I am a former player of Dominic Stross. I have played soccer for 18 years and I can honestly say that Coach Stross was by far the best coach I’ve ever played for. I am thankful I had the chance to play for him for 3 years at Southeastern University. He is not just the best Coach because of his understanding of the game or his ability to teach and train technique and strategy, but he is the best Coach because he taught us just as much about life and family as he did about soccer. 

Coach Stross is undoubtedly a family man. He has so much integrity and respect for his wife and his two children. His family is greatly involved with the team and he daily lives out a demonstration of what it means to be a devoted husband and father. This family mindset flows into the concept that the team is an extension of his family. When a player joins the team, they become a “Teamer.” His daughter coined this term when she was 3 years old during his first year coaching at Southeastern. Being a “teamer” means you are more than just a player, you are engrafted into the family forever. This especially is comforting to college players who usually travel far from home to attend school. The family atmosphere fosters respect for one another and for Coach Stross. 

He has never been a man that demands respect, but he earns it because he gives respect to everyone. He has always carried himself with integrity. He is not a man that screams at his players or puts them down. He always seeks to build up his players and encourage them to become the best. He also encourages the current team members to respect and honor the players that have come before them. Our locker room is filled with pictures of former players and their accolades. He tells stories from previous seasons and always welcomes former players to come share with the team, visit them at practice, or cheer them on at a game.  He honor’s the legacy that was left behind and the new season that builds on the success from the previous season. 

            -Lindsey Harris

This series has been investigating the organizational culture of universities that find a way to field championship programs that are fully aligned to their institution’s Christian values. The next organizational component that was evident through the research and on each of the campuses I visited was the family atmosphere created by athletic administrators and coaches.

The family atmosphere was mentioned by Brandon Gerber during his recruitment. “I visited a lot of the Christian schools around the Midwest but I felt drawn here when I came up during a big visit.  They brought us on-campus to get immersed in the culture and experience the family atmosphere of the basketball program,” he said. Another student-athlete, Laura Glass added, “our coach is always reminding us that he is a big family guy and I am a big family person too.”

During my visits I heard coaches talk about the unwritten expectation that they would open their homes for Bible studies and team dinners to allow student-athletes the experience of a family environment away from home. One coach’s wife even served as an assistant coach on her husband’s staff for more than two decades. Her role was described as “behind the scene” and included spiritual development, community service projects, monthly Bible studies at the house, and hosting game nights.

In investigating the organizational culture of successful athletic departments I discovered the following strategies that assisted in fostering a family atmosphere: 1) Interact with students in your home, 2) Develop opportunities for athletes to interact with one another, and 3) Be creative!

1. Interact with your student-athletes in your home.

A common theme from athletes that emerged was the belief their coaches went above and beyond the traditional role of a coach. Student-athlete Aaron Murray provided an example, saying “the biggest difference is the investment that the coaches have in our lives. They have us over for dinner all the time, they even know our girlfriends.”

Coach Greg Tonagel confirmed that he intentionally spends time with his student-athletes in off-campus settings. He revealed, “if you are on my team, you are going to end up at my house for dinner, watching me interact with my kids and wife, being able to ask me real life questions, and just getting away from campus.” Tonagel’s philosophy is that he believes there is value in getting away from campus and that it’s assisted him in developing trust and deeper connections. He added that he’ll tell his student-athletes when they come over, “let’s not even talk about basketball, just come over and let’s talk about life.”

As an athletic administrator I realized the value of having students in our home when my wife began inviting athletes over for dinner. Looking for a role within the athletic department she elected to volunteer as the sport chaplain for the women’s soccer program. In her desire to become acquainted with the girls she developed a strategy to have them over for dinner in groups of two.  She even developed a limited menu with options which the girls could select in preparation for their in-home visit. I can still remember the subtleties as the girls would arrive. They would slowly check out the décor of our home, then begin looking at photos on the wall. But once they arrived to our wedding pictures the questions centered on our love story and the logistics of a wedding day.

At some point during the course of dinner my wife would ask two questions: “What is your God-story?” and “What do you want to do when you leave here?”  The responses to these two questions, potentially because it was three women versus three men in the room, would last the rest of the evening. We would learn about their dreams and sometimes their scars, we would learn about students who idolized their parents as well as those with family dysfunction unfair to an 18-year-old. The conversation always encompassed laughter yet many times included tears. I can’t fully explain it but a modest invitation into our home completely changed these relationships.

