Volume 25, Issue 34 | May 5, 2026

Reflecting Back, Thinking Forward

With the end of the school year fast approaching, this marks the final Champion Note of the 2025-2026 year. The summer reprieve from classes offers an excellent opportunity for coaches, parents and athletes to look back on the past year and make plans for the future. What goals did you set and how did those progress? What do you want to accomplish in the coming year? In this note, we'll offer some questions to help guide your reflection.

*For Catholic/Christian coaches, parents, and athletes, it's important to take these questions to prayer. Ask God to help you examine the past year and discern His will for the year ahead.

For coaches, it's important to evaluate past seasons in both a personal and team context. Talking to players, fellow coaches, and administrators, and revisiting your season goals are important steps in the process of concluding one season and beginning to prepare for the next, but it's also crucial that you look internally. Summer is a great time to unplug and think about the balance in your own life. At its core, coaching is a ministry - a role built on service and relationships. We cannot serve our athletes well unless we have balance in our own lives. Ask yourself the following questions: 

• How did your coaching this past year impact your own family and your relationships at home? 
• What was one thing you did during the year to nourish your personal well-being? 
• How did you handle the stress that comes with coaching? 

Then look forward. Consider what you want to do differently next year, set goals, and make a plan. We recommend writing these down and keeping them somewhere where you can review them when things get busy once again.

For sports parents, this self-evaluation can be similar to that of a coach. Think about your family as a team. How did your child(ren)'s activities impact the family? 

• In the midst of driving to practices or attending games, did your family spend the time together that you all desired? 
• How often did you sit down for a family meal? 
• Did hectic sports schedules cause anxiety and stress, or did your family strike the right balance between work, play and valuable family time? 

Talk to your family about what worked and what didn't work; remember that as wonderful as the youth sports experience is, we must maintain a balance for sports to be truly beneficial to everyone. Determine what went well and consider the things you want to change, then make a plan for how you want to approach the next year.

For youth and high school athletes, summer often finds you with more time on your hands. This lack of structure can be both a blessing and a challenge. Athletes can benefit from looking back on the past year to consider what they enjoyed (or didn't) and where they excelled (or didn't perform as they wished). While we encourage athletes of all ages to make time to relax and unwind from the rigors of the academic and athletic year, we also implore everyone to KEEP MOVING! Summer can be a season that is fun while also rewarding; the extra time an opportunity to improve skills and engage in unstructured play with friends. For some young athletes, coaches will have provided recommended drills or activities that can be done on your own. Many will have an opportunity to attend clinics or camps put on by local coaches or schools and high school athletes are often encouraged to participate in "voluntary" workouts. Remember that GROWth doesn't take a summer vacation! Take advantage of these summer months to GROW: 

• Set new Goals for the year ahead
• Build Relationships 
• Take Ownership of your experience and 
• Remember why you play the games you love. This will create a Winning summer.

Whether you're a coach, parent or athlete, summer can be a rewarding time to relax, reflect and plan for the future. Take time to re-charge, but don't let this time go to waste. However you spend the next few months, we hope summer brings you joy and many blessings. Play Like a Champion's Weekly Champion Notes will return in late August with the new school year!

"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." ~ Romans 12:2

Join Us This Summer at Notre Dame!

There's still time to register for the 2026 Play Like a Champion Today Sports Leadership Conference, June 10-12th at the University of Notre Dame! Join former NBA All-Star Roy Hibbert and a tremendous lineup of speakers for 3 days of engaging discussion, education and fun! This year's conference theme is Building Community, promising inspiration as we work together to build our communities and develop the next generation of leaders in youth and high school sports. Check out the preliminary conference schedule here and click the link below to learn more and register today!

A Prayer for Teams

The fruit of silence is prayer.

The fruit of prayer is faith.

The fruit of faith is love.

The fruit of love is service.

The fruit of service is peace.

Dear Lord, help us as a team to pray together so that we grow in our faith as we learn to love and serve each other on our team to feel your peace in our hearts and in our lives. Amen.

The above quote/prayer is from Saint Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Theresa.