Leading with Perspective: How Joel Bradford Balances Gratitude, Process, and Performance

Keith Grabowski (00:01.014)
We’re back for our week five. National Coach of the Week presented by Modern Football. It’s hard to believe we’re already five weeks into this. The season is flying by. We have another great performance we’re going to recognize here. And this week, our National Coach of Week is Joel Bradford, head coach at Macaulay High School in Tennessee. Coach, it’s great to have you here, and congratulations on a big win this week.

Joel Bradford (00:23.715)
Thank you Keith for having me and thank you for the honor. Obviously it’s a group effort. There’s a lot of people involved. So I appreciate you having me.

Keith Grabowski (00:31.798)
Yeah, absolutely. Before we get into talking about some things here, I to make sure you have the opportunity to recognize that group effort. Like you said, all these kinds of awards are a collective, so I want to give you the opportunity to mention your staff and the players, obviously, who are a big part of this as well.

Joel Bradford (00:49.826)
Yeah, I mean, I’ll start with, I guess, our defense coordinator and former head coach, who’s still on. He was my head coach, Ralph Potter. So he’s, to me, he’s a legendary coach. He does a lot with the program and has done a lot. And then our linebackers coaches, have Casey Cook and Chris Har. I’m sorry, Casey Cook and Chris Richardson. Our D-line coaches, Chris Har. We got Kelsey Watson, the defensive backfield. On the offensive side, we have…

Kenny Scholl, he’s our running back coach. You got Mike Newman, longtime O-line coach. He’s the magician behind it all. And then we got our receivers coach, Corey Simpson, tight ends coach Thomas Battle, quarterbacks coach Jack Samsel, our special teams coach, Brad Speakman. So, you know, those guys work tremendously hard and obviously they help out with the plans and helping the kids execute the plan.

Keith Grabowski (01:49.718)
Well, Coach, something like this. You mentioned the coach you took over for Ralph Potter. But if anybody knows about Ralph, legendary in what he’s done in his career. And that’s not always easy to follow. before we got going, you talked about, to me, the word perspective. And it’s something that’s, I think, really important in the way that you’re approaching the game and the process behind it. And we’d love to have

You share those ideas with our listeners about your perspective and the approach you take to the game.

Joel Bradford (02:24.854)
Yeah, I mean, just when I first started, we were talking earlier about this, when I first started, everybody was like, man, you got big shoes to fill and it’s a big program or, you know, just we’ve been very successful in the last several years. And so now here you are, now you’re taking the helm. And I’m like, I see it as a blessing, you know, like, you you can’t, I can’t put too much stress on myself to think about outcomes and think about like how I’m going to do or anything like that. The only thing I can do is what I can control. And so for me to attack each day from a grateful standpoint,

point from a place of gratitude that to me that’s what keeps me I guess

humble at what I do, also it keeps me just focused on what I do. And, you know, my job is to get the guys, get the players and the staff ready to play each week and to play and at the end of the season play at their optimal level. And so that’s my job. And at the same time, I want to love on the kids and see it as a ministry and see it as just a moment of their lives where they can be impacted through the sport and through the mentors that are around them.

time. So, you know, like we work too hard as coaches to give our to to

you know, be hard on ourselves. And I give a lot of credit to my wife, Courtney. So, you know, I think the coaches wives are the unsung heroes because they, guess, sometimes hear all the potential negative stuff and the positive stuff. And she’s like, you know, can we talk about something other than football? So, you know, we have those conversations quite a bit. So she’s the sounding board for me. But yeah, I just think, you know, it’s about, I know it’s cliche to say about we’ve got

Joel Bradford (04:09.104)
focus on the process not the outcomes but honestly it’s it’s true and you know I don’t I care about you know the objective is to win games and win a championship but really what I care about is how the kids play the game and I want them to play relentlessly for four quarters physical and rely on their execution and doing their job rather than emotion or

entertainment stuff, you know, it’s like we have a job to do. I think when the kids realize that if they do that and they feel that where they’re executing at a high level and doing their job and playing for each other, know, special things can happen.

