YOUTH SPORTS: Politics and sport

The political theme of the 2000 election found the media casting Al Gore as a really smart man and George Bush as an academically challenged frat boy.

It is no coincidence that the big time media has presented similar views of Republican candidates over the past 50 years. It smells like the politics of personal destruction to me and has been quite effective when the media is on your team.

Be that as it may, the media then started sniping at President-Elect Bush for naming so many bright people to his cabinet and support staff. They then said that he needed these people in order to prop up himself.

Let us shift this situation promoted by the media over to the sporting arena. One of the guiding principles of football and other sports is to build your staff with good people. When head coaches and department heads rely on people from the lower end of the talent scale, the top dogs doom themselves to mediocrity.

These lower level, slow thinking, low performing, agreeable, yes-people will do little to elevate the performance of the team, staff or department.

In fact, they will drag down the program.

George Bush is operating by the book. That is, for emphasis, he is surrounding himself with good people. Do that as a head coach or department head and you will improve your opportunities to be successful.

This approach to management can be verified, in part, by tracking from where the assistant coaches who have moved on to become head coaches originated. They are marks of excellence.

Jack Hutslar is the founder of www.NAYSI.com