Large Rural winner:
Jennings County High School
North Vernon, Indiana
As Jennings County High School searched for a new athletic director in 2019, Principal Dustin Roller decided his next hire needed to better evaluate coaches. A rumor had circulated that some school board members wanted to require all coaches from the North Vernon, Indiana school win at least 60% of their games for their contract to be renewed.
Roller researched the school’s history since 1968 and found only one coach would have reached that benchmark. Historically, the school wins about half of its games in most sports – the football team only wins 27%, with just one winning season since 1998 – and cycles through up and down seasons. Last season, the boys basketball team won 52% of its games while the girls won 70%, including two playoff games. Multiyear contracts are provided to coaches in football, boys basketball and girls basketball – a mix of full-time teachers and outside employees paid to coach; all other coaches are renewed annually.
Basketball dominates the sports culture of Indiana, whose coaching icons over the generations have shaped national ideas about what’s right about coaching (John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success) and what’s wrong with it (Bob Knight’s tirades while worshiped by fans). Roller worried that a minimum winning percentage would incent coaches to prioritize game results over youth development.
“Don’t get me wrong: I’m as competitive as they come,” he says. “But I also want our coaches to know that in high school athletics, it’s bigger than wins and losses. I want kids to leave here with the lessons learned in athletics that make them better teachers, doctors, managers, employees, father and mothers.”
The measures that school administrators put in place to encourage that type of coaching is a model for other schools that seek the same outcomes. For its courage and leadership, Jennings County is recognized as the Aspen Institute’s Project Play winner in the Large Rural Schools category of our Reimagining School Sports initiative.
Prior to 2019, Jennings County’s evaluation process of coaches involved a written narrative by the athletic director that lacked consistency or any real standards on what was being reviewed. The coach signed the form and usually had one brief discussion with the AD. One Jennings County coach laughs now at how basic the process used to be.
The school board never adopted a policy attaching winning to coaching success. But the rumor led Jennings County to something more valuable: The hiring of Athletic Director Cory Stevens, who brought a more comprehensive process to evaluating coaches while, theoretically, taking wins and losses out of the equation.
The two-page document Stevens now uses is called the Deserve to Win Grid (read the entire document here). It covers 28 areas in which Jennings County coaches are evaluated, including: creating a safe environment, increasing sports opportunities for younger children, providing academic opportunities for athletes beyond maintaining playing eligibility, understanding racial and gender discrimination, and demonstrating interpersonal relationships with athletes, parents, coworkers, and administrators.
“I really like the idea of focusing on the process and not necessarily the results while giving coaches exactly what they are being measured on,” Stevens says.
So did girls basketball coach Kristi Sigler, a former All-Big Ten player at Indiana University. “I had never seen anything like it before,” she says. “It really made me step back and think, ‘Where is our program on all of this? Do we do something worse than we should? Where will we be in the future?’ I like it. It holds you accountable.”
There’s room to improve Jennings County’s approach. While its Deserve to Win Grid identifies many well-recognized dimensions of positive youth development, the framework could be improved to address the art and science of coaching, says Vincent Minjares, who has a Phd in coaching and pedagogy and studies coaching models in the U.S. and New Zealand. If society truly wants coaches to be viewed as teachers, Minjares says, the learning experience of a sport should be part of evaluating coaches by asking questions like these:
- How does the coach define success?
- Does the coach create a sense of belonging where each player has a meaningful role?
- Does the coach empower players by providing opportunities for independent decision-making and athlete ownership?
- Does the coach emphasize play as the primary learning tool?
- Does the coach ask questions that encourage the players to find answers themselves?
- Does the coach use process-focused praise?
- Does the coach design learning games, with multiple possible solutions, to develop problem solving?
School officials say their approach can be modeled by other schools if they commit to two features: Embrace a more professionalized approach to coaching – don’t just throw ideas against the wall and hope something sticks – and recognize that each athlete is a unique person. Roller, a former football coach until 2016, says he cringes now at how he used to coach.
“I was replicating the way I had been coached, and you have to get rid of the one-size-fits-all Bear Bryant approach of either kids quit or they get better,” he says. “Some kids need your confidence until they can form it themselves.”
That’s easier said than done In Indiana. “Our basketball coaches are very talented, and as a whole, they still have a little Bob Knight influence on the game with their combustible attitude at times,” says Paul Neidig, commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association.
The school’s community of North Vernon (population 6,700) is an economically distressed area dotted with basketball hoops outside houses. Before the pandemic, 6,000 fans could pack into the high school gym for big games. Even though fifth-year Jennings County boys basketball coach Josh Lands believes his AD does not evaluate him based on his record, he says, “I get evaluated by the rest of the community. Their criticisms may solely be based on wins and losses and the stuff said at the dinner table. That’s important to me too. But I believe coaches that win do all those other little things and winning will take care of itself.”
