Coach Steven Howe
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 Coach Howe and Cyrus Giovanetti |
| I often hear people say, “It must be hard to coach these days with how much kids have changed”. After more than 25 years of coaching at the high school level, as well as serving 20 years at the youth level, I can assure you that the kids have not changed!
The teenagers of today have the exact same challenges I had, you had, and kids of the turn of the century had. |
| Getting kids into, as well as getting them to stay, in the wrestling room isn’t any different today than it was in 1994 when I started this voyage. We have to create a welcoming atmosphere, a product that has credibility, tangible growth (short term), and measurable success (long term). Proving this to kids is an annual “Right of Passage” for coaches, it’s one where we have limited success, but when we do it turns out to be the most rewarding parts of the season. Unfortunately, we all know that story doesn’t make its way around the school, so we get to tell it to a new group in 8 months. |
| Being part of athletics changed the direction of my life as a young kid. My parents divorced when I was nine and the early 1980s courts all but required the kids to be in the custody of their mother. My older brother and I were placed in the custody of an abusive alcoholic. My love for being at the little league park or playing football in the streets til bedtime or riding my bike at self made BMX tracks, was my only escape from a daily beating. I would stay out until my mother went to bed. Thank goodness I had friends whose parents took turns at feeding me and keeping me involved in youth sports. My dad did his best, but because my mom was such a tyrant, she kept him away |
| When I reached high school, the pull to go down the path of my mother and the children of her friends was magnetic, and one that took my older brother (he passed away at age 45). My dad spent copious hours with the coaches to make sure they stayed close to me. Boy, did I give them hell, but they steered me toward the best kids to help me make the best choices. The friends I made in youth wrestling and baseball had parents who also pitched in daily and to this day are important in my life; important enough for my own children to treat them like grandparents |
| So, when people see me matside or in a dugout coaching, comments get back to me about my passion. I never take offense to the tone of those critiques (even if they are made to my wife) because the passion I have for sports is real, it is in no way manufactured for fake reasons. When an athlete looks in the RHS corner they are guaranteed to know we have their 6, they know we challenge them to match our intensity every single time, they know our love for them is unquestioned even though the accountability is just as real and intense. |
| High school sports are an important cultural thing. They change the direction of people’s lives (mostly for the better). It’s something I am very proud to have been a part of. We beg our kids to “be weird” but respectful, find a way to make this sport fun BECAUSE it’s damn HARD. The motto is “Invent Fun” and KFB will guide you, it’s a tactic that has given our alumni a mascot and many fond memories. |
| I have coached World Medalists, High School National Champs, College National Champs, NCAA All Americans, State Champions, Hug JV Takedown Champs, and kids who rarely won a match. The area I find the most joy and pride in is the hugs and the handshakes from former athletes. I measure success in what we at Reno HS have called the “DS brotherhood”. I see these former teammates supporting each other on social media, or having a group text that is several years old where the kids are spread out all of the country and still privately communicate with each other. We have trophies, but healthy relationships are the true measure of success at the high school level. Culture is hard to measure in the current season you are in, so stay connected to your athletes, watch them grow and become great sons, men, husbands, and hopefully fathers, some may even challenge you across the mat some day and beat you with your own teachings……that won’t feel like success, alas it is! |