Keith Grabowski (04:49.12)
Yeah, it’s, you know, as you were saying that, I mean, we always talk about the process, right? You hear that, obviously, made famous by Nick Saban, right? The process and staying focused on that. But I think you fold in something very important there in this, in the perspective, in that approach, in that how that actually does feed the process, right? So we can’t just say, well, here’s the process, here’s how we do it. Be really rigid with those things.

because it still comes down to, especially you as the leader, how am I approaching this? And there’s a lot of different ways you can do it that really, you know, we’re talking about human processes, still human beings, right? So it will affect how they behave too. It will affect how they approach that process. Are they going to approach it with a growth mindset? Or is it something that maybe feels so rigid that they’re not growing as much as they need to?

Joel Bradford (05:46.765)
Yeah, and it’s like, you know.

I tell the team this and I tell myself this and it’s not to excuse anything but one team in every conference or in every league or whatever division one team wins the championship right and a lot of things go into that and a lot of things you know the ball bounce is funny sometimes so at the end of it all what do you want to be what do you want to remember and then what how do you want to be remembered as a team and so from from my point of view it’s like

know we can’t necessarily control our outcomes so whether we win or lose let’s let’s address how did we play you know and and and let the let the scoreboard and the championships take care of themselves and so when the kids focus on their task and how they play the game then

let’s let’s address it win or lose of how what can we take from that moment what can we take from that game how can we learn from it so sometimes you play bad and you lose and it’s like well we played bad let’s learn from it sometimes you play bad and you win and it’s like well you know maybe it’s the opponent you know they’re outmatched but

We’ve got a lot to learn from and then same thing with winning if we win and we play bad or if we played well and we win it’s like guys that that was huge that was massive but let’s learn from like let’s learn from let’s let’s go from there let’s build on build on that and then if you play well and you lose it’s like well guys like i’m proud of the way you played the ball bounced funny on on this play or you know some play they made more plays than we did but they earned the victory because we played well

Joel Bradford (07:29.642)
And that’s what it’s about. So bottom line is, let’s play well. Let’s do our job. Let’s execute and let the chips fall where they fall.

Keith Grabowski (07:38.656)
Yeah, and in this particular case, the opponent you played, Mission Viejo, number six in the country at the time you were playing and been following them. Their head coach has been on the podcast before, and I know they do an excellent job. They they’ve had some big wins over nationally ranked teams this season too. And, you know, sometimes just that opponent on paper coming in could be daunting, especially for high school kids.

So I’m sure perspective was a big part of this too in the approach that this is you know still about how we play the game. You obviously you got the results you wanted this week. What’s that look like for program? I know you guys have played some big teams you know in some ways becoming a national program in that you’ve got to go outside of your area to play some teams and get some games. The approach there.

I know there’s, I see a lot of teams who as they get success, nobody in their area wants to play them. So it kind of is starting to apply to more and more teams. What advice do you have for getting into these kinds of games? And again, I think it does go back to what you’ve already shared that perspective.

Joel Bradford (08:55.18)
Yeah, I mean, you know, it goes back to only one team won the state championship. So then it’s like, what do you when you’re 40 or 30 years old, or just after you graduate high school, what what do you want to remember? And to me,

You know, I remember a lot more losses than wins, yes, but I remember the big games. I remember the moments, the challenging moments. And so, like I told the team going into last week, number one, like we’ve got something to prove because we just came off a loss. You know, we’ve got to get back to work and we’ve got to get better. Number two, it doesn’t get any easier. We’re about to play the number six team in the nation. So you all better buckle up, right? Or you’re going to get exposed, which proves to

the way you prepare and play the game and how you practice each week matters and so you better be locked in and then along with that it’s like guys you have you have something that no other McCauley team has ever done you know to beat a top-10 team in the nation on their home field on our home field and that’s gonna be a memory that can last forever and you can cherish forever but

if we lose against that top 10 team, you’re also going to remember how you played against them. So win or lose, we need to go out and create a memory and seize that moment of like, let’s go out there and play the best we can. That’s all we can do. And if you win, man, something you can hang your hat on forever and remember something that another team has done. And if you lose, OK, well, let’s see how we played. And did you play well? Did you have some charitable moments?

and things that you can build on or did you take and have some things that you can learn from, you know? So like that was my mindset going to the game and the kids, again, have time I don’t even know if they listen to me, but you know, they, I had one of the players tell me Thursday night, I think it was our senior quarterback and he goes, coach, I have a feeling that our team is ready to play. Like, I just feel like something special.

