Phil Huynh
Phil Huynh, coach of Tri-Valley Minor Hockey Association/Tri-Valley Blue Devils--Mite Programs has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted National Double-Goal Coach® Award presented by TeamSnap for his positive impact on youth in sports.
Huynh is one of 50 national recipients of the Double-Goal Coach® award, named for coaches who strive to win while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports. The award includes a $200 prize, a certificate, and mention within the websites and newsletters of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a national non-profit developing Better Athletes, Better People through youth and high school sports. Huynh and the other coach winners will be recognized at PCA’s National Youth Sports Awards Dinner and Benefit Sponsored by Deloitte to be held at Maples Pavilion on Stanford University’s campus in honor of their 20th Anniversary.
“Phil helps his players win on and off the ice,” said Brian Watson, Executive Director of PCA- San Francisco Bay, the local Chapter of Positive Coaching Alliance. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience and serving as a Double-Goal Coach®, David helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”
Huynh has worked to find the right approach for coaching kids at the younger age level and has created four rules for his teams: best effort always, team first, be a great teammate, and sportsmanship. For the “be a great teammate” rule, for example, he shared a drill where one teammate is blindfolded and and the other teammate has to learn effective communication to guide his teammate through the drill. “It’s an opportunity to help them understand when things break down how do we reset, how do we effectively communicate. When mistakes happen people get emotional and get upset with each other. The whole goal of this is to learn to work better together as a team.” The coaches all have a clipboard where they track points for players for showing effective communication, as well as many other skills- some associated with hockey and many associated with life skills.
References shared how Huynh works tirelessly to find the best way to communicate with young players. He has worked to find the best language to use to motivate, engage and encourage players to give their best effort. “There’s no yelling, no intimidation, not ever. He encourages the kids to try skills they are just beginning to learn and gives praise and patient instruction to keep the skills developing. Although he is focused on player development, he never fails to make it fun” Keeping it fun is a monumental part of keeping young kids engaged and coming back to a practice that they come to after a long day at school and Huynh seems to have created the perfect balance.
Huynh has impacted the growth of the sport in the community by offering Learn-to-Play-Hockey classes. He is the coach who is out there on the ice with the players in these classes from young beginners to 15 year olds who have decided they’d like to learn to play the sport. “The growth of the number of kids playing here is greatly affected by these efforts because he is a force out there…pulling little ones around to make them laugh and giving confidence to the older but new players who may be most self-conscious about a new endeavor."