If you are looking for fancy formatting and graphics- this ain’t it! These are simply some of the best quotes compiled from a variety of sources over a career in coaching at the youth, high school, and college level. As a player I found quotes to be motivational, and as a coach I found them to be a wonderful way to emphasize core values, emphasize a point our coaching staff was trying to make, or respond to a situation our team was facing.Many coaches collect and use quotes, but in my coaching career I found few books or websites with a large number of quality quotes specifically for coaches, and I never found a source that arranged them topically as done here. There are three sections: In Season Thoughts, Out of Season Thoughts, and Alphabetical Topics.

I have had several players over my career tell me years later that one of the things they remember most from their playing career was starting our practices with one of these thoughts and how much it meant to them. A more famous example would be former UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach John Wooden- one of the most decorated and revered coaches of all time (he won more NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships than any coach ever). At his funeral at age 99 in 2010, they filmed his former players reciting the many quotes, maxims, and aphorisms that were ingrained in their minds decades after their playing career but still providing guidance and inspiration.