I’m convinced that coaches and administrators willing to interact with student-athletes in their home will realize a dramatic transformation to the player-coach relationship. It is believed this generation of student-athletes desire a greater sense of relationships with their leaders; therefore, opening one’s home or interacting at the local coffee shop are key components in developing deep connections and creating a family atmosphere.

2. Develop opportunities for athletes to interact with one another.

While countless examples existed of coaches creating family atmospheres inside their athletic program, another element revealed was the desire to fuse relationships across the athletic department. Through numerous events, retreats, and initiatives the athletic directors sought to develop rapport between student-athletes and coaches from the various teams. It was commonplace to hear that student-athletes did not know one another as their friendships were dominated by teammates. However, it was insightful to learn of athletic administrators who realized this intra-departmental relationship gap and then established events that brought the entire athletic department together.

Athletic administrators thrive on developing relationships with as many student-athletes as possible. Maybe it was this macro perspective which left me surprised when I learned that our athletes had few relationships across the athletic department. Once this was realized we attempted to create events that engaged them to interact with peers outside of their teams. This included athletic chapels, service projects, leadership retreats, developmental meetings, and even the development of an athletic department social events committee. The committee, which hosted 70’s Skate Night, Ugly Prom, and a Kickball Tournament, was completely led by student-athletes. They even developed a philosophical mission and vision statements:

Mission: The Social Events Committee is designed to foster community among student-athletes by providing a variety of events in which relationships can be created in order to build a unified athletic department.

Vision: Social Events is a vessel in cultivating an athletic department experience that is centered on creating a family atmosphere rather than individualistic teams.

It seems clear that the return on investment through culture building events paid incredible dividends. They have the ability to gather support for each other’s teams, provide peer relationships, spiritual growth, and leadership accountability. One particular student-athlete shared, “I never knew any athletes outside of baseball, that was until the things that our AD set up and now it has been so encouraging for me to see other athletes on fire for Christ.” Allix Miller even noticed the investment of coaches outside of their program, saying “I’ve seen our softball coach invest in the lives of male athletes too, I’ve seen him eat lunch with our tennis guys. I don’t think the outside world gets to see or knows how much our coaches truly care.”

3. Be creative!

Unifying an athletic department became one of guiding pillars of Mark DeMichael’s tenure as athletic director. His creativity and passion to develop a family atmosphere was unmistakable. He would routinely hashtag his social media posts with #16teams1program. Additionally he’s developed two massive undertakings which exemplify his creative leadership in building a unified athletic department. Those two events are the Athletics Commissioning Service and an All-Athletic Department Mission Trip.

1. Athletics commissioning service

The Commissioning Service was initiated as an annual cultural building tradition that reinforces the mission of Indiana Wesleyan University Athletics. Mark DeMichael explained that both his parents were pastors in the Salvation Army Evangelical Denomination and how the Salvation Army Seminary conducts an annual Commissioning Service to release graduates to do the work of the Lord and to receive their first ministry assignment. DeMichael shared, “when I became the AD one of the first things that I really wanted to establish was that we are here to use athletics as a ministry tool. I thought, well, we are going to have a Commissioning Service.” The Commissioning Services emphasizes the athletic department’s verse from Philippians, DeMichael added, that “the focus is on what we are here to do and that’s to bring the word of Christ through athletics.”

The Commissioning Service is held during one of the first Sundays of the semester and involves worship, consisting of student-athlete musicians, and three testimonies. DeMichael elaborated, “we have one male athlete and one female athlete that share about what being an IWU athlete means now as opposed to what they thought it meant when they arrived.” He continued, “the third testimony comes from one of our coaches who talks about the IWU Athletics mission.” Following the testimonies, a guest speaker typically shares about the impact athletics has in our culture. After the guest speaker concludes the service moves to a responsive reading focused on the Great Commission.

