Читать книгу A Legacy Unrivaled - Boz Bostrom - Страница 9

After spending time with John and also sorting through comments from his former players, it is evident that one of his keys to winning is creating an atmosphere of high expectations. Sometimes he did this with his words, and sometimes he did so with his actions.

In the classroom, without demanding that his students show up early, John set the expectation by arriving early himself and by starting class early. Also, he wanted students to get to know each other, so he held them accountable by calling on them regularly and asking questions about their neighbors. He did not let Luke off the hook when he didn’t know students in the class.

John had high expectations of himself. He wouldn’t just compare his success to that of other Division III coaches; rather, he would compare his win percentage to those of all-time greats like Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes, and Tom Osborne. He arrived at campus before eight o’clock every day. He took blame when a play went wrong due to a coaching mistake. He avoided alcohol, as he wanted to set a good example for his family and his players.

It was the same thing on the football field: he had high expectations for his players and wanted them to have high expectations for their own performance. Jay Conzemius was a senior running back when I was a freshman. While I was putting in time on the scout team, Jay was rushing for seventeen touchdowns and more than 1,200 yards en route to All-American honors.

But it wasn’t always easy for Jay. He recalled a powerful teaching moment during his freshman year. “I made a mental mistake on what seemed like a meaningless play,” he explained. “When the time came to review the play during films the following Monday, John almost skipped over it, and I felt some relief for a second. However, he rewound the tape and replayed my missed blocking assignment for all to see—probably a dozen times. Fortunately, I used the experience to get focused on what I was supposed to do. From this point on, I asked a lot of questions and tried to anticipate potential problems. I tried to be perfect in practice and games after this misstep. Fortunately, my hard work paid off and I was able to gain the trust of John.”

Mark Smith was an Academic All-American defensive back in 1995 and had this to say about John’s high expectations: “He was able to capture the true meaning behind playing sports and used football as a vehicle that guided so many young men into being successful husbands, fathers, and ‘professionals’ in the truest sense of the word. He demanded excellence through setting the bar high and convinced all those who played that excellence was the only option. His expectations of nothing short of perfection stand out to me.”

John’s high expectations were evident in how he handled himself during games. He remained stoic—even when the team was playing very well. Looking at his facial expression, it would be tough to know if the team was in a dogfight or up by fifty points. He expected success, so when it happened, he was not surprised. As Mark said, “He also is a master at making what would be exceptional to most teams as being ordinary everyday occurrences. I can remember him guiding young players to harness their enthusiasm after big plays so that they could make more big plays. A one-handed catch, a big hit, and a touchdown were all plays that you should make. There was nothing special about it.”

John’s teams played consistent football and continued to perform at a high level even when they were far ahead. It was very rare that an opponent could mount a comeback once Saint John’s took a commanding lead. John Laliberte was a running back on the 1974 team and after graduating devoted his career to the South Saint Paul public schools as a teacher, coach, dean, and principal. He recalled that during his junior year, the Johnnies once took a 35–0 lead into halftime. “The team had played well, and we were pumped up going into the locker room. As the offense gathered we expected John to congratulate us on a great first half and tell us to continue to do what we were doing. However, John came in and asked the question, ‘Now, what problems are we having on offense?’

“We were taken aback a bit and there was a pause. For me, it was classic Gagliardi to come in with that question and get us to focus on the second half of the game. With that question, he was attempting to get us to strive for even more. It was not a perfect first half, and he wanted us to perform better in the second half than in the first. It was something I never forgot in my thirty-three years as an educator and coach of three sports.”

Part of having high expectations is communicating those expectations to others, sometimes quite directly. Rick Bell said that the Monday afternoon film sessions could be very difficult. “John was tough on mistakes made by the players,” Rick recalled, “as the team that made the fewest mistakes would often win the game. John’s tough attitude caused players to work hard to not make mistakes.”

Rick earned John’s trust early in his career and became an All-American running back in 1982, rushing for fourteen touchdowns and nearly 1,000 yards. After wrapping up his career at Saint John’s, Rick played for the Minnesota Vikings for a season, a rarity for a Division III football player.

Part of the reason for John’s success was that he had high expectations not just for his starters and star players, but for everyone who put on a Saint John’s jersey. As a result, the second teamers worked hard so that when they finally got an opportunity to become starters, they were prepared. John periodically would be criticized in the media for “running up the score” in a game, when in reality it was just the players executing his game plan. In the first game of my senior year, I was a second-string offensive guard. We were leading our opponent 47–0, and in an effort to not embarrass the other team, John told our quarterback that he could choose from four very simple running plays. We executed them perfectly and scored another touchdown anyway, winning the game 54–0. We did so because we were trained to perform at our best whenever we entered the game and because we knew that any mistakes would be pointed out on films and could cost us playing time in future games.

John diagrams a play as All-American running back Rick Bell looks on, circa 1982. Saint John’s University

Mark Laswell was a scout team halfback for Saint John’s in the early 1980s. He recalls a game in which Saint John’s went ahead by a large margin, and John cleared the benches. The quarterbacks were allowed to call their own plays, and, it turned out, the plays they called were largely ineffective. “At films on Monday, John stopped the projector, confused by what plays we were running that he was seeing on film. They clearly weren’t working, nor were they part of the game plan. I can still hear his words clearly, ‘What game were you watching? How do you think we got the 70–0 lead? What plays were you guys running? If you find a play that works, don’t look for one that doesn’t.’”

Key to Winning #1: Through his actions and words, John fostered an atmosphere of very high expectations. Any result short of excellence was analyzed and changes were made as needed.