My High School basketball coach unexpectedly passed earlier this week and, even though we hadn't seen each other in almost 2 decades, this news reminded me of just how influential coaches are in our lives.

I played basketball at my school from 4th grade all the way through my Senior year. Coach Brown was one of the few coaches on campus who did not also teach a class, so he spent his days in his office connected to our basketball court and roaming the halls of our athletic buildings. As a student who spent almost every minute I wasn't in class in some part of our athletic complex, I saw Coach Brown every single day for 9 years. He was also an assistant coach on our baseball team; needless to say, we spent a lot of time together.

Coach Brown was always demanding as a coach, expecting maximum effort at all times, but he also took the time to get to know his players as people, not just as athletes. To and from practices, we would chat in the hallways about sports, school, or what was happening in the news. To Coach Brown, his players were more than just athletes on his team.

Going to a small private school in Washington, DC - which is a hotbed of legitimate basketball talent - there were many truly incredible teams in our area....and there were many teams like ours.

But rather than build our schedule against weak teams to rack up a bunch of easy wins, which would certainly make him look better as a coach, Coach Brown worked hard to get us games against the best teams in the area (many of which were some of the best High School teams in the country). That's how I can proudly say I’ve been dunked on by 3 guys who ended up in the NBA!

All kidding aside (although it's 100% true I did get dunked on by 3 future NBA players), I have great respect for Coach Brown for choosing to challenge us in those games. Nowadays, when it's all too common to see coaches looking to put their teams in situations where they are guaranteed to win rather than be challenged, Coach Brown was truly ahead of his time.

I didn't start writing this to be a tribute to Coach Brown or to make any grand comments about the state of youth sports (although I think I just did both of those things by force of habit!). Rather, the memories that immediately started flooding back to me when I heard the news of his passing just further cemented my belief that coaches have a lasting impact on young athletes, both positive and negative.

I had tremendous teachers in high school and professors in college, but I never had the same teacher for 9 years, like I had Coach Brown (which was an overwhelming positive experience). I spent more time with some professors than others, but I still didn't spend a fraction of the time with them that I did with the Head Baseball Coach at Brown (and mostly negative experience).

So, as I reflect on what Coach Brown meant to me, let's all us coaches recommit ourselves to being as positive an influence on our players’ lives as possible. You might not realize it now, and they might not either, but at some point down the road, your players will look back on their youth baseball or youth soccer or youth football experience and remember YOU. They'll remember how you treated them. They'll remember the environment you created. They'll remember what you taught them. Let's make sure that their memories are positive ones!

I'll finish with a quote from Coach Brown when asked what advice he would give young coaches:

"Keep everything in perspective. Coaching is much more than just winning and losing a basketball game. Wins are losses are very important but when kids come back 10 years later, they are going to remember far more than wins and losses. They'll remember how you coached, places you went, and things you taught them besides basketball."

RIP Coach!