To seal the service the athletic department provides wristbands with the Indiana Wesleyan Athletics mission statement and Philippians verse inscribed on it. DeMichael then shared how the services have traditionally concluded. “The last thing we do is go outside and give them a candle,” he said. “Dr. Lo, the Dean of Chapel, talks about unity and how we are not alone in this mission. Then our coaches light each candle and eventually 300 candles are lit to signify the unity of the athletic department to advance the IWU mission. When the candle lighting ceremony is over, we break them up into small groups, we intentionally mix up the teams and then allow them the opportunity to share prayer requests and pray in small groups led by student-athletes.”

 2. All-athletic department mission trip

While mission trips were discussed in a previous post as a spiritual formation strategy, it is my belief that mission trips are also powerful unifiers in creating a family atmosphere. One unique example was Indiana Wesleyan’s athletic department which traveled to Auckland, New Zealand. Athletic Director Mark DeMichael led an audacious department-wide trip that included more than 200 student-athletes, coaches, and administrators. According to DeMicaheal, the idea was birthed when he felt prompted years earlier as the baseball coach on a mission trip in Czech Republic. He believed it would be a powerful experience to take an entire athletic department on a mission trip together.

I was curious how he approached any expectations and communication with his coaches. He explained to me, “my language to the coaches was I have this vision that I absolutely believe will change the culture of our department. I think the Lord will use us to do amazing things in the church over there but I’m not going to make this mandatory. The only thing that is mandatory is that you make it available to all of your student-athletes. Then I spent the next couple of years rah-rahing the coaches, getting them on-board, I know that some of them did it out a sense of obligation and that’s okay. At that point I didn’t care. We ended up having a little more than half of the athletes in the athletic department participate.”

The stories I heard when they arrived in New Zealand were powerful. Almost immediately upon deplaning in Auckland, coaches and student-athletes encountered ministering opportunities to individuals who were once strangers. One coach revealed that, “every day teams were coming back talking about the lives that were being changed, just incredible stories of God working.”

On the final day another powerful moment occurred when an impromptu baptism service took place at the beach. Mark DeMichael retold his accounts of that day. “Kevin Uber, our softball graduate assistant, came to me and said ‘Coach I’ve never been baptized and I feel like God is prompting me to be baptized.’ Then I said, ‘You know what Kevin, I’ve never been baptized either, I was raised Salvation Army and they don’t do baptisms, they are not against it but they just don’t do it.’ Then a couple softball players wanted to get baptized too, so we have the four us getting baptized at the beach. The baptism service was great, then as we are getting ready to leave four volleyball players and a women’s basketball players came up to us crying saying that they wanted to get baptized too. So we brought everybody back and did it again. It was just awesome.”

Needless to say upon returning to Indiana the athletic department was more unified than ever. One student-athlete, Allix Miller, attempted to explain her time in New Zealand. “To see my teammates broken, to see the way that God was moving, it was an incredible experience,” she said. “I mean we were able to be the hands and feet of Christ and to make connections with the universal church all the way in New Zealand. Then to do it with my teammates, it was the best.”  Another student-athlete, Kyle Johnson, explained, “I got close to the basketball coaches in New Zealand, they’ve helped me out a lot with how to advance the spiritual culture of our athletic program.”

It was also discovered that coaches experienced intra-departmental growth on mission trips, especially this particular trip to New Zealand. Candace Moats, Indiana Wesleyan’s Head Volleyball Coach, revealed that “the trip broke down walls and built relationships with my peers.” She added, “an athletic department is kind of a man’s world. Even now I am the one female head coach, which at times has felt like a lonely walk. They are great brothers but there is just a difference in gender and a difference in hanging out and doing things together. New Zealand helped me to understand how much these guys really care about me; it kind of opened my eyes to see them differently.”

I was given the opportunity to play for Coach Stross at Southeastern University from 2005-2007. Without hesitation, I can say that it remains one of the greatest God-given opportunities of my life.  Coach Stross opened up his life, his family and his faith to his players and I am a stronger individual today because of it.

What stands out most in my memory of playing for Coach Stross is that I knew he cared about each of his players as individuals- for far more than just our performance on the field. He respected each of us for our value as a person and what we contributed to our team, and not just for our minutes of playing time. Because Coach set this example in respect, we respected each other. What started as twenty five teammates, we ended as a family.

-Rachel Jackson