LM Aug.2018

percent. The number of athletes she coached who became coaches is also something she’s proud of. For Enquist keeping that consistent adrenalin flowing was paramount in order to stay on top of the game and successfully win championships. During her session at the IASA Conference she will be offering advice to superintendents on how they can build on their own achievements. “As a school administrator, what is the technical expertise you need in your office and in your school? Be a hornet about those technical processes,” said Enquist. “All the little things are connected to the big things. It shows in the environment if you are paying attention or not.” She advises not to let the little things slip. Enquist always sweated the little things because she knew if she placed the little things at a high level that the big things would take care of themselves—resulting in the championship or having your school district win awards for academic achievement. Competitive excellence means to go out every day to compete to do your best as your best will always be good enough, she adds. “Coaches want to win all the time

language of a champion lies in the consistency of holding strong when it gets hard and celebrating everyone’s successes. Superintendents are in high throttle from August to June. It’s not about peaking at one point, but rather a slow deliberate uphill climb to encouraging student success. For superintendents if they can leave the office every day saying, ‘you know, I gave everything I had today,’ that is an achievement, Enquist believes. After 27 years of coaching, Enquist became really interested in seeing how she could build a pillar foundation at the youth level. “I really felt amateur sports was missing important character and technical pillars for softball families,” Enquist said. To help develop leadership for players, coaches and parents, she worked to found ONE Softball Inc., LLC, an online digital network serving families. The online community is also now identifying resources and developing free content for parents and coaches and

• Winningest NCAA Division I Softball Coach, attained 11 National Championships • Former All-American and USA World Champion and Founder/CEO of ONE Softball LLC • Retired in 2006 as UCLA Head Coach, after 36 years as UCLA student, coach and administrator • She sits in six Hall of Fames as a player or coach including: UCLA Hall of Fame, USA Softball Hall of Fame, National Fast Pitch Coaches Association and International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. • Former USA World Champion and Pan Am Gold Medalist as a player

but sometimes we have to do things that are not going to win in the short term but are going to win in the long term,” Enquist says. Enquist encourages superintendents to understand how to build a championship culture within their district environment, whether that is in their executive offices, schools or teachers. “There is a common vernacular of championship culture that is shared at all levels,” she says. “The leaders must understand what he or she stands for and articulate that day to day and hold people accountable on good days and bad days.” She states it doesn’t matter if you are in a big district or small district, in charge of 10 or 100 people, the common

student athletes to help tackle mental health, perfectionism and wellness issues. She feels this is her gift back to the sport of softball. “Amateur sports can be a great foundation for teaching values to help support what families are doing on a day to day basis,” she said. “The Onesoftball.com website has over 600 videos from our best in the game talking about how to get to college and how to technically improve and how to teach character in a very specific way, such as how you think and speak and act. We want to create a more fun environment at practice.” To learn more about Sue Enquist go to: www.sueenquist.com or www.onesoftball.com .

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