Katie Schlosser
Katie Schlosser, Head Women’s Field Hockey Coach at Brookfield Academy has won Positive Coaching Alliance coveted Double-Goal Coach Award presented by TeamSnap for her positive impact on youth sports.
Schlosser 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.
Schlosser has also been selected as one of four of the 50 coaches to win an all expenses paid trip to Palo Alto for the event. She’ll join the other 3 winners on stage in a panel discussion at the event. In addition, a video crew will visit Schlosser in Brookfield to capture her during a practice with her team and the video will be shown at the National Youth Sports Awards Dinner & Benefit as a shining example of what it means to be a Double-Goal Coach®.
“Coach Schlosser 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, Katie helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”
As an English teacher in addition to a coach, Schlosser has learned the power of words in coaching. She credits PCA’s 5:1 ratio of providing five positive comments to every 1 piece of constructive feedback, to changing her approach to coaching. “I hadn’t fully acknowledged my old school mentality to coaching. I thought I was positive and connected with the kids, but then realized how I was coached and how it worked for me... my own playing career was limited by critical coaching. I thought surely I could do better. I learned to compliment in the moment after realizing that I would often think positive things but not say them”, she said. Giving real, constructive positive feedback opened doors for her and the team.
Her players love playing for her because she has developed a culture of trust. They play without fear of making a mistake and welcome the moment where a player finally masters something new after much time spent trying and failing. Schlosser is a tremendously enthusiastic person whose body language and exclamations drive a culture of celebration when the hard skill is mastered. The find joy in all celebrating one member of the team together.
Schlosser is big on building camaraderie between the JV and varsity teams. She creates “teams” with members from each squad to compete and earn points for things such as effort, being on time, school work, great plays, etc. They can earn or lose points and work together to become the winning “team” encouraging each other to complete school work, get to practice on time, and work harder for each other. The motivation to do well in this “team” event, even if they aren’t the best player on the field, gives those who might not play a lot a sense of accomplishment within the team.
A big believer in the legacy of the program and mental preparation, Schlosser often takes the team on a tour of the gymnasium to look at the championship banners. She asks the girls to take quiet time to reflect on the achievements represented in the banners and to think of the effort, dedication, tradition and hard work that went into the accomplishments represented there. This preparation for two state championship games was a piece of the puzzle that helped get the team in the right frame of mind to become champions. It made a lasting impression on the girls even after they moved on from school.