“Help! I Need to Do a Total Culture Rebuild…”

Nov 20

A few days ago, I received a text message from a former client that carried the weight of a coach who had hit his breaking point. It said: “Help! I need to do a total culture rebuild. I just went through the worst year of my career.”

We jumped on a Zoom call the next day. The frustration was obvious. The season hadn’t just been bad — it had revealed something deeper. As he talked, he said the words almost every coach eventually faces but few want to say out loud:

“We had guys who did not care. We didn’t have seniors to lead. Even the older guys didn’t lead. We could’ve made the playoffs if we won the last game…but they didn’t care that much. Honestly, if I polled the team, I think they would’ve said they didn’t care about continuing.”

It’s heavy. Any coach can relate — I know I can. But the reality is, situations like this happen far more often than people realize.

Teams rarely fall apart because of scheme.

They fall apart because of culture.

Most programs hope for great leadership rather than train it. When the right kids show up, things work. When they don’t? Everything cracks and it’s a long season.

But nothing about leadership is random. Everything can be built. Everything can be trained.

And that’s where I shared a story that changed the way I think about culture forever.

Water the Grass, Don’t Fight the Weeds

Back when I coached at small schools, I was the grounds crew — mowing, striping, and doing whatever it took to keep the field playable. One day, the “grass guy” we hired a few times a year walked the field with me and said something I’ve never forgotten.

He said:

“If you want a healthy field, don’t spray the weeds. Water the grass instead. Healthy grass naturally chokes out the weeds.”

Many coaches spend their time chasing weeds — the bad attitudes, the complainers, the non-workers, the guys who simply don’t care.

But here’s the reality most coaches miss: pulling weeds doesn’t build a program. It fixes symptoms, not systems. You might remove a few issues, but you never reshape the culture.

A better approach — the one that creates real, lasting culture — is to water the grass.

Find the players who genuinely care.
Invest in them intentionally.
Develop them into leaders.

Their influence becomes the strongest cultural force in your program, and over time, their growth naturally overtakes the weeds around them.

And don’t get me wrong: we absolutely must hold everyone accountable when they fail to live the standard. Accountability matters, and it never stops mattering. But this time of year — when you’re not seeing your athletes every day — is not the time to chase problems you can’t directly coach. It’s the perfect time to grow the right kids.

Because what you celebrate replicates.

If you spend your time talking about who isn’t doing the work, you accidentally reward the wrong behaviors with attention. But when you celebrate the ones who are showing up, working hard, communicating, and trying to lead — you multiply that behavior.

The key isn’t just removing the wrong people.
The key is developing the right ones.

THE PLAN

Here’s the exact plan I gave him — and the one that works everywhere, even at schools without an athletic period.

The Leadership Council System

Step 1: Create an 8-Player Leadership Council

Let the team vote on the eight players they trust the most.

But if a few extra kids truly want to join, let them.

You never turn away a kid who wants to lead.

Step 2: Meet Every Other Wednesday Morning (30 Minutes)

Consistency beats intensity.

Short meetings, big impact.

Here’s the key: your curriculum has to get your athletes talking. It cannot be 30–40 minutes of them sitting and listening to you — they get enough of that already. When the conversations are real and the dialogue is honest, they’ll actually enjoy this time and start looking forward to every meeting.

Use the Blueprint Leadership Academy curriculum.

Why? Because:

It’s plug-and-play
Zero prep for the coach
No videos to hunt down
No lessons to script
No materials to create
Designed specifically for captains and leadership councils
8 complete lessons with discussion prompts, breakdowns, and challenges
Professional manuals your players read, write in, and carry

All you have to do is show up, open the manual, and facilitate.

The system does the heavy lifting.

This solves the #1 reason leadership programs fail:

Coaches don’t have time to build consistent content.

The Leadership Academy gives you the structure, the storylines, the lessons, the reflection questions, and the challenges — all done for you.

Every meeting becomes a high-impact leadership development session without any extra work on your end.

Step 3: Make the Meeting Feel Like a Big Deal

Culture grows in the environment you create.

Invite other coaches
Ask parents to bring breakfast tacos or drinks
Set the room up before players arrive
Make it feel intentional, not rushed

When players see adults invested in the meeting, they invest too.

Step 4: Empower Players to Build the New Standard

During Leadership Academy discussions, guide them to answer:

What went wrong last year?
What do we want to be known for now?
What does “care” look like daily?
What standard are we willing to enforce?
How do we lead without being bossy or dramatic?
How do we fix things before coaches even hear about them?

When players help build the culture, they begin to own it.

And when they own it, they enforce it.

Why This Works

Because it creates a leadership middle class — a layer of trained, committed athletes who:

Model the right habits
Fix issues early
Shift the locker room tone
Spread the standard
Hold teammates accountable
Become the emotional thermostat of the team

This is how culture turns.

Not through punishment.

Not through yelling.

Not through “my way or the highway.”

But through a consistent leadership development system built around the players who care.

Water the grass — and the weeds disappear on their own.

Your Worst Year Might Become Your Best Turning Point

This coach thought he’d reached rock bottom.

But rock bottom is actually the perfect starting point.

Why?

The problems are exposed
The team knows change is needed
The excuses are gone
The soil is ready for replanting

That’s when real, lasting rebuilds happen.

And this is exactly where a Leadership Council becomes essential.
You don’t fix a broken culture by attacking the weeds — you fix it by watering the grass. A council gives you a small group of athletes who want to grow, who care, and who can help spread the new standard through the rest of the team.

Pair that council with a plug-and-play Leadership Academy curriculum, and you suddenly have a simple, consistent system that develops leaders, shapes daily habits, and strengthens your culture from the inside out.

It’s the simplest, fastest, and most effective way to rebuild a program — without overwhelming your coaching staff or adding more to your plate.

Water the grass, and the whole field changes.