Does FAITH Increase Your Chance of WINNING?
Everyone wants to argue who the Greatest of All-Time is. MJ or LeBron, Brady or Montana, Ruth or Bonds, Messi or Ronaldo, Tiger or Palmer, Ali or Sugar Ray, and the debates go on and on. Wayne Gretzky was nicknamed “The Great One”, his accomplishments stand him alone in hockey as the best ever. Some would say the same about Jordan or Brady, but the fact is everyone loves a winner. So how do you define a winner?
Let’s take a look at the GOAT’s of the coaching world. Based on pure massive numbers it is nearly impossible to argue who the greatest high school coaches ever are. Some of the best coaches I know coach or coached at the junior college, high school, or even junior high level. To simplify, let’s break this debate into two categories, professional and collegiate.
Taking a quick look at professional football – Lombardi, Belichick, Shula, and Walsh all rise to the top. A quick look at college football brings to mind names like – Bear Bryant, Nick Saban, or my favorite Barry Switzer. Sorry old timers for leaving out Fielding Yost, Bud Wilkerson or Pop Warner.
Debaters come up with formulas to argue their picks, such as this list used by Fox Sports to choose the top College Football Coach Ever:
- Great head coaches win. They wins games, they wins championships, and they keep on winning. To be considered in this analysis, a coach had to have at least two recognized national championships on his resume. That served as the starting point for the analysis.
- A great coach has staying power. Even if they don’t stay at the same school, notable head coaches will always have a job for as long as they want a job.
- That said, a great coach more than anything wins consistently. A coach who wins only two national championships in four decades of coaching is going to suffer in comparison to a coach who needs less time to haul in more hardware. Winning percentage and championship win rate are both factored into this analysis as well.
I have coached basketball at every level except for coaching professional athletes: grade school, junior high, junior varsity, assistant high school, high school, student assistant, graduate assistant, assistant college, and have now been a head college coach for 12 seasons. I have been blessed to reach a state championship as high school coach and have won national championships in college as a player, an assistant coach, and as a head coach. As a result, I feel I have a decent understanding of what it takes to be a really good basketball coach at any level. Without a formula like Fox Sports used above, I am going to try and define a great coach for you.
As you can see in the picture at the top of the post, I was blessed with the opportunity of meeting what most consider the greatest college basketball coach of all-time, Coach John Wooden. Coach Wooden was 90 years old at the time and was speaking at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes rally in Tulsa, Ok. Coach Wooden was incredibly sharp in mind and speech until all the way up until God took him home. Coach Wooden offered to hold my one year old Son, Gunter, in the picture we took after that event. It was an honor for sure to meet Coach Wooden, but the picture with him holding G was that special Coach Wooden touch. Something he seemed to do to everyone he came in contact with. In 2011, I was blessed with the opportunity of speaking at the NABC Clinic at the NCAA Final Four in Houston. I honored my father David Bostwick and Coach Wooden both, during my speech. Both dad and Coach Wooden had just won their biggest championships by reaching heaven. I shared about their faith and what I had learned from these two amazing men. Afterwards I was surprised to find out that Coach Wooden’s son in law was present. He graciously took me to meet Coach Wooden’s wife and daughter later that day. What an honor.
After recently glancing at the all-time college basketball coaching wins list, I was astonished how many amazing coaches God has sent across my path over the years.
No. 1 on the all-time wins list is former McKendree University coach Harry Statham. Coach Statham has over 1122 career wins. He is the ultimate gentleman, much like Coach Wooden. I was blessed to be honored in 2009 with a National Coach of the Year honor. Coach Statham was also being honored at the NCAA Final Four in Detroit that year. After the award show, my father and I ran into Harry, I asked him if he would like to catch a ride with us instead of taking a cab. It warmed my heart to hear Harry and my father reminisce about life and basketball.
