Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, March 26, 2015, Page 9

Mount Ayr Community High School track coach Brad Elliott has won Positive Coaching Alliance's coveted Double-Goal Coach Award presented by TeamSnap for his positive impact on youth athletes.

Elliot is one of 25 national recipients of the Double-Goal Coach award, named fo coaches who strive to win while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports. The award includes a $250 prize, a trophy and mention within the websites and newsletters of Postive Coaching Alliance, a national non-profit dedicated to using youth and high school sports to develop Better Athletes, Better People.

"Brad helps his athletes win on the track and well beyond," said Jim Thompson, founded and CEO of Postive Coaching Alliance (PCA) and author of nine books on youth sports, including "The Power of Double-Goal Coaching." "By creating a positive, character-building youth sport experience, and serving as a Double-Goal Coach, Brad helps youth develop into better athletes and better people."

Elliott, who returned to his alma mater to lead the track team to the school's first-ever state title in boys' sports, reflected on how athletes process their coaches' messages, and how he in particular, then brought these messages to his own coaching. "I probably didn't realize it at the time I was an athlete," he said, "but as I got older and moved back to this community, I wanted to share the wealth of knowledge of people I've taken little bits and pieces from.

"You find your own recipe of these great ingredients you got from all those people along the way and you adapt all these things into your own stew. Then the athletes have to take the information I give them and make their own recipe for their own success. The main thing I want kids to take away is that they should give back to their community."

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2015