Mike Weiss
Mike Weiss, Cross County/Track & Field Coach at Charlotte Latin School has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted Double-Goal Coach Award presented by TeamSnap for his positive impact on youth athletes.
Weiss 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. All 50 winners are provided two tickets to PCA’s National Youth Sports Awards Dinner and Benefit Sponsored by Deloitte to be held at Maples Pavilion on Stanford University’s Campus April 28th, 2018 to receive recognition of their award.
“Weiss helps athletes win on and off the field,” said Jim Thompson, PCA Founder and CEO and author of nine books on youth sports, including The Power of Double-Goal Coaching. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience and serving as a Double-Goal Coach, Mike helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”
Much like the advice Weiss gives his students in the classroom as a history teacher, the advice he gives his athletes is to be students of the sport. He wants them to “ask questions, seek information, try different strategies, and learn from one another”. Weiss and his staff check in with each of the 65 members of the team at the beginning of the season to ensure each is ready physically, emotionally and mentally. They focus on goals not just about winning, but about improvement, effort and dedication. They encourage their athletes to share whatever is on their mind whether running related or not so that there is a balance between being a teenager and a student-athlete. These conversations don’t end after the first meeting, instead they continue throughout the season. It’s important to Mike that his athletes know he cares about them on a personal level, not just as an athlete.
There is no question that Weiss is good at what he does. As pointed out by the Athletic Director, David Gatoux, Weiss “knows when to support and when to push. He is passionate about the sport of running and has mastered the systematic build up of his athletes to perform their best at the end of the season when it most counts”. He knows how to meet each runner at their own level and propel them forward with encouragement, self-motivation, leadership and perseverance. He is also good at helping turn these teenagers into considerate, kind and mature young adults. Weiss takes time to share with his student-athletes the importance of thinking of others, being aware of your surroundings, and noticing the effort of support staff at the school. He points out the value of details like keeping track of your belongings, picking up after yourself and thanking the bus driver for taking time away from his own family.
Weiss treats the best runner on the team and the newcomer equally. He is known for taking struggling students under his wing and helping them find a purpose in running. One reference shared a story about Weiss offering a soccer player who had been injured and couldn’t play the opportunity to be a manager for the team. He encouraged the boy to slowly walk around the track as his rehab allowed and to begin running when he was able. He knew that having a role to fill would take his mind off the injury and allow him to focus his energy elsewhere. The boy eventually ended up being one of Weiss’s best runners and a leader on the team. It is this concern for the student-athlete as a whole person that sets Weiss apart as Double-Goal Coach®.