Nashville Coaching Coalition (NCC) develops and equips coaches to be transformational leaders who prepare young people for life. With an estimated 6.5 million youth coaches in the US, (Aspen Institute, 2018), NCC recognized the need to support coaches’ development to influence the healthy development of millions more youth athletes. Through NCC’s Coaches Leadership Academy and The Coach Forum, they’re reaching new coaches who touch hundreds of athletes’ lives.

Around this same time, Jeff McGinnis, incoming Executive Director of NCC, listened to an episode of the We Are For Good podcast and came across Good Game Foundation. A few emails were exchanged and NCC was invited to participate in Training Camp. While McGinnis valued the meaningful connection with others in the sports world, he was skeptical whether NCC would gain anything out of Training Camp. He worried it was one more thing on the to-do list and feared it sounded great on paper but wouldn’t be as productive as he hoped.

Funded by Good Game Foundation members, Nashville Coaching Coalition hosted a strategic planning session with members of its board.

With the uncertain state of NCC, one more thing on the to-do list was not what they needed. What McGinnis underestimated, though, was how badly they did need someone to help guide them through this uncertain period toward a clear strategy. The facilitator of Training Camp, along with the knowledgeable staff of the other organizations participating in Training Camp, were those people to come alongside NCC.

After it was determined that a strategic plan would help NCC clarify a vision and align stakeholders across the organization, beginning the process of building the plan was the next step. Coincidentally, another organization in the Training Camp cohort had recently undergone a similar strategic planning exercise and was able to provide resources to NCC to help kickoff their process.

In the first Training Camp engagement, McGinnis shared honestly about where the organization was at, not holding back any details about the complications and uncertainty they faced. On a call a few months later, McGinnis said of the exchange, “[The facilitator] with her wisdom and experience, was able to pull out what we needed at that time… I just knew we were in some tough times, and she was able to put words to it and a plan to move forward.”

Using funds from the $1,500 microgrant donated by Good Game Foundation members, NCC has invested in a strategic planning session with the members of its board. McGinnis and his team are actively pursuing the next stage of NCC with visions of making Nashville “the premier city for emotionally healthy coaches and athletes.”

When sharing this vision, McGinnis said, “We have this dream that coaches from all over the country are moving to Nashville because they want to coach in this environment.” The positive impact from NCC will be felt far and wide as emotionally healthy coaches pour into their athletes in a way that is encouraging, intentional, and transformative.