The Track & Field and Cross Country Coach's Blueprint for Building a Championship Culture

Matt Pries possesses a unique perspective of coaching successful varsity sports at two different high schools simultaneously. Serving as the head boy’s varsity cross country coach at one school and as an assistant coach on a state champion girl’s track and field team at another high school, the 2021 USA Today High School ‘Coach of the Year’ shares his experience and real-world knowledge on what it takes to build and maintain a consistent, winning athletic culture, in this motivating and highly valuable instructional video.

Program Culture

Pries explains through several entertaining and interesting stories, personal experiences and anecdotes on how he has come to craft his definition of program culture and how it must be viewed through a separate lens other than success on the field. 

A successful program, according to Pries, is judged based on what your athletes take with them in terms of personal values and life skills, rather than athletic championships. Pries dives deep into critical points of emphasis for building a positive athletic culture, including…

• Proven methods and strategies for getting talented players to buy into your vision.
• Why it is important to develop a mission statement as a head coach.
• Learning and teaching the concept of becoming a ‘servant leader’ and how different student athletes respond to this type of coaching philosophy.

Relationship Building

Pries explains the inside details on the importance of building relationships with your athletes and how it relates directly to your approach to coaching. 

Using several stories and quotes from other successful coaches, Pries describes how the most important responsibility a coach has – stems from building relationships with athletes. It’s through these lessons that viewers learn…

• The best ways to use authority to instill a positive climate in your program.
• The importance of breaking up cliques and doing away with negative concepts such as seniority, and why doing so, is important to the long-term goals of building a winning athletic culture in your program.
• The secrets to getting athletes to feel more engaged and vested in your program.

This instructional video is a great addition to any coach’s library.  Coach Pries’ message on building a winning athletic culture and the steps you need to take to cultivate long-term success within your own program is riveting, inspirational and applicable to coaches in any sport!

The information provided will put you on a path toward creating lasting, positive change in your own athletic program and allow you to build a championship culture based on tried and true methods that stand the test of time.

58 minutes, 2022