A great insight into Todd Dodge

[SUMG]

(I found this to be really interesting. I think we have us a winner, folks. Here's the story posted by Scottie on the Voy Board.):

Several thousand insurance salespeople from across the nation gathered in a Dallas hotel for a company party on New Year's Day. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, the scheduled speaker, was to pump them up for big sales in the coming year.

But first there was another speaker, someone most of them did not know: a guy named Todd Dodge.

"That's that high school coach, right?" a man in the audience asked the person beside him. "I don't know," came the answer.

Soon they would.

Dodge is the Carroll Dragons football coach who was named USA Today National Coach of the Year last month after his team won the Texas Class 5A Division II championship. As he was introduced, Dodge, wearing a dark business suit, stood quietly in a corner. Nearby, Staubach waited his turn.

When the audience learned that Dodge's team was 47-1 in the past three seasons, many in the audience shouted, "Wow!"

As Dodge walked to the podium, the applause was light. He would need to prove himself. Few understand success like insurance salespeople. In their world, you produce or else. Not unlike Texas high school football.

As Dodge spoke, he began winning over his audience. Not unlike the way he has won over players, parents and members of the Southlake community.

His principles of success are worth noting, I believe, because the same principles can apply to business or life practices.

Here is a summary of Todd Dodge's 10 principles:

1. Never underestimate the power of kindness. One small gesture can change a life forever. "People wonder what compassion has to do with football," Dodge said. When you enter his locker room, Dodge said, "Check your ego at the door. It's what I can do for someone else; not what everybody has got to do for me."

2. Kill the will of your opponent. Every team has a great desire to win. It's your job to wear the opponent down so that by the fourth quarter the opposition has nothing left. But you do.

3. Remember that success can come through short bursts of high-intensity effort. If you play 100 percent for seven seconds every time the football is snapped, "that's really only about eight minutes of playing full speed if you really think about it."

4. Visualize the game before you play it. Picture yourself playing the perfect game. He tells the quarterback, "You're going to throw seven touchdown passes." He tells the linebacker, "You're going to make the perfect tackle." When you visualize, don't let a negative thought come into your mind.

5. Know that every close game will be decided by the kicking game. It's often less-glamorous factors of a job, factors sometimes overlooked, that make the ultimate difference in success or failure.

6. Stay true. Never give up. Never give up on a play, on a series or on your teammates. Before every game, he tells his players: "Believe in yourself. If we get behind, the greatest comeback in high school football history may happen today."

7. Be result-oriented. Expect to see something you haven't seen before from the opposition. You can't say, "Coach, you didn't show us that." You must be ready to adapt during a game.

8. What you do is so loud that I can't hear what you say. "Let your playing do the talking," he said. "We don't want to be doing a bunch of mouthing out on the field."

9. Never criticize, but always encourage your teammates. Dodge said, "I never understood in football that when someone scores a touchdown everybody on the team wants to be around them. They don't need you when they score a touchdown. When they throw the interception, when they fumble the ball, when they miss a tackle, that's when they need you."

10. Show class and poise after the game. When the contest ends, shake the hands of opponents and show gratitude to your fans and supporters.

When Dodge finished, audience members, now Dodge fans, showed appreciation by giving him a standing ovation.

Staubach was up next. He looked out at the large crowd, grinned and began his talk by asking, "How do you follow a guy who was 47-1?"

[PlummMeanGreen]

(I found this to be really interesting. I think we have us a winner, folks. Here's the story posted by Scottie on the Voy Board.):

Several thousand insurance salespeople from across the nation gathered in a Dallas hotel for a company party on New Year's Day. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, the scheduled speaker, was to pump them up for big sales in the coming year.

But first there was another speaker, someone most of them did not know: a guy named Todd Dodge.

"That's that high school coach, right?" a man in the audience asked the person beside him. "I don't know," came the answer.

Soon they would.

