Catholic (San Diego)
Girls Soccer

Chris Lindstrom
Shepherd Hill Regional (Dudley, Mass.)
Football

Sarah Nelson
Powhatan (Va.)
Girls Field Hockey

Edil Pavon
LaSalle (Miami)
Girls Soccer

Delwyn Showalter
Mt. Ayr (Iowa)
Football

Lisa Sparrow
Overland (Aurora, Colo.) & Achieve Gymnastics
Gymnastics

Sophie Waldron
Terra Linda (San Rafael, Calif.) & Marin Water Polo Club
Water Polo

Daniel Ward
Winters (Calif.)
Football

Ron Woitalewicz
Dakota Ridge (Littleton, Colo.)
Football