Success is like a new suit.
There is no universal fit. It often needs to be tailored.
There are many ways to measure, but success is a personal standard, no matter what the rest of the world thinks.
More:From playing with a legendary coach to becoming one – he’s ready for the next one
In sports, success is weighed by numbers. For athletes, statistics create benchmarks.
For trainers, it’s a different animal.
Victories vs. losses and championships are the relentless bottom line. Today, that’s the difference between employment and an online date with Indeed.
Success means longevity, as proven by two coaches – with a causal link – at the opposite end of the spectrum.
The first is Gregg Popovich, head coach and president of the San Antonio Spurs, who may be the epitome of coaching success.
Popovich is the most winning regular-season coach in NBA history. Over the course of a quarter of a century, he is the league’s longest running coach and has led the Spurs to five championships.
That’s enough currency to give Popovich the right to do things on his own terms to increase his goal of success.
But then there’s Popovich’s former colleague… a guy he played basketball with during their enlistment in the Air Force.
His name is Bernie Semler.
If you browse the Washington Post or USA Today sports pages, you will not find the Popovich-Semler link anywhere.
That’s because Semler is not as well known as Popovich, nor does he have a large collection of championship rings.
Common to Semler and Popovich is that they started training basketball after leaving the service.
In Semler’s case, it has been 31 years of patrolling on the sidelines, almost exclusively at Boonsboro High and Hagerstown Community College. And instead of training high-paid male athletes, Semler worked with unpaid women.
From the beginning, Semler’s success was not easy after the switch from the boys ‘to the girls’ game. In fact, he started in a hole.
Semler entered a Boonsboro girls program that already ran an 18-game losing streak before being hired. There was no quick fix as the Warriors struck out a further 22 defeats in a row in its first season.
“We lost every game by about 32 points,” Semler said. “That group of kids was the funniest thing I’ve ever had in my life as a coach, and we were 0-22.”
This is because Semler measured his success based on various parameters.
In his second year, the Warriors lost their first nine games, extending the wear and tear to 49 – a less than Maryland’s timeless record.
By today’s standard, it would be enough to start impatient administrations and relentless fans planning Semler’s exit strategy.
But Semler did not panic. Instead, he relied on his brand behavior and his composure to stay on track.
“I thought, ‘I’m not even thinking about loss. I’m not thinking of victories. I’m thinking of trying to make these kids better, “he said of those days.” If they get better, then they become competitive. And when you become competitive, then you have chances to win … opportunities to win. “
Semler’s patience won out, and the Warriors got a Christmas wish at the Doub Classic, Williamsport’s annual holiday tournament. It came on a 3-point basket at the buzzer to beat North Hagerstown.
“One would think we had just won the national championship,” Semler said. “There was a bunch of kids in the middle of the floor, all on top of each other, celebrating the fact that they had won a fight and not breaking the state record.”
That celebration may have been the signing moment for Semler’s coaching career. The Warriors switched to their future.
“It was just a victory – and a victory with many losses. Still, it was great to see those children with a lot of joy on their faces,” he said. “… That’s what you play for. You play for those days. . “
Boonsboro’s girl program began to develop. Each incoming class of Warriors became more skilled.
Instead of riding the wave with the Warriors, Semler moved to the HCC to help then-women coach Marly Palmer find some stability in turbulent times.
It started a 16-year stint with the Hawks as an assistant under Palmer and then for Vicky Bullet, the former Martinsburg, Maryland and WNBA star. That led to him becoming the Hawks’ head coach for the last six seasons.
Again, victories and losses came in the back seat. This job was about giving some stability to young women.
It has been a world of creating a lot out of a little at a two-year junior college that has few scholarships, no housing and a limited reach for recruitment.
“It’s like being an old grandfather to help them when they need it, especially academically,” he said. “That was all for me. I said to them, ‘I want you to get a degree. I want you to move on. I want you to be successful.'”
There’s that word again.
Success was a relative concept, especially in junior college sports. There were more important things at stake.
“You always have the dream of winning the national championship and winning the last match,” he said. “It only happens to a few people who have that opportunity in their lives.
“(Coaching is) a part of who you are. You feel like you’ve been helping to build a program along the way. There are so many kids who have gone through this program and been successful. I think I have been a small part of that. ”
Now Semler is officially retiring as coach in June. The legacy comes down to this.
Popovich has fame, fortune and a place in basketball history.
Semler has the immortal respect and a sense of accomplishment of helping two generations of young women through basketball.
Success is what you make it.
And for Bernie Semler, he got the better end of the deal.