Essay: Coaching in Miracle (movie)

Miracle, a movie inspired by the 1980 US Olympics Hockey team were about 20 College All Star players, showing everyone what skills and sacrifice you had to take to make the impossible possible, while making history at the same time. For 20 years straight, they were defeated in the Olympics by the Soviet Union for the Gold Medal, but Herb Brooks knew that if he were ever given the opportunity to be the head coach for this US team, that he will do what it takes to win the Olympic Games. It was more than just a trophy, it was a dream. Brooks made the Olympics team in 1960, but just one week before the games started, he was cut. He went on to becoming a coach at the University of Minnesota Gophers, where he graduated and played Hockey from 1955-1959. In his years. A year after retiring, he was called in for the Head Coaching position for the US Olympic team. During his interview, he talked about the changes he wanted to make to the team, saying what techniques and styles they should change in order to beat the Soviet Union. He explained how the Russians were the worlds toughest and most respected team, practicing 3 times a day, 7 Days a week, leaving all their opponents tired before the game is over and using that to there advantage.
Throughout his speech, I felt as though the managing staff was not satisfied with what they were hearing, from there body language and facial expressions, he didn’t stand a chance. Hours went by and Herb received a call saying that he got the position. He was overjoyed with the call, and knew that he had to get to work, and prove his actions. 6 weeks later, he held tryouts for the team, having over 100 men trying out. Most of the players came from his Minnesota team, but also had some of their rivals that were from Boston University as well. He didn’t care how the players felt seeing and playing with each other, if you wanted to play on his team, that you would put your differences aside and play for the country you love and bring back the Gold Medal. He could only choose 26 men to continue on for the next couple of weeks for training, then having to cut another 6 and just have 20 men that will make the team. The rules were that tryouts are supposed to be held for 3 weeks, and no one should be cut until the 3 weeks was over, but he made the cuts after the first day, making the managing staff very upset and confused. Little did they know, during that 6 weeks before tryouts, Herb spent days and hours watching the films, techniques, and attitudes of the young men, so he already had a feeling of who he wanted before the tryouts even began. Assistant Coach Craig Patrick, was not a big fan of Herb at the beginning. He didn’t agree with the way he went by coaching and conditioning the players, feeling as though he was being too hard on them. Brooks didn’t care how anyone felt about his coaching skills, he knew what he was doing was going to work out in the long run. During the six month training, the guys had set of teams to play to get them ready. They studied and practiced new drills, gained respect for each other, despite being rivals, and learned about teamwork. For their first game they flew out to Europe to play against the Norwegian National Team, but tied the game 3-3. During the game, Brooks overheard how they players were talking about things such as girls, other players, etc. but not about what they could do to beat this team. This left Brooks furious. So when the game was over, he made them do suicides for hours leaving them tired and confused to why they had to run for this long. He wanted to explain to them that this isn’t a joke, they are not playing for a University anymore, but you’re playing and representing a whole Country. You can’t be satisfied winning a tie game and think months from now you’re going to win the Olympics against the SovietUnion. Herb started to bring in other players, scaring the boys to think they were next to getting cut, to make them push themselves more and prove to him that they deserve a spot on this team. They started to become a family, and also watched films on the Soviet Union to learn their techniques to see how they could compare. As the months went by they started to gain more confidence in themselves and believed that they could win, and on that day of February 22, 1980 they proved to everyone that they could win the Olympic Gold Medal. The leadership role that Herb took in that game was phenomenal. He swapped out his players every 30 seconds to make the Soviets tired and confused, and for the Russians having that title for being the best conditioning team in the world, was surprising that this first year team that only had 6 months to train was able to defeat the best team in the world. They were the first ever to to be called the “Dream Team.” And it was all because of the dedication and passion those players put into that game. During the movie and seeing the way he shaped those boys, made me wish I was apart of this team. Growing up playing sports, I never received the kind of discipline Brooks offered to this team. There were always fighting, playing games the way we wanted to, and not caring if we won or loss the game. When you have a coach that believe in you, anything’s is possible.. He sacrificed not spending time with his children, his wife, his friends to make sure this team was prepared. And for that, he would forever be known as one of the best coaches to ever live.