Joel Bradford (11:01.728)
And so, you know, the kids in the locker room, they can feel it more than I can. And so that kind of gave me some hope. But in terms of the victory and the result, I think it’s huge for our program. For the kids to play with, to understand that, how you play, you can do special things. You can actually beat quality teams like Mission Viejo. Like if we play together and play well.

and do it for every play relentlessly for four quarters. Like special things can happen and you give yourself the best chance to win. And so it gives them a memory for a lifetime. I think that night was pretty, it was a great spectacle for our school, like the pride.

the student section alumni coming back, I think it was family weekend. So a bunch of the families of our kids were here and so they got to see a high level of football being played. So it was a unique experience, which I’m biased, but I think being unbiased, think our program and our school is pretty unique within itself too.

Keith Grabowski (12:11.04)
Yeah, and I think you would agree with this too and teaching kids the approach you’re taking, they see that, they’re gonna model that and football will end for everybody. As coaches, we’re lucky because we get to do it. We don’t have a senior year, we could keep going till either we decide not to or someone decides that we’re not doing it anymore.

Joel Bradford (12:37.582)
One thing I told somebody last week or I learned last year really, but I told them last week, was like, man, you know what being a head coach does for me? It disciplines me to respond the right way every time because all the eyes are on me. So like if we lose or we don’t, or something bad happens in a game, I can’t freak out, you know? And I was like that as a player. I just kind of put my head down and worked. I think that came from my dad.

And so, yeah, and I was, I was, you know, I had a chip in my shoulder. was smaller than everybody. I had to outsmart people. I just had to kind of find ways to win. And so for me as a coach, I’m kind of the same way, but being a head coach, it really, I had to check myself. And then when we win, you know, you can’t walk around like you did something, right? You just got to be like, well, what a blessing, right? That was a great, great game. We got the result we wanted, but how did we play? I’m just like,

That’s what I’m more worried about. And the kids hear that all the time. like, you know, we made enough plays to win or whatnot. Or maybe our opponent, you know, factored, was a factor in that. yeah, it’s fun being a head coach, but it’s also hard because you got to discipline your thoughts and your reactions, key situations.

Keith Grabowski (13:57.602)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think if that’s something that you could pass on to your players through the experience and what they’re learning from you, you know, there’s that ripple effect in life and really through what we do. I mean, I think that’s what’s so special about football coaches and what we do to touch a community that

positive or negative, what we do will have a ripple effect. And we obviously want to be on the positive side of things so that the impact we have through our players, through our communities is gonna grow with everything that we do.

Joel Bradford (14:33.763)
No doubt.

Joel Bradford (14:37.422)
I would hope they would always think of how they responded in football, their days playing football later on in life when life hits, right? Life hits all of us. So it’s all about how you think about it, how you respond to it. From being a husband, being a father.

you know, being a co-worker, know, or relationship with co-workers and your family members, you know, your in-laws and I mean there’s so many, there’s so many things in life that you gotta be able to kind of see the good in situations, like the blessings in situations and then also if it’s bad, you just gotta be okay, this is good. You gotta have that mentality that this is good and why is it good? Because, you know, you have a chance to respond the right way and…

if you can discipline yourself to respond right more than wrong, think that’s what you consider maybe success for some people, you know.

Keith Grabowski (15:35.732)
Absolutely. Well, our world definitely needs more of that coach and I appreciate you sharing that with us here. Congratulations again to you and the Blue Tornado on the start you’ve had this season, the big win and best wishes and good luck the rest of the way.

Joel Bradford (15:53.849)
Thank you, thank you Keith for having me and it’s a huge honor. And so, you know, I think it’s on behalf of the program, you know, we thank you and everything you do for the game. And so it’s been fun being on here. So go blue.