A former NFL All-Pro named Joe Ehrmann kicked open a coaching door three years ago that has inspired Wally Sparks to come rushing through.

Ehrmanns Building Men for Others coaching approach featured in a New York Times best-seller Season of Life shattered traditional coaching models and struck a loud chord with Sparks, who until a year ago lived in Macon County and was a head coach with the Mount Zion Junior Football League program and a volunteer coach for the Mount Zion High School team.

It was Sparks who brought Erhmann to Decatur and offered a chance for any and every coach in the area to hear his message. It was Sparks who hoped at least a few of them would be motivated as he was, rising to the challenge to implement Ehrmanns methods.

And now, it is Sparks who has documented his own attempt to apply Ehrmanns ideas in a practical sense during the 2010 Mount Zion Junior Football League season. Sparks book Season of Change is on sale now, and none other than Ehrmann himself has endorsed the book by writing the forward.

Says Ehrmann: This is a must-read for coaches, parents, youth workers and educators who want more for Americas children and more out of the sports our children play. Season of Change is a practical hands-on book that reinforces its central theme: that the educational, social, emotional and moral well-being of players is every bit as important as the Xs and Os. In fact, it should be the reason players play, parents participate and coaches coach!

Understanding Ehrmanns coaching premise is not easy. And that only makes implementing it an even more daunting task.

Yet Sparks, who has since moved his family to suburban St. Louis, felt compelled to try with his young Mount Zion players in 2010.

I wasnt nervous going in, maybe out of naivet, said Sparks, who still maintains a Decatur office with the The Brechnitz Group of Raymond James Associates. I knew it was going to be my last year as coach, so there was some freedom in knowing, What can they do? Fire me?

There was noapprehension at the beginning. But there were periods of apprehension during it.

Some background is in order.

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Approaching coaching from a different angle