OSAA Unveils 'Beyond the Scoreboard' Coach Certification

The Oregon School Activities Association is now offering its own certification course for new coaches.

As reported by Jerry Ulmer of OSAA Today, "Beyond the Scoreboard" is a two-hour online course that includes voiceovers by state coaches and athletic directors, as well as OSAA staff. Starting last week, first-year coaches have  had the option of taking BTS or the six-hour National Federation of State High School Associations fundamentals of coaching course, which has been used for certification for the past two decades, to fulfill the one-time requirement, Ulmer reported.

“We think it will be a positive,” OSAA executive director Peter Weber said. “It really focuses in on being an interscholastic coach. I feel like it's going to be helpful with that messaging, not Xs and Os, but how coaches prepare, their relationships with kids, and making sure they understand how they're dealing with kids that need that support.”

“We want them to buy into it, as well,” Weber said. “Most of the ADs took the NFHS fundamentals course, and we wanted them to have access to this course, too."

Oregon Athletic Directors Association athletic director of the year Mike Nolan of Ida B. Wells High School in Portland  contributed to the course's voiceovers. He said the course is “definitely something that was needed.”

The OSAA partnered with 3D Institute to develop the course, and offer it free to the state's athletic directors, Ulmer reported. Nolan said that 3D Institute's coaching philosophy – 3D Coaching – is in line with organizations such as Proactive Coaching, InSideOut Coaching and Positive Coaching Alliance.

“NFHS does a really good job keeping up with the current protocols, but the fundamentals course, to be quite honest, needed to be tweaked,” Nolan said, as reported by Ulmer. “This is more meaningful, more intentional. It's got more pieces to it that I think will fit today's coaching philosophy. It's about being more reflective and intentional about their practice, making things inclusive and fun and competitive.”

According to Ulmer's report, the idea for BTS came from Pete Lukich and Tom Bendt, the former athletic directors at Sunset and Aloha, respectively. They approached the OSAA with the idea for the BTS initiative two years ago, promoting it as an operating system for Oregon athletic programs.

“This is kind of the natural evolution of that,” Weber said. “We had some conversations about what that would look like, and this is one of the steps we wanted to take.”

Lukich, who retired this year after 27 years as athletic director at Sunset High School in Portland, is hopeful that the BTS course will encourage coaches to reflect on the scope of their responsibility.

“The NFHS course, while it was good, it was not inspiring,” Lukich said. “This course I do believe is inspiring. And it's shorter. If I put it into one big word, I think it's a catalyst. It's a catalyst for the coach to understand that there's more than just the first dimension of coaching, the Xs and Os, the wins and losses.

“The bottom line is you're coaching holistically and touching the hearts and minds in how you coach.”

Broken into 37 modules, the BTS course includes some of the same material covered by the NFHS course but addresses other subjects such as mental health and sportsmanship.

“It's definitely a separate course,” Weber said. “It's great stuff.”

“It really targets more of a psychology of coaching and reaching kids, grabbing the heart,” Nolan said. “It gives you a structure and a framework, but I think it's more intentional and has more components that can make more sense and be more relatable.”