A few years ago Coach Chick Childress, the legendary coach from Ruston High School in Ruston, Louisiana shared this story with me. He said that it was spring and the college coaches were making their rounds. He had a coach from a major university come by to inquire about an athlete.

One of his first questions was, "Coach, what is his forty yard dash time?" To which Coach Childress replied, "I don't know."

The startled coach did not know what to say, but responded with another question, still baffled by Coach Chick's answer. "Coach, you don't time your players in the forty yard dash?" To which Coach Chick replied. "No. Why should I?"

The coach with quite a puzzled look thought for a few seconds and then said, "Coach, I don't know." When you get around great coaches, you will always discover that they measure their athletes with a different instrument.

Every year while I was in the coaching profession, I would visit with Coach Childress after the season. I wanted him to teach me how and why he did things the way that he did. I would have my own private and personal coaching clinic. I also had sessions with two other legends: Bill Ruple and Charlie Brown. Both of them were former head coaches at Neville High School in Monroe, Louisiana.

I was a fortunate young man. Not only was I able to learn from them while playing for them in high school, but the learning process continued throughout my coaching career. If I had not been a fairly decent coach, I would have definitely been considered a slow learner. All I knew was what they had taught me. And as the television ad says, "It was priceless."

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