Interview with September's Community Champion of the Month:
Andrew Munro
Andrew is a wonderfully inspiring coach and extremely humble. He would like to take the time to honor and acknowledge the support he's received:
"I feel I've been very fortunate to have such a dedicated and hard-working staff working with me. It's really unfair for me to be highlighted without mentioning Kirby Fletcher and Jesse Mcgrath. They and a number of coaches and managers definitely need recognition for what they have done for our team and me." - Andrew Munro
How long have you been coaching football?
I've been coaching football for close to 10 years now. Started back in New Brunswick and have been doing it since 2016 here.
Did you ever play football yourself?
Yes. Started young in Peewee and last played Men's league back in New Brunswick.
What are your strategies to building relationships with your players?
Simply getting to know them. Gone are the days where you should coach people the same way. People all respond to different motivations and have varying abilities and needs. I try to take the time and talk with players. Ask them about their interests. I'm also a lot sillier than most would think. I have a pretty stern look on my face but I like finding moments to joke around and laugh with them. Really, it's just taking time to get to know them as person.
Do you do team building exercises to help foster the inclusive and belonging environment that nominees have described?
We didn't take the time to specifically focus on this, no. For lots of reasons, our season started late. We would normally take time during summer training to do this but we had to get players ready for the season. But, having to travel for most of our games, those bus rides offer us a great opportunity to get to know one another and have some laughs. At the end of the day, we try to instill pride in our players. We had a really difficult season last year but I want them to be proud of their accomplishments, no matter how small or insignificant they are. Just because a player isn't scoring a touchdown doesn't mean that they aren't contributing by blocking or running a route that takes a defender away from the ball carrier.
What is your favourite thing about coaching?
Building relationships. I really enjoy seeing people learn to love the sport as well. Football isn't the most popular sport. It's complex. There are 24 different positions on the field through most of the game. There is a place for everyone so I really pride myself on trying to find a place where EVERYONE can succeed on the field. So naturally, seeing someone get better and achieve success on the field is a great feeling that I try to chase every day.
Going in a different direction to allow readers to get to know you better, what is your favourite athlete/sport quote?
I have terrible working memory so I don't really know a lot of famous quotes, but one of my coaches years ago used to tell us, "if you aren't ever failing, you ain't never gonna achieve" and that really sums up my philosophy of coaching and teaching. We all learn far more from our mistakes than we do from perfection.
