The center court logo for the 2024 NCAA Men's Final Four basketball tournament in Phoenix.

“Schools need to be so much more like sports. In sports, there’s a game and it’s in front of an audience. WE RUN SCHOOL LIKE IT IS A NON-STOP PRACTICE. YOU NEVER GET A GAME. Nobody would go out for the basketball team if you never had a game. What is the game for students?”

~ Jeff Gilbert, from The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath

When both my alma mater, Purdue, and my (former hometown) team, UCONN, made it to the men’s Final Four in Phoenix, well, it was a ‘no-brainer’ for me that I would attend. A long time fan and lover of all things Madness, I knew this was a moment not to be missed. What was not front of mind was the experience that this would be for my 8-year-old daughter. We had just finished up her basketball season a few weeks ago. I was coaching eight second graders, experiencing the joy of sharing my love for the game of basketball. The game was becoming familiar to my daughter. She could talk some of the lingo, was beginning to understand the rules. And most importantly, she was experiencing the joys of belonging to a team, to something bigger than her. Yet, when she found herself in a sea of 74,000 people also cheering on their teams, celebrating the love of the game, I could sense the shift – in her eyes, her smile, her disbelief for what was possible. I was reminded again of Chip and Dan Heath’s book, The Power of Moments… “

Defining moments rewire our understanding of ourselves or the world. In a few seconds or minutes, we realize something that might influence our life for decades.

I know this is one of those moments for her.

Knowing all of this, HOW do we make our schools more like sports?

I love pondering this question and reflecting with colleagues. What can we create? For our kids, our teachers, our staff… One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s not just about our students and their experience in schools.

It’s also about our framework for teaching vs. coaching – which is on-going, development, mentoring, sharing and witnessing of ALL of the journey.

Certainly, our structures for professional development, growth, and evolution are a work in progress in our schools.   But what I know, from both being coached and coaching others, is that it is the on-going relationship that serves as the bedrock for transformation. It’s the experience itself, built on trust, that allows the shifts.

Yesterday, when I finished up our18 months of work in coaching staff with mind-body integration tools, I asked them to complete the survey so we could assess some of the impacts.

When prompted to answer how their thinking and beliefs had changed during this time, this is what came back…

These shifts don’t happen overnight. The brain is neuroplastic, yes, but creating new neural pathways takes time. It takes repetition. It takes un-learning. It takes support.

I left the room teary-eyed imagining what it would be like if we all had the opportunity to be coached out of our “I can’t” pathway, and right into our “I can” pathway.

There everything is possible. There are no limits.

So, I’m beyond excited to see what this staff creates for their students and for themselves, for the biggest take-away that came up again and again yesterday was that yes, we are in fact, CREATORS.

The world we seek is the world we must build. We do it 1:1, we do it in small groups and large groups, we do it with our families, we do it by listening, we do it by crying, we do it by making mistakes. We do it all with awareness and in the process find the freedom and peace we were seeking all along. Especially when we do it together.

When you’re ready to lead the charge in your school or district to building Mind-Body Literacy, to creating belonging, to up-leveling mindsets that build possibility and resilience, don’t hesitate. Trust yourself. (Self-doubt is one of the biggest stressors of our time, so know that, and lean in!)

A room full of “I can’s” is more powerful than a new program or curriculum. Every time.

Just like we update our computer software, our mindsets need some updating too. And when they are, this conversation about how we make schools more like sports… well, that just becomes fun and inspiring.

To the power of sport, play, and games in our lives,