The Journey | Mentor & Coach
My guest today is coach Mike Kelly! He’s had a successful career that has spanned from the small college level to the professional ranks. Mike has been the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Valdosta State Blazers, and the Widener Pride. In this episode, he discusses his path through the coaching ranks and gives you various insights into lessons he has learned and what the game of football has meant to him.
The Manny Matsakis Show
Coaching according to Mike Kelly: Any good coach in any sport is a teacher. And I’ve always defined coaching as teaching, and the male side of it with a good dose of testosterone and enthusiasm.
Comparing Levels of Football: That was the only job I ever wanted. (Winnipeg Blue Bombers) Even when I was with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Redskins, I know a lot of guys won’t understand that they think the NFL is nirvana. I didn’t feel that way about the NFL. That wasn’t my experience in the NFL. I thought there was a lot of fluff in the NFL. There are a lot of guys just trying to protect themselves and keep their jobs so they can keep getting those kinds of paychecks. The purest that I ever felt in coaching was in the CFL.
Insight prior to taking a coaching position: Before accepting a job, find out what support system is there for your program. Do you have an athletic director that really wants football to be the bell cow of the program? All right. And if you can’t get those answers that you want, it’s probably not a job that you need to have. Because, you know, these guys take these jobs, and they have no auxiliary help. And they have no chance of ever really building what they want to build. Because you’re fighting against yourself, eventually, you got people around you that aren’t going to let you do what you really want to do and what you need to accomplish.
