Matthew W. Cole: President of Bluestreak Sports Training
Highland Rugby truly changed my life. I played college football and played for many different coaches, and not once have I ever had a coach like Larry – no one even compared.
He was so inspiring to play for, and the principles he taught me personally have helped me my whole life.
I am now am successful business owner, and I use the values I learned from Coach Gelwix in my company. He used to say, “Even though I am the coach, my job is not any more important then yours. We have different roles but our importance is equal.” He truly treated you as his equal. That does not mean he was not extremely tough on you and expected your best at all times and nothing less. He used to say, “We’re on cruise control and we need to step it up on notch.”
I often think about this in my life and reflect at times that I am on cruise control and need to step it up. He was tough, but you knew he did it for the right reasons, he loved you as a son. The best comparison I can think of is from the Book Of Mormon. Coach led how I picture captain Moroni or Helaman led the 2000 stripling warrior’s. The best business example I can think of is from the book called Good to Great by Jim Collins. In this book Jim describes 5 different levels of leadership, a level 5 leader being the greatest of them all. (MORE INFO CLICK HERE)
Larry even held optional missionary prep classes where he applied the coaching principles to the mission. These made me so excited for my mission. Every month on my mission I received the Highland Rugby newsletter. Coach would say, “The sun will never set on an HR missionary as we have elders in every part of the world.” I feel through these classes I was more prepared for my mission and life in general.
Another thing Larry used to tell us is, “Making the right choices in life will not make your life easy, but it will make it easier.” Larry lived what he preached. He was a father to me in every sense – someone I looked up to and wanted to be like. Larry is in the business of building men and character, and along the way he wins a lot of rugby games. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of the lessons I learned from HR. I attached a link to my blog which has an October post with some pictures.
Matthew Cole | patrick April 2, 2009
