John Balizan believes that coaching is difficult in multiple ways. Many assume that coaching is simply teaching kids how to play a sport. However, coach Balizan stated there is much more to coaching than teaching a sport. Coach Balizan stated ‘As a coach, you should help an individual grow emotionally and physically, achieve their goals, and reach their full potential. You must build meaningful relationships that contain trust and connection. You must create positive change in a person’s life. We do not know what an individual goes through at home. Sometimes, people play a sport to escape life. Building positive change and making them want to be at practice and around their coach is a valuable aspect of coaching.’ Coach Balizan takes an interest in coaching for multiple reasons. He explained that he had played football and he could not just walk away from it all.
Coaching to him is a way to still be a part of the game he loves. Another reason he got into coaching is the same reason he teaches, he loves working with young students. He likes watching them excel in what he teaches and coaches. He feels that it is heartwarming to be able to be someone that students and athletes look up to. He feels that become a coach and teacher is a calling. Balizan has a tough love coaching style. He uses tough love because he knows his athletes’ full potential and he feels the need to help them see it too. He displays his love for the game of football in how he coaches. “I want my athletes to go out and be the best they could be on any Friday night regardless of the opponent in front of us.” John says. He ends every practice telling his group he loves them.
John keeps his athletes motivated by preaching how to act in the classroom, he says the classroom because he believes that if you do not act right in the classroom, then you do not deserve to play or see the field. He says that athletes become complacent when they think they are better than others. Reminding his athletes that there are others out there that work harder than them keeps them humble and motivated. As a coach he has faced plenty of challenges, such as a death of a player, losing a player on game day due to their behavior in school, and having to change the approach to other players so they could better understand. His main challenge as a coach is having to determine which coaching method works best for different players. For John, being a Varsity assistant coach, he has not had many difficult decisions put down on him. However, he has had to be a part of putting his input in for difficult decisions. For example, benching a player or choosing a starter.
A pivotal moment in his career comes when the players finally come to a point when they understand and do what is taught to rise them up to a higher level. John says “I as a coach have had my own moments, however, the moments are never about me. The moments that I live for are seeing the athletes do what they are taught and taking them to a higher level of play”. John attends college at New Mexico Highlands University. In five years, he still sees himself doing what he loves, coaching.