Stevens, the new AD, came from the Chicago suburbs, where he previously handled major gifts and sponsorships at a college. He was used to metrics defining success. Roller was looking for someone who does not necessarily always see the world as he does.
“It’s been so valuable to us in a rural community bringing a different view to hear what Cory saw in the suburbs,” Roller says.
Listening is also the value of the Deserve to Win Grid because it serves as a jumping-off point for conversations. Stevens talks with his coaches in the preseason, using the grid as a planning guide. Conversations continue organically throughout the season. After the season, Stevens and the coach each complete the form, including sections to write in details about the coach’s strengths and opportunities for growth. Then they meet to discuss the evaluation.
Coaches are evaluated in each area by a four-point scale: not acceptable (1), needs improvement (2), meets the expectation (3), and exceeds the expectation (4). Stevens does not calculate the data, adding that’s “a great next step” to better define what the scores mean. The data have not been used as a tool to provide raises – something that some coaches say they wouldn’t mind seeing.
“If you’re getting 2s and 1s in multiple areas, there needs to be a real conversation on what your role is moving forward in our athletic department,” Stevens says. “I’m getting ready to have one of those conversations (with a coach) very soon.”
The process can be time-consuming, but Stevens believes it’s worth it. Some coaches, for example, realized through the new process that they never reach out to alumni – a valuable resource in rural communities. Alumni can help mentor students and fundraise for the program.
Sigler, the girls basketball coach, learned she could communicate better to players and parents about playing time and roles after nearly having a sophomore player quit. “Girls compare themselves to others, and if they don’t see themselves being a true contributor or hear that from their friends or parents, they step away,” she says. “I wasn’t communicating well enough with her on where she fit.” The girl stayed on the team and was honored as a senior at the awards banquet.
Brantley Wathen, a senior track and field athlete and cheerleader, says she appreciates that Jennings County coaches are now evaluated by helping players become better people. “My coaches can see that our parents are hard on us, and (the coaches) tell us you’re not running against other teams, you’re running against yourself to get better,” she says. “They never yell. They’re always calm with us. They don’t treat us like we’re below them. They make us feel we’re all on the same playing field.”
Creating that safe space is important, given the Aspen Institute national survey showing that 18% of female students and 12% of male students in rural public schools say they don’t play sports because “I don’t feel welcome.” Both figures are above the national averages for all schools (14% and 10%, respectively).
Rural students are twice as likely as suburban students to say they don’t feel safe playing sports because of their gender identity or sexual preference.
At Jennings County, Roller learned this three years ago when two incoming students who are transgender expressed concern about physical education classes upon entering the school. Roller says he was – and probably still is – “really ignorant” about challenges facing transgender youth. He says he told the students and their families: Help teach me, be honest about your feelings, and provide me some grace if I mess up. Roller discovered the students felt uncomfortable that Jennings County had separate PE classes for boys and girls – an unusual practice for any school these days. He says it’s not clear why the school split PE.
“That’s just the way it’s always been – which is something you hear in our community a lot,” Roller says. “In rural, conservative communities, sometimes you say, if it’s not broken, why fix it? Well, sometimes it can be better for everybody.”
As a result of the conversations, Jennings County has piloted coed PE for several classes without any problems and the change resulted in fewer discipline issues than the split-gender classes, Roller says. Next year, every PE class will be coed.
By intentionally leaving its comfort zone, Jennings County serves as a model for others to prioritize development over winning at all costs in high school sports.
“As a society, we’re always so shocked when we hear about coach abuse or cheating,” Roller says. “But we create that as administrators, fans and boosters based off our expectations. If you tell me it only matters if I win or lose, I’m going to do everything I can to win. That’s a natural, human element.”
Jennings County is now banking on the opposite to be true: Don’t judge coaches based on game results, and maybe they will naturally produce more well-rounded people who become athletes for life. That’s a win worth chasing.
Strategies that Jennings County High School uses that stood out as exemplary to the Aspen Institute and Project Play’s Reimagining School Sports Advisory Committee:
Partner with elementary schools
Jennings County is hiring the community’s first elementary school athletic director, thanks to a partnership with the NFL’s Fuel Up to Play 60 that will teach elementary students about healthy life choices, including physical activity and nutrition. High school athletes will help teach the younger students.
Expand the leadership roles of athletes
That’s what Jennings County does through its Student-Athlete Leadership Team (one athlete per team), which focuses on six areas: blending Unified sports into the school culture, improving event attendance, rewriting the athletic code on behavioral rules and punishments, motivating athletes to play sports all year, representation on local committees and boards, and mentoring younger athletes.
Require in-person PE for freshmen
Jennings County is one of the last schools in Indiana that mandates in-person PE for freshman. Roller says many schools try to get around that as a cost-cutting measure by offering summer online classes or credit from sports or band participation. Physical activity offers a valuable release during the school day.