We are very similar here. I coach 16u, 12u and 8u baseball and we celebrate our successes. We celebrate them as if they were our last. We do that because we don't know if it will be our last. I tell every single one of my kids that there will come a day where they no longer can do whatever it is that they love, so take the time that you have to do it and maximize it. I loved playing baseball and at 26 I was done. When I started coaching it brought back an even more intense love for the game and a desire to make a difference in kids lives. When we won our Championship last season we celebrated on the mound and dumped jugs of water on kids. It looked like we won the World Series. It pissed off the other parents, for no other reason then it is hard as a parent to watch your kid lose.
I had to explain to the board of directors why we celebrate the way that we do. Which disgusted me, but I was willing to oblige. It has nothing to do with respect. Respect is earned in the world. Our kids were made to shake each Coach's hand after practices and games and were made to stand and salute their parents in the stands after every game. When we won, we got to celebrate. By mid season our kids would be seen running around together and by year end we were told by every kid it was the most fun the had ever had playing the game.
The reality is that you can still remain humble in victory while celebrating your successes. The one thing we never let the kids lose focus on was the work that it took to get to that point. Three hour practices on Saturday morning, the extra 20 ground balls taken after practice was over, the extra reps in the cage. I would rather have 14 kids who hate losing then 14 who are not bothered by it and if I have to grab a kid and talk them down after a bad game or a loss I have no problem with it. I signed up for it as a Coach. At least they care. If we lose a trash can or a bat in the process, so be it. We can talk it out later and work on better ways to handle it going forward.
Too many people are complacent with mediocrity. They lose and they lean on, "you can't win them all". That is true, but it should be "don't talk to me for an hour because I'm pissed off and need to process this." A lot of this is created by the ideology that you have to be humble and gracious. When you are competing you should want to rip the competitions throat out. KB is that way. It is what has made him successful. He isn't disrespectful to anyone. The squabbles with his team is what happens with competitive people in a competitive environment.
