Coach

I gotta admit that I was never a big believer in coaching making a big difference in professional sports. I always figured it was all about the players. I mean come on, does a 58 year old fat guy really make that much of a difference when there are 20 athletes with supreme physical skills? Unless he is Santa (had to use him at least once considering the season), I used to argue that he made a negligible difference.

Recently I have had to eat my words. Big time. Coaching has become a huge difference in the major sports. I believe it is partially because the athletes have plateaued in terms of physical inequality. They are able to be very similar in terms of strength and speed due to major improvements in training. I'll let a few examples do the talking for me using the 3 sports that I believe coaching makes the biggest difference in. The NBA has recently turned into a superstar's league. The system and decent players can only get you so far.

NFL- Look no further than 2 teams that are playoff bound. Jim Harbaugh has turned the San Francisco 49ers completely around. They haven't had a winning season since 2002 until this year when they already have the NFC West locked up. He has turned former #1 overall bust into a very serviceable QB. The team fights in every game and has a renewed swagger that you haven't seen out of any recent 49er teams. Very impressive work done by Harbaugh on a team with very few personnel changes compared to last year. The other coach making a big difference this season has been Wade Phillips of the Houston Texans. He isn't a head coach, but rather the defensive coordinator. He has taken a defense that was at the bottom of the league last year and now has them at the top. Much like Harbaugh, there are very few personnel differences. He has formed a scheme that fits the athletes that he has at his disposal. The improvement goes entirely to his credit.

MLB- Kirk Gibson was able to pull off a 29 game swing this last summer when he took the Arizona Diamondbacks to the playoffs. Just a year ago they lost 97 games, this season they came away with 94 wins. The change of attitude in the clubhouse was a major factor. As many will remember, Gibson hit one of the best HRs in the history of baseball with his World Series game winner on basically 1 leg. He was a warrior and he took that same philosophy to the Diamondback players this year. He took no excuses and demanded the best out of them everyday.

NHL- 3 young teams made coaching changes this year and all have paid off handsomely. The Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers each hired new coaches in the offseason and both have almost met last year's results without even being halfway through the season. The St. Louis Blues also made a change early in the season and it has paid off huge with only 2 regulation losses in 20 games thus far. Mike Yeo (MN) & Kevin Dineen (FLA) are first time coaches at the NHL level while Ken Hitchcock (STL) has been around for more than 15 years. All are showing that a new voice and approach in the locker room can push a team to succeed.