Football Standout Delivers Message to HVCHS
Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL defensive linesman, told coaches at Central High School January 19 that they can merely exchange their coaching skills with their students in exchange for wins, or they can use their coaching platform to have a truly “transformative” effect on their teams.
Ehrmann, who was an all-American football player at Syracuse University and in the NFL for 13 years with the Baltimore Colts and Detroit Lions, now runs Coach for America with his wife, Paula Erhmann, a therapist. He speaks at universities, high schools, corporations, the NFL, and other places on the potential role of coaches in athletes’ lives.
“We need to think what is the role of sports in America today, and is it for the health and welfare of children?” asks Ehrmann, who is also an ordained minister and has done extensive work with inner city youth near his home in Baltimore, MD.
Ehrmann says America, in which sports is a kind of “secular religion,” has “lost its way with a win-at-all-costs mentality. It’s no longer about the social and moral development of kids. The kids are just kind of used for the coach’s own personal need” to win.
Ehrmann said coaches could be “transactional”, meaning they just coach kids to win and in return, give kids playing time. Or, they can be “transformative”, in which they use sports to instill “intrinsic values such as citizenship and fairness.” That’s not to say that the NFL veteran doesn’t like winning.
“Winning is a by-product of doing things right,” said Ehrmann.
Ehrmann coaches high school football in Baltimore, and his experiences with the winning team at the Griffin School, which at one point was one of the top high school football team in Maryland, were portrayed in a best-selling book called “Season of Life.” He has also written a book about his coaching theories called “Inside Out Coaching,” and Parade Magazine once called him “the most important coach in America” because of his philosophy.
John McGinley, CHS varsity girls’ soccer coach, said his program already does much of what Ehrmann advocates.
"The coaches in the girls' soccer program always try to balance competition on the playing field with what really matters in life,” said McGinley. “Some of the values we emphasize are friendship, perseverance, and doing what is ‘just and right.’"
“Joe Ehrmann’s presentation highlighted the impact coaches have in developing the full person, not just the athlete,” he said. “We’ll continue to emphasize these characteristics in our program, perhaps as a more formal and structured part of our daily practices and games."
When Ehrmann spoke to CHS students later that day, his topics were masculinity and femininity, and how students should not allow images provided by society to dictate who they are.
“Society tells you to ‘Be A Man’ and disconnect your head from your heart,” said Ehrmann. “It tells women that beauty and body type determines your worth, that you can be authentic and real, or subjugate your true self and be ‘popular’.”
“You must take control of your life and decide what you will stand for and what will you stand against,” said Ehrmann. “If you see someone in the hall being hurt, you have the capacity to change things. If someone is being ostracized, your responsibility is to invite that student to your table. Identify something to dedicate your life to. Leadership like that begins here, in your school..”
“It’s all about relationships,” he told the students. “In the end, you’ll ask, what kind of mother or father, wife or husband, classmate or citizen was I? Those are the important questions in life.”