For four years I was a basketball player for my high school team, and for those four years, I had amazing coaches. Each one of them taught me something not only about myself, but also about being able to handle all kinds of problems. I look back on my four years of being a basketball player at my high school, and I realize more and more the lessons I learned and how they are helping me today. As I am sure is true for all people playing a team sport, you will relate to this at least somewhat.

For one thing, coaches will drive you to succeed so much that that drive kind of sticks with you forever, because you don't want to fail and you know you can do it. While there is drive for everyone, coaches implant this in their athletes and they drive this home at every practice so it will always stick.

Coaches are there to inspire their athletes and make them want to work harder and get better. And some are so good at it that you really grow to appreciate all those extra sprints at practice after you hang up your jersey for the last time.

Sometimes coaches can even be there for you when you really need some one to talk to, even if you don't realize you need to talk to someone yet. I have a little story to relate to this one.

It was the night where the winter sports teams would all have their chance to shine. Every team from basketball to swimming would be featured. The captains would make speeches and the players would all be called to stand up and have a few moments of recognition before the next name was called.

Well, this one happened to be the year I was a senior, and with this night being in November, college applications were being completed and lots of preparation was being made. For me, it was very stressful, but I wasn't saying so and losing sleep. One of my coaches was early to the event and it became obvious something was wrong. He pulled me aside, sat with me on a bench and talked with me about my stress for approximately an hour. And afterward, I felt a lot better. Needless to say, after that, I was a lot less stressed and came away from that conversation with a new way to handle stress. I'll never forget how much that talk helped me out.

All in all, coaches are some of the best teachers you'll ever have, because not only will you learn life lessons from them, but also you will see you yourself grow with them. Coaches will notice a change, and that will make them happy too, even if they don't say it or show it sometimes. But while you're doing one of those hard drills and you do something right, you can almost know that at least one coach noticed and is smiling–at least on the inside. Because as much as they want the team to succeed, watching someone grow is also very rewarding, especially when you helped that growth.