Poor culture on a winning team can destroy that winning team, while good culture on a poor team can build it. Campbell has imbued this from day 1 and it contributes directly to where they are now and they still played hard for him those first two years and that is the key.

I have a very solid personal example of that too. My last coaching stop was at Carl Hayden HS here in Phoenix, where I was on staff from 2016 to 2022 when I retired. They opened in 1957, where a perennial doormat and in the late 90's early 2000's they lost 66 straight games.

The core of our staff came from Westview, where we were very successful, after the head coach there got a College gig. Progress was slow and painful, but we improved each year and were usually competitive. We stayed on course with our message and got the kids to trust us and buy in, which is not always easy at an inner city school. In 2021 we finally had the first winning season since 1997. In 2022 we won our region title, which was the first region title in the history of the school and only the second time ever they had back to back winning seasons.

That region clinching game in 2022 the stands were packed to overflowing with a lot of our old players coming back to support the current team and it was emotional. To see hardened kids, that have to fight for everything, cry tears of joy because they get what they had just done. They were all special kids and everyone one of the players from 2016 forward had a part in it. Honestly one of my very best experiences in 36 years of coaching and those kids deserve it.

Our entire staff stepped away after that season for various reasons, me retiring, the head coach, who actually played for me at Westview to spend more time with his family, other Westview alum moving on to other things. Sadly the new coach did not under stand culture and came in with very different mentality, insulted the kids, would not work with kids who had to miss workouts over the summer to help their families put food on the table, running many of the upper classmen off and never looking in the mirror to analyze himself. They went 0-10 in 2023, he stepped down before he was fired and a guy that was on our staff in 2016 took the job, they went 1-9 this past year mainly due to how much damage had been done, but the new coach, who I respect a lot is sticking with them.

I say all this for one reason and that is yes, the culture established by the coaches has a very real impact on performance, good and bad and if the culture is good, players will fight even through the bad times, which is not the case with poor culture.