Changing the Character of

a High School Football

Program
Ben Burk
11 April 2015
EdLd 647:
Organizational & Systems Change

Question 1
What was the Setting and
Who were the Characters in your Project?

The setting of this project is Burnsville High School.

Burnsville is a suburb of Minneapolis, the high
school has a school population of more than 2100
students grades 10-12. 40% of the population are
students of color. The school graduation rate as of
2014 was 82%. Reading proficiency levels in 2014
were just over 60%. In science, 56% of students
are proficient, and in math, only 33% of students
are proficient. 1 in 4 students at BHS has failed at
least one class every year. Our goal as a high
school is to improve the graduation rate and
reduce Ds and Fs across the board. The football
team wants to use character building as the
vehicle.
The characters in my project are high school
football players and high school coaches. We have
roughly 80 young men 10th -12th grade in our
program. The average GPA on our team is 2.75.

Question 2
What was the Change You Wanted to Make
and Why was the Change Needed?
I decided that I wanted to make a change in the way our
football program approached character building. Currently, we
do a lot of talking about what character is, what good
character is, what leadership is and how grades and academic
success make a student a better football player and a better
person and things like that. After my first year at BHS, I
observed that talking was all we were doing. After spending
some time with a coach I admire in a different program, who
builds a lot of character development into his program, I was
convinced that BHS needed a character building curriculum
that plays an active role in the development of players.
Instead of only talking about character issues, our team
needed to go through a class, and practice good character,
much like they do their other academic subjects, or the
position they play on the football field.

Question 3
How did you provide for each of Lippitts
5 Essential Elements for Change? (cont on next slide)

Vision
The vision of this change is To improve the character of the
young men involved in BHS Football.

I communicated my desires to be more explicit in character

development with the head coach in a personal conversation
after being assigned this project. He was very supportive
because he is also looking for ways to improve our players off
the field. Our coaching staff regularly expresses to
administration that we believe the school goes as the football
team goes. The players on our team have enormous leadership
power because they are in the spotlight at the beginning of the
year. If they exhibit low character qualities, students who dont
play football will follow suit. The inverse is also true, which
makes this program change even more important. The other
assistant coaches will follow our direction, and have agreed to
do so.

Question 3
How did you provide for each of Lippitts
5 Essential Elements for Change? (cont on next slide)

Skills (e.g., intellectual, emotional, physical,

technical).
What skills were needed by you and other people to
implement this change?
This change requires buy in from the assistant coaches first. Ive
had conversations with many of them about their impressions,
and the general feeling I get is that everyone sees this change as
a good thing. It helps correct an issue on our team and in our
school. I am harnessing that positive impact to help coaches use
their personal skills to help impact the lessons. A handful of
coaches said they would help lead the character talks. Thats
what I need. I have a group of diverse and talented assistant
coaches with a lot of life experience. The majority of them exhibit
high character and are excellent role models. I will use them as
examples and as resources to help the kids practice and learn
what its like to be a high character person.

Question 3
How did you provide for each of Lippitts
5 Essential Elements for Change? (cont on next slide)

Skills (e.g., intellectual, emotional, physical,

technical).
What was your assessment of peoples
skills and how did you teach them the skills
they needed but did not have?
As I mentioned, I am able to utilize an existing
skill set. I do not have to create anything new, or
teach anyone anything. Our head coach has
done a good job of assembling a staff that has
high character. The skills are there, this change
simply makes them more visible to our players
by explicitly teaching them.

Question 3
How did you provide for each of Lippitts
5 Essential Elements for Change? (cont on next slide)

Incentive
What incentives, if any, were there for you or people
to implement this change?
There are two different groups that need incentive: the
coaches and the players. Most of coaches care about
developing the kids into men. They see this change as
another way to do that. The players on the other hand need
more incentive. Their goal is to win games, not necessary
develop their character. The incentive for them to make this
a priority is that it will impact their eligibility to earn a
varsity letter. We have established guidelines for earning a
letter. I was able to include the character development
curriculum into that policy. Our players will have to
complete the course and practice high character through
volunteerism and things like that in order to earn a varsity
letter.