No. 4 on the list is Coach Danny Miles with 1040 career wins at Oregon Tech University. Danny is an amazing coach, whose friendship I hold dear. After receiving Christ late in his coaching career, Coach Miles was almost unbeatable. I think three NAIA National Championships, one Runner-Up, and 1040 wins, and .704 winning percentage says enough. Danny has a great testimony that you can soon read on the Spirit Led Coaches Testimony Link!!
No. 5 on the list with 922 wins is Coach Dave Holmquist, a coaching genius in my book. I have both coached against and watched his teams over the years. Dave is another gentleman, whose friendship I greatly appreciate. He has led his team to a NAIA championship game. I have been so blessed to drink from the cup of Hall of Fame coaches like Dave and many on this list. Dave like most of these men are spiritual warriors that use coaching as their battlefield and ministry!
In 2015, I was blessed with the opportunity to coach with USA basketball. My task was to help select the U19 team for the World Championship. Players like Jalen Brunson, Jayson Tatum, and Josh Jackson were on that team. During that time, I was blessed to spend time with No. 7 on the list Jim Boeheim, no. 25 Sean Miller, and one of my favorites approaching the top 100 list, Coach Bob McKillop of Davidson. I loved hearing stories about past USA teams from Coach Boeheim, but I was even more honored to sit with Coach McKillop and pick his brain while watching his prime pupil Steph Curry play in the NBA Finals. I loved hearing the stories of faith that Coach McKillop shared. I hope to add his testimony and many more of these coaches to the Spirit Led Coach Testimony Link as well soon.
No. 8 on the list is another coach that holds a place in my heart. Coach Don Meyer spent most of his coaching career split between David Lipscomb University and Northern State University. His Lipscomb 1985-86 team won the NAIA National Championship. In 2014, I was blessed to join him in his final coaching appearance before going to heaven. Coach Meyer was the honorary coach in the NAIA All-Star game that year. That week, despite being in a wheelchair with a body battered by cancer, I watched as Coach Meyer approached every practice with energy and joy that I rarely have seen. My best player that season Dominique Rambo, was the only two-time NAIA Player of the Year ever. I was blessed to sit at Coach Meyer’s right hand at practice and at the game where I heard Coach Meyer give nugget after nugget of wisdom and inspiration to the players. I laughed when Coach subbed out one entire group in an All-Star game for not sharing the ball enough. The thing that hit me and everyone the most powerfully though was the postgame speech in the locker room as Coach Meyer thanked the Lord for allowing him to coach one more game before coming to Heaven. He thanked God for giving him one more opportunity to share with young men his love for Jesus through coaching. Needless to say there was few dry eyes in the room.
In all, God has blessed me with the opportunity to get to know over 25 of the top 100 coaches on the all-time collegiate coaching win list. Many of which I consider my mentors and heroes. Willie Holley (813 wins – 1 NAIA Quarter Final & 4 NCCAA National Championships,), Mike Lightfoot (794 wins – 3 NAIA National Championships & 4 NCCAA National Championships), Bob Burchard (773 wins – 1 NAIA RU), Jim Kessler (770 wins – 1 NAIA National Championship), Rocky Lamar (734 wins – 1 NAIA National Championship & 1 NAIA RU), Dan Hays (724 wins – 1 NAIA Final Four), Steve Knight (680 wins), Steve Jenkins (659 wins – 1 NAIA National Championship), Kim Elders (588 wins – 3 NAIA National Championships, 1 RU), Jeff Sherman (562 wins), John Moore (514 wins – 1 NAIA RU &1 Final 4), and Bob Hoffman (508 wins – 1 NAIA Championship & 1 NCAA Tournament appearance) are just some of these men on this list who have been powerful influences in my life. I attended Coach Dan Hays camps at Oklahoma Christian College beginning in the 6th grade. The impact Coach Hays had on my life is impossible to repay. It is there that I met my first college coach Lowell Roumph, who gave me the opportunity to pursue my dream of playing college basketball at Northeastern JC in Colorado. Coach Roumph has joined Coach Wooden and dad in heaven since then, just another coach on my list that changed and molded my life. I am so thankful for the impact of all these men. I can only imagine the tens of thousands of lives they have touched over the years.
