Thomas County Central High School’s baseball coach had a home run opportunity when he was selected to give a speech before one of the sport’s prestigious state organizations.
Coach Chad Parkerson was asked to speak during the Georgia Dugout Club’s annual baseball clinic, held during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend at the Crowne Plaza in Atlanta.
“It was a definite surprise, humbling would be a better term, to be asked to speak in front of all the high school and college coaches that are members of the dugout club,” Parkerson said. “I look up to a lot of the guys in the coaching circles all around the state.”
The Georgia Dugout Club, a premier American baseball coaches association, represents some of the state’s most respected college and high school programs. Examples include Georgia Tech and Young Harris on the collegiate level, and Lassiter and Greenbrier on the high school level. It strives to recognize accomplishments by its members and their players.
The main goal of Parkerson’s speech was a “self-reflection” on how coaches do their jobs, specifically regarding how coaches and assistant coaches should work together for the development and overall success of their programs.
“My speech was about the roles of assistant coaches, head coaches, developing leaders on our team and ways to create internal competition in order for players to reach their full potential,” Parkerson said.
To explain, Parkerson said he used the story and leadership of Nehemiah as an example.
“He developed a passion for rebuilding a wall that had not been built in 500 years,” Parkerson said. “He prepared by scouting out the scene and made arrangements for material. He then delegated to the people of the city a task and made them feel important to the overall mission. They took pride in the jobs and completed the impossible in 53 days. The story also dealt with outside distractions in that when a team or group of people is committed to a goal, they must stay the course. It is a great story that not many people know about and I strongly encourage anyone in a leadership position to study it.”
He said developing leadership amongst youths is “a tough topic” because the best players are not always the best leaders. He discussed allowing players to have ownership in a team by giving them opportunities to grow and gain confidence as leaders.
Parkerson ended his speech by sharing some activities done with the TCCHS baseball team “to create internal competition.” This included an exercise called “The Big 3” that puts “pressure on performance during practice,” and “Combined Practices" done in the summer with other programs to show players some of their competition and encourage them to work hard to be successful and improve throughout the year.
Parkerson says he is “passionate about leadership and overcoming adversity in general,” and he wanted to give a potentially different perspective on how coaches run their programs. The chance to speak before the club gave him the chance to share how much coaching means to him and provide positive encouragement to other coaches.
“It gave me a chance to speak from my heart and hopefully challenge coaches to go about their job with pride and purpose,” Parkerson said.