Question 3
How did you provide for each of Lippitts
5 Essential Elements for Change? (cont on next slide)

Resources
What resources were needed to implement the change?
The curriculum either needed to be developed out of nothing,
or brought in from the outside. Thankfully I am following a
model created by ROCORI High School. Coach Rowe at ROCORI
has a fully created curriculum for character development for
the whole season with relevant topics for todays athletes. I
purchased this curriculum from his website. The other
resources needed are presenters, space, and time. I will be
working with the assistant coaches to select who will lead the
lessons, and our meetings will happen on Saturday mornings
after football games. We meet every Saturday anyway, this will
just be added on.
What did you do to make sure these resources were
available?
I had discussions with our head coach about the best time to
do this. We agreed on the times listed above.

Question 3
How did you provide for each of Lippitts
5 Essential Elements for Change? (cont on next slide)

Action Plan
What was the action plan for this change?
The action plan in on a slide following this one. The plan for this
change is to have it ready to go by Aug 1, or the first day of the
new season. The preliminary work is being done by me to have it
ready to go by then. I have the curriculum already, Im working
on talking to the coaches about leading certain lessons.
Who created it? What was the process in implementing it?
I created the action plan with feedback from the other coaches
involved. I targeted specific coaches who have done similar work
in the past, and asked for their help. I created calendar invites
and reminders for the tasks and their due dates and sent them to
the people involved so it stays on their radar.

Action Plan
Action Steps
What task will be
done?

Responsible
Who will do it?

Institute Character
Development
Curriculum

Coach Burk

Get Assistant
Coaches to Present

Coach Burk

Provide Volunteer
Opportunities

Coach Krebs, Coach

Strand

Deadline
By when?

Aug 1

Aug 1

Ongoing

Resources
What do you need to
complete this step?
(People, money, tools,
etc.)
Curriculum purchased
from Mike Rowe

Potential
Barriers
What could get in the
way of task
completion? How will
you overcome them?
n/a

Result
What is the outcome of
the task?

Curriculum applied and

formatted for BHS

Varsity, JV, and Frosh

coaches. Check with
Superintendent as a
guest speaker

Scheduling for nonvarsity coaches,

willingness to present

Positive: We will have

diverse group of
presenters. Negative:
Coach Burk will do
them all.

Already a good list of

things, but will provide
more as they come in.
Krebs and Strand are
the POCs and get lots
of requests.

Scheduling, Player
willingness or
motivation. Injuries?

Players will have

opportunities to
volunteer and practice
what theyre learning
in the class.

Monitor player
grades and
behavior in school

Coach Holden, Coach

Anderson, Coach Burk,
Coach Krebs

Before each grading

period ends, ongoing
after that.

Grade Checks,
discussions with
teachers. Coach Burk
has access to all
grades. Krebs too.

Apathy, unorganized
coaches. At the
beginning of the year,
there arent a lot of
grades.

Players can see results

of living a with high
character in the
classroom. They will
get better grades if
they behave better.

Get Feedback on
the change

Coach Riggs

At the end of the

season, Coach Riggs
will have an evaluation
ready for the players to
give their feedback.
Well also compare this
year to last year in

Riggs will make the

evaluation, the admin
will give us the
behavior and
attendance reports.

The athletes preform

worse than they did
before
(implementation dip)
or we have to focus on
other things. (playoff
losses, injuries, things

A real assessment of
the character of our
kids after going
through the course.
Does it improve? What
worked, what didnt.
What did they like,

Question 4
What Other Aspects of Change Theory
Did You Observe or Experience in Yourself
or Others?

Hord et al. -- Stages of Concern?

I experienced several stages of concern in myself and by others.
When I first proposed this change to my head coach, he was in
stage three right away. He was mostly concerned with management.
When was I planning on doing this, what would we be sacrificing as
a program? What would we lose to gain a benefit in character? I am
currently on Stage 5. Im concerned about the collaboration of the
assistant coaches. I know they are a talented bunch, but their
availability and lack of motivation concern me. The Head Coach and
I are on the same page as far as our concern about the students off
the field. Ive heard comments from some assistant coaches that
only care about what happens on the field, so they would be less
inclined to help. I believe that would put them at Stage 2, because
their solely concerned about how it affects them. It concerns me,
but I know there are enough of us involved to make it effective
change.