While doing a little research for this post, I stumbled across a couple surprising personal statistics. Most coaches are stat guys, I am no different. I am not sure what the odds are, but just realized that as of today I have coached in 800 basketball games since becoming a high school coach at Vinita High School in 1994 and that number does not count coaching my own kids little league and summer games. Not only that but since 1997, when I entered college coaching as an assistant coach, I have now played a part in exactly 500 wins while coaching college basketball (312 as head coach and 188 as assistant). I find it a little coincidental that those two numbers are exactly 800 and 500 as of this very moment in my career. Moments like that have always caused me to smile and look for God’s fingerprints. I also realized that in just three more games I will have coached 400 games as a head college coach. The number three always seems to show up in my life. Pretty sure anybody that knows me will tell you that the three ball and the Trinity are pillars of our program. Earlier this season, I was blessed to cross the 300 win mark as a head college coach. As many of my mentors say, that primarily means that you have survived and endured what can be a very challenging career choice. More than anything I was once again reminded how God has been so faithful by providing so many amazing players, assistants, managers, trainers and fans to make that possible. I thank God so much for supplying uncommon favor over my 25 years of coaching.
This brings me to a couple questions. Is a coach’s win total a good measure of their success? How about post season success and their total number of championships? Is overall winning percentage a better measure of success? Let’s take a look at current active college coaches in the areas of championships and winning percentage.
Who currently sits on the top on these active coaching list? When it comes to championships Coach Wooden set the bar high with ten. The active leader is Coach Mike Krzyewski with five NCAA D1 Championships. The only other active D1 coach with more than one championship is Roy Williams at two. Who is the best of the rest? That honor goes to Coach Ray Harper who is currently the head coach at NCAA D1 Jacksonsville State University. He has taken both JSU and Western Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament. Before that Ray won two NCAA D2 championships at Kentucky Wesleyan and two NAIA D1 Championships at Oklahoma City University. Ray has won four National Championships and has won at every level. I enjoyed battling him a number of times when he was at OCU. The only two active head coaches to have won three National Championships are Coach Greg Tonagel at Indiana Wesleyan and Coach Kim Elders at Cornerstone University. Only two active head coaches have won two National Championships as well, Coach Ken Ammann at Concordia University (CA) and Coach Kris Korver at Northwestern University (IA). I have battled all five of these men in the coaching arena. You don’t have a chance against their teams unless your team is completely prepared to execute and compete for 40 minutes.
What about winning percentage among active coaches? Using 5 years coaching as a minimum marker, the No. 1 coach on this list is Coach Larry Cordaro. Larry is in his 5th season as the head coach at LSU-Alexandria. He is a small man in stature, but a huge man in faith and in the coaching profession. He has a ridiculously high winning percentage of .870 with a 127-19 career record to date. Take into consideration that Mark Few from Gonzaga sits on top of the NCAA DI list at .820 with a record of 546-120. No. 2 on that list with a .788 winning percentage is North Carolina’s Roy Williams. Tied with Coach Williams, ranked second currently on the NAIA coaches list, is another close friend of mine, Greg Tonagel at Indiana Wesleyan University. In the last 5 years, Larry Cordaro and Greg Tonagel have dominated NAIA Division I and NAIA Division II basketball. Check out Coach Tonagel’s podcast here. He has risen to the top winning three of the last six NAIA DII Championships. Yes, championships are another measure of great coaches. Listen to his podcast to find out the secret to how he arrived there! I asked if he was ok with me including him in the article. He agreed, but said with a smile “Also include that I know very little, but have an amazing staff and great players, and pray a lot”. Did I mention that another quality of a great coach is humility?
