Shawn Murphy🍀

See a parent sitting quietly at a game? Often, that’s the one who gets it. No complaining. No criticizing coaches. No yelling at refs. No drama. Just watching their kid compete. Youth sports need more parents like those. Be part of the solution.

The hardest coaching job isn’t the X’s and O’s. It’s getting 15 people to believe in something bigger than themselves.

Districts have a real problem…special ed teacher and para shortages make it nearly impossible to guarantee 100% of IEP services are provided. Have IEPs gone too far?

Choose people wisely. 🙌

On a freezing December morning in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was reviewing budget proposals when his secretary nervously informed him that a 73-year-old woman named Mrs. Eleanor Mitchell from Abilene, Kansas—his childhood Sunday school teacher—was in the White House lobby asking to see him without an appointment, and instead of having staff politely redirect her, Eisenhower literally ran down the hallway, swept this elderly woman into a huge bear hug, and cleared his entire afternoon to have tea with her in the residence. What makes this moment so breathtakingly beautiful is that Mrs. Mitchell had taught a scrappy young Dwight Eisenhower Bible verses every Sunday from 1907 to 1911 in a tiny church basement, making him memorize Proverbs and Psalms when he'd rather be playing baseball, and she'd written him letters throughout his military career—through both world conflicts, through his rise to Supreme Commander, through his election—always addressing him simply as 'Dwight' and reminding him that 'character matters more than rank.' Eisenhower told his staff that Mrs. Mitchell once made him apologize to the entire Sunday school class for being prideful after he'd bragged about winning a spelling bee, teaching him a humility lesson that shaped his entire leadership philosophy, and he'd never forgotten how she'd pulled him aside afterward and said, 'Dwight, you're going to do important things someday, but never let success make you forget where you came from or who helped you along the way.' During their White House tea, Eisenhower introduced Mrs. Mitchell to every cabinet member who passed by, saying with genuine reverence, 'This woman taught me everything that matters—respect this lady,' and she gently scolded him for not attending church regularly enough, which made the most powerful man in the world laugh and promise to do better. When Mrs. Mitchell left that evening, Eisenhower walked her personally to her taxi, kissed her cheek, and pressed an envelope into her hand containing a check for her church and a note: 'For the place that built my foundation—thank you for seeing potential in a troublemaker farm boy. Your student always, Dwight.' What absolutely destroys you is understanding that Eisenhower commanded armies and led nations, but he never forgot the Sunday school teacher who taught him that true strength was moral courage, proving that the greatest leaders never outgrow gratitude and that honoring the people who shaped you when nobody knew your name is the most presidential thing you can do.

If consistent disruptive behavior isn’t addressed by administration, what message does that send to the rest of the class? Students learn just as much from what we tolerate as from what we teach.

Want to build a successful basketball program? 1. Surround yourself with good coaches who are great people 2. Develop players 3. Understand they are people first, players second 4. Build an environment players want to be in 5. Create memories and traditions 6. Teach teamwork, teamwork, teamwork 7. Compete in everything, with a positive attitude #leadership #basketballcoach #cmdcoachinglab

Quick Question 🤔

My brother sent me a text this week: That simple reminder stopped me in my tracks. Because it’s easy to forget. Sometimes kids are immature. Sometimes they make poor choices. And this time of year doesn’t make it any easier. As the weather warms up and the finish line of the school year comes into view, energy levels rise—and so does student behavior. We feel it. Every educator does. And let’s be clear—students need accountability. Expectations still matter. But perspective matters too. The science is clear: Our students don’t have fully developed brains yet. They’re still learning—academically, socially, and emotionally. They’re going to get it wrong sometimes. Discipline and compassion are not mutually exclusive. We can correct behavior and care deeply about the child. We can hold the line and extend grace. As we move through these final weeks of the school year, that balance matters more than ever. So when the moment comes—and it will—remember: The kid in front of you is still… a kid.

Coaching high school basketball is believing in a group of players before the results show up. It’s seeing more than who they are today. It’s seeing who they can become with guidance, discipline, and confidence. The job is bigger than basketball. Teach effort. Teach attitude. Teach togetherness. You’re building people first, players second. #Coaching #Basketball #Leadership #PlayerDevelopment #cmdcoachinglab

Your body language is a billboard for your mental toughness and maturity.

I share the same philosophy with my students that my dad taught me: •Surround yourself with 4 confident people, and you’ll become the 5th. •Surround yourself with 4 hardworking people, and you’ll become the 5th. •Surround yourself with 4 fools, and you’ll become the 5th.

Young parents….please listen. If you don’t have your kids disciplined by the time they are waist high, you absolutely won’t have them disciplined by the time they are eye to eye. Then you will have some real problems on your hands.

This was on a sweatshirt yesterday. It's a powerful reminder.

More days in school doesn’t mean more learning. And this isn’t opinion. The data backs it up. The OECD has reported that simply increasing instructional time does not improve student outcomes. Pew Research shows there’s a wide range of instructional hours across countries, with no consistent link to performance. If time alone worked… the countries with the most hours would dominate. They don’t. In fact, students in the United States already spend more time in school than many countries. By the end of lower secondary school, students in Finland receive about 6,300 hours of instruction. In the United States, it’s more like 9,000+ hours. That’s a huge difference. And yet… more time hasn’t translated into better outcomes. So it’s not a time problem. It’s how we use the time. High-performing countries don’t cut arts, PE, and music to make room for more academics. They protect them. Because they understand these actually help improve student learning. Movement improves focus. Arts build creativity and thinking. Music strengthens cognitive development. So while we’re trying to cram more academics into more time… They’re building better learners. That’s why they can do less time and still get strong results. But we keep going back to the same thinking, if a little is good, more must be better. That logic doesn’t hold up anywhere else. No coach is doubling practice time thinking it will double performance. That’s not better training… that’s overtraining. And overtraining doesn’t build athletes, it breaks them down. The brain works the same way. There’s a limit to how much it can take in before more actually starts working against you. You don’t get better learning—you get fatigue, disengagement, and burnout. Especially with kids. So when we add more days without changing the experience, nothing really improves. We’re just stretching out the same problem over a longer period of time. We don’t need more time. We need to use time the way kids actually learn, not the way it gets designed by people who aren’t in the room.

8 of the Costliest Areas of Waste in School District Spending 1. Administrative Bloat 2. Underutilized Facilities 3. Inefficient technology purchases. Schools often buy expensive or quickly outdated technology without a clear implementation plan, resulting in wasted funds 4. Overpriced Textbooks & Materials 5. Ineffective PD 6. Failing to Evaluate Programs…Districts frequently implement new initiatives without properly assessing their effectiveness, leading to repeated cycles of expensive but ineffective programs 7. Legal Fees and Lawsuits…Many districts face high costs from lawsuits, often due to poor policy enforcement, special education disputes, or mismanagement 8. Poor Use of Federal or Grant Funds... Mostly due to poor regulation

Ummm…This quote…. “Discipline looks boring until you see what it builds.” Pure facts.

When a good teacher chooses to leave the job, do not rush into filling the position. Rush into fixing the reason they left.

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