Dodge is the Carroll Dragons football coach who was named USA Today National Coach of the Year last month after his team won the Texas Class 5A Division II championship. As he was introduced, Dodge, wearing a dark business suit, stood quietly in a corner. Nearby, Staubach waited his turn.

When the audience learned that Dodge's team was 47-1 in the past three seasons, many in the audience shouted, "Wow!"

As Dodge walked to the podium, the applause was light. He would need to prove himself. Few understand success like insurance salespeople. In their world, you produce or else. Not unlike Texas high school football.

As Dodge spoke, he began winning over his audience. Not unlike the way he has won over players, parents and members of the Southlake community.

His principles of success are worth noting, I believe, because the same principles can apply to business or life practices.

Here is a summary of Todd Dodge's 10 principles:

1. Never underestimate the power of kindness. One small gesture can change a life forever. "People wonder what compassion has to do with football," Dodge said. When you enter his locker room, Dodge said, "Check your ego at the door. It's what I can do for someone else; not what everybody has got to do for me."

2. Kill the will of your opponent. Every team has a great desire to win. It's your job to wear the opponent down so that by the fourth quarter the opposition has nothing left. But you do.

3. Remember that success can come through short bursts of high-intensity effort. If you play 100 percent for seven seconds every time the football is snapped, "that's really only about eight minutes of playing full speed if you really think about it."

4. Visualize the game before you play it. Picture yourself playing the perfect game. He tells the quarterback, "You're going to throw seven touchdown passes." He tells the linebacker, "You're going to make the perfect tackle." When you visualize, don't let a negative thought come into your mind.

5. Know that every close game will be decided by the kicking game. It's often less-glamorous factors of a job, factors sometimes overlooked, that make the ultimate difference in success or failure.

6. Stay true. Never give up. Never give up on a play, on a series or on your teammates. Before every game, he tells his players: "Believe in yourself. If we get behind, the greatest comeback in high school football history may happen today."

7. Be result-oriented. Expect to see something you haven't seen before from the opposition. You can't say, "Coach, you didn't show us that." You must be ready to adapt during a game.

8. What you do is so loud that I can't hear what you say. "Let your playing do the talking," he said. "We don't want to be doing a bunch of mouthing out on the field."

9. Never criticize, but always encourage your teammates. Dodge said, "I never understood in football that when someone scores a touchdown everybody on the team wants to be around them. They don't need you when they score a touchdown. When they throw the interception, when they fumble the ball, when they miss a tackle, that's when they need you."

10. Show class and poise after the game. When the contest ends, shake the hands of opponents and show gratitude to your fans and supporters.

When Dodge finished, audience members, now Dodge fans, showed appreciation by giving him a standing ovation.

Staubach was up next. He looked out at the large crowd, grinned and began his talk by asking, "How do you follow a guy who was 47-1?"

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Uh....................................................wow!

Edited December 13, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

[MeanGreenBuzz]

show gratitude to your fans and supporters.

I like him better than DD already.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

I like him better than DD already.

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Yip.....me too. I love this hire.

[El Paso Eagle]

Dodge is saying all the right things.

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Dodge is saying all the right things.

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Thats because he knows something DD never figured out. Fans are important and you don't gain fans by insulting people.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

Thats because he knows something DD never figured out.  Fans are important and you don't gain fans by insulting people.

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BINGO. You can tell he is ready get going. His voice sounds like he ready to hit the trail on recruiting, hiring coaches, and getting this ball rolling.

[JayDub]

I like him better than DD already.

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Give him time...he hasn't felt the wrath of some of the Mean Green faithful, yet.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Give him time...he hasn't felt the wrath of some of the Mean Green faithful, yet.

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Just by adding a cup of positive to the ingrediants will go a long ways with many of us and even during bad times; but all that other stuff we had been getting previously will not go far at all.

Glad we are getting a fresh start...........

............haven't really felt this good about a Mean Green HFC's hire since SMU fired Hayden Fry in November of 1972 and NT hired him in December of 1972.