Flip Courter is the successful head softball coach at Grain Valley High School in Missouri, where he is also a track and field assistant and a longtime social studies teacher.
Courter took a few minutes to answer 20 questions for the NFCA …
What is the very first thing you do with your team when starting a new season?
During tryouts, we try to connect older and younger players in ways to welcome next players into our program.
What one characteristic must every person who plays for you have?
Every player needs to understand that softball is an important thing, but it's not the most important thing. Faith, family, school, softball is something we go over in the first week.
Why did you get into coaching?
I got into coaching because I love how participating in sports and my coaches influenced my development as a person when I was a kid. It's my hope that I am doing the same for athletes today.
What is the most difficult part of being a coach?
The most difficult part is trying to find the right home-work balance where I can give our teams the attention they need to be successful while also being there for my family first and foremost.
What is the most rewarding thing about being a coach?
The most rewarding thing about being a coach is seeing kids go on to be successful in their post-high school lives using some of the things that they picked up from playing for us.
If you could have dinner with three other coaches from any time in history, who would they be?
Mike Krzyzewski, Joe Maddon, Phil Jackson. Big fan of their teams throughout my life and players that played for them always talk about how much of an impact they had on their lives.
What is the one thing in life or coaching you won’t compromise on?
There's no compromising honesty, whether it's with players, coaches, parents, or officials. If we want our kids to grow up being honest themselves, we need to be honest with them, too.
What is the one thing you personally feel you need to have to succeed as a coach?
To succeed to as a coach, you've got to have buy-in from the players. If they aren't committed to the mission of the program, it will never get where you want it to go.
How do you define success?
Success for us is playing the game the right way and giving it our all every single day. Sometimes you're going to run into somebody that is just better than you, but if you can look back and say that you did everything you could to compete and win, but it wasn't enough, that's all we can ask for.
What makes a great coaching staff?
A great staff has to be committed to the mission of the program so that everybody is rowing the boat in the same direction. There also needs to be communication and understanding that we need to be united when working with our athletes.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned from a loss?
We can only control the controllables: our attitude and our effort. Everything else is out of our control, and sometimes those things end up not going your way and you can either pout about it, or deal with it and move on to the next. That's one of the great things about softball ... you usually don't have to wait long to have a chance to get back on track!
What is a goal you have for YOURSELF over the next 12 months?
During the season, it's so hard between family and team commitments to take care of myself physically, so when our season finishes, it's time to get the body right and ready for the next one!
What is an objective you have set for your TEAM for this next season?
Think about one thing you can do every day to make yourself and the people around you better.
What would be an area in your coaching you’d like to improve?
Not to sweat the small things. There are times where silly things like what music is being played at games, or making sure the bus is scheduled for the right time, get me a little stressed out.
What would you want a former player to say about you?
I hope they say that they could see that I cared about them as a person more than anything and that they got at least one thing from me that they can use to make their lives better.
What do you feel is the most important thing a coach can provide to their players?
Kindness and understanding. Kids today have completely different lives than when I was in their shoes 30 years ago. Trying to understand what they're going through and how to connect with them is more important now than ever.
How would you describe your coaching style/philosophy?
I'm very big on preparation. Scouting, charting, etc., whatever we can do to get a leg-up on the competition. It's cliche, but it's true: failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
What piece of advice would you give a fellow coach?
Surround yourself with a good support system. Have coaches that you can trust and know that they're going to bring it every day.
What do you do for fun in your downtime?
What's downtime? I spend a lot of time following my two kids around to all their stuff and I love it. My daughter, Caffrey, does a lot of theater and choir stuff, along with track in the spring. My son, Casen, plays soccer and basketball. When not doing their stuff, we all like to play with our three cats (Colby, Cookie, Cosmo) and watch "Seinfeld" all the time. We also travel a lot.
What would someone be surprised to learn about you?
I grew up around the game of softball. In northern Missouri when I was a kid, boys played fastpitch. My brother was a catcher, and in high school I was a first baseman. After playing for four years, I was an umpire and then started my high school coaching in 2001, coaching boys fastpitch in Mercer, Mo.