Question 4
What Other Aspects of Change Theory
Did You Observe or Experience in Yourself
or Others?
Senges Challenges to Initiation
I dont believe that this change was too much for one person to take
on as far as organization, but the hurdle once the season starts of
keeping people focused on it when other things start happening will
be a challenge. For instance, if we lose a few games in a row, that
may cause players and coaches to care less about the character
building. The opposite is true too though, if we do a good job with
the character stuff, winning and losing wont matter as much.
Walking the talk is another challenge I see coming. If youre going to
preach character development, you have to be a good example of it
all the time. Our coaching staff, for the most part, has no problem
with this. The challenge will be if the kids dont buy in at all and we
face the same issues we faced with poor character kids making bad
decisions like we have before. I believe strongly that character is
connected to academic/athletic success. The kids and coaches who
buy in will find this out. It will take a strong commitment, so that
could be a challenge too.

Question 4
What Other Aspects of Change Theory
Did You Observe or Experience in Yourself
or Others?

Resistance
Ive spoken out in class about problems with resistors, but with this
change there hasnt been many resistors. It may be because we
havent actually started, but I feel supported by my coaching staff
that the change is good. If I could foresee resistance, it would be
from students who do not see relevance. I an imagine some
students do not want to make the commitment. Looking at
Hargreaves and Fullans explanation of resistance is difficult when
thinking about students, but Goldsteins point that resistors
perceive a threat to their current beliefs makes sense. My change
is asking students to adjust their core values and hold themselves
to a higher standard. They need to work harder on schoolwork and
be in class. The players who dont have these habits now may
resist because they dont want to put forth the effort, or dont see
how it impacts football. We need to approach that resistance, as
Godldstein says, with empathy.

Question 4
What Other Aspects of Change Theory
Did You Observe or Experience in Yourself or
Others?
Fullans Implementation Dips
After thinking of the change and having conversations about it
with the key players in the change, I went through an
implementation dip. I had the framework and the ideas, but with
the initiation of the change really taking place in August, my
motivation level dipped because I knew I had time. I was
reinvigorated when I wrote the action plan, because it made the
change more real and put timelines together. I had to actually
purchase the curriculum, but I haven't actually looked at it in
great detail. Id say because of that, were in another dip. The
plan is in place, now we are waiting till August to implement the
change. After that happens, Im expecting another true dip, much
like Fullans graph. We have our ideal path, but with some of the
resistance and challenges well face, we wont get exactly what
we think right away. It will be important to recognize the dip and
stay the course when that happens.

Question 5
What Happened
As You Began to Implement the Change?

What went well?

The best thing to happen so far is getting buy in from the head
coach, and a few assistant coaches. I was scared that although
we say the right things, we wouldnt take character development
seriously enough to commit practice and meeting time to
developing skills that dont directly impact a football game, like
a team drill or something. I was surprised with the support of the
head coach and commitment by a few key assistants.

What didnt go so well?

So far so good. This question will be addressed again once the
season ends and Coach Riggs goes through the assessment
portion of the plan. Im interested to see if we get results right
away, or if the implementation dip will impact wins/losses or
grades/attendance.

Question 5
What Happened
As You Began to Implement the Change?
Why was it as successful as it was, OR,
why wasnt it more successful?
I would have liked to capture the momentum of me
being in this class to apply a change that I could
implement right away, but I do believe that planning
everything out like this and experiencing the course
fully first, before implementing this change has
benefits too. Ill be more aware of the implementation
dip for instance. One of the biggest issues in our
school is going to be addressed through character
development of the football team. I believe this is the
ripple in the pond that will have positive effects
outside of our focus in the normal school community.

Question 6
What is the Current Situation?
Was the change partially or fully implemented?
The change was only partially implemented. This is
due to the season being far away. Building more
character development has been an idea thats
floated around for a while, but until I went through the
change project assignment, it never had the
momentum it needed. This assignment provided an
opportunity to bring a great idea from an idea to
implementation.
If partially, what do you think it will take for the
change to be completed?
As mentioned, were waiting on the season to start to
implement the change completely.
If fully implemented, what will be needed to
sustain the change in the future?
I know that the change needs to have visible benefits
to be sustained. It may take more than one year, but

Question 7
Famous Last Words?

Was there a lesson you learned

somewhere during this process that you can
share with others?
I learned that change is an impressive process. Im developing
from someone who flies by the seat of my pants to someone
who develops plans and writes them down. The amount of
thought that goes into a big change in an organization can
seem overwhelming. There are many different levels of the
change as well. By looking at all of the theory and applying it
to my change project, I had a more defined road map. Doing
things this way gave me the ability to anticipate challenges,
and plan for implementation dips. Diligence is key.