Greg, Kim, Larry, Ken, and Kris are all dear friends of mine and men who I would join in battle anytime anywhere. They are all Spirit Led warriors who, like the men I mentioned earlier, are not just about winning basketball games and championships. They are about winning souls and because of that, God is providing each of them a platform to demonstrate His power in the world of college basketball. I have been on mission trips, prayed, studied the word, and worshipped with many of the coaches that I have listed throughout this article. I can tell you exactly why these men have had uncommon favor. They are gifted leaders with relentless work ethic. They have had amazing players and staffs. Most importantly they all have accessed the multiplying effect, the Holy Spirit edge, that does a lot with a little and whole lot when given much. One very important key to holding on to this uncommon favor over a long period of time is the desire to give all the Glory for your success to Christ!
There are many more amazing coaches and powerful spiritual warriors that are not on this list. I have obviously not listing amazing women’s coaches that have a list of their own, nor have I mentioned the list of coaches that have been called to be junior college, high school or junior high coaches.
One of my favorite list not mentioned are those called to be armor-bearing assistant coaches. Without them most of the coaches on this list would have never made it. Is it fair that these assistant coaches do not have a list of their own? Not at all. I can completely relate with this group of selfless warriors as I spent 10 years as an assistant college coach doing just as much or more work than I do now. In many ways these coaches deserves even more praise. Many of these coaches simply enjoy serving others or have not been given that head coaching chance just yet. Some of these coaches are the spiritual leaders of their teams as well, in no way are their accomplishments less than that of a head coach.
Let me give you just a couple examples of coaches not on this list who have made my career possible. My high school coach, David Griffin, is in the Oklahoma Coaches Hall of Fame for coaching softball, but he never had the overall talent as a high school basketball coach to compete for state championships. Like Coach Griffin many coaches simply don’t have the overall talent or scholarship funding to win at the highest level, that in no way makes them unsuccessful coaches. I attribute so much of my coaching success to the many things Coach Griffin taught me. How to win with less, picking my battles wisely, and motivating with love are three of the core values of my coaching success that all came from Griff.
One of my best friends, Coach Jay Mathieson, is a very successful high school coach in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Without Jay my career would have never reached what it has today. He is responsible for a very large part of my successful recruiting over the years. I am confident that God has placed Jay in my life, not just to help in recruiting, but someone I can call after a tough game or just when life gets me down.
Let me add an assistant coach to this story. I believe that he will someday be on these list. He is currently the associate head coach at Vanderbilt. Some of you might remember Roger Powell from his playing days the University of Illinois. Roger has a powerful testimony I hope to share soon on SLC. In brief, he found Christ in a big way, then went on to lead the Fighting Illini to the 2005 National Championship game. His encounter with Christ was so impactful and life changing that his teammates started calling him “Rev”. Roger is one of the spiritual coaching warriors on my phone favorites list that I can call at any moment for a prayer. The anointing Roger carries is powerful. You may not know his name yet, but you will. Roger played a key role in the success Valparaiso reached in recent years and now he is helping turn Vanderbilt into a power to be reckoned with. Check out this link to see a little bit of his heart.
Coaches like Griff, Jay, and Roger are why I am where I am today. They are all big-time winners. So many important people factor into a head coach’s ability to win games. I could go on and on mentioning other coaches on my contact list that are some of the biggest winners I know.
I do not know all of the successful coaches in college basketball today, but I do know quite a few and there definitely seems to be a correlation with their ability to win and their faith. You see their faith helps them win where it matters. My main point in this blog is that winning is way more than just a coaches career wins totals, championships, or their winning percentage. Coaches that are changing lives and winning souls are the true champions because their wins are recorded in the Big Man’s book upstairs. Their reward will be far greater in Heaven, than any trophy or ring on earth. Anyone will tell you that coaching is one of the most impacting professions. Whether you are coaching little league or the Boston Celtics, make an impact today. Be a great example. Like Coach Wooden use Biblical principles such as motivating with love over fear, teaching humility, and being a servant when teaching your athletes to be successful. Those lessons will last a lifetime and lead athletes to success long after their playing days are over. Never be afraid to share your faith, God will always reward you for your faithfulness and boldness. Your faith is the biggest factor in whether you will ultimately will win or lose.
Referenced Fox Sports for criteria for debating top college football coach ever. link