In football, championships aren’t won solely by talent—they are won by teams willing to put the group above themselves. Understanding the power of sacrifice in team culture can transform a roster from a collection of individuals into a cohesive, unstoppable unit. Coaches who emphasize selflessness, commitment, and buy-in can see their programs thrive both on and off the field.
Redefining Success Through Selflessness
Joel Nellis, head coach at Brookfield Central High School, emphasizes that sacrifice is at the heart of his program’s success. “It’s not about me, and to be a part of the team, it has to be about more than just yourself” (01:55). By instilling this mindset, players begin to view every practice rep, every missed carry, and every extra drill not as a personal loss, but as a contribution to a larger mission.
This culture shift starts at the top. When coaches model sacrifice, it signals to players that no role is too small and no task is beneath anyone. Nellis himself experienced this firsthand: he relinquished his personal goal of calling plays to better serve the team. As he reflected, “The biggest thing I wanted to do was I wanted to be a varsity play caller… I had to hand that over to someone I trusted” (03:09). By stepping back, he demonstrated that prioritizing team needs above personal ambition strengthens trust and unity.
Role Players: The Unsung Architects of Culture
Sacrifice is not reserved for the stars. Often, role players define a team’s character. Nellis shares the story of Evan Lyakopoulos, a senior who embraced his backup role while excelling academically and socially:
“Evan would come back fully padded for practice, even if it meant being there for the last 15 minutes. He didn’t care; he wanted to help his team in whatever way possible” (04:40).
By highlighting contributions like Evan’s, coaches can reinforce that selflessness fuels performance. Celebrating role players not only motivates them but also inspires others to mirror those behaviors. As a result, the team develops a shared standard where every member understands that giving up individual desires can lead to collective success.
Rewarding Sacrifice Builds Lasting Culture
What coaches recognize and reward will flourish. Nellis instituted core value awards instead of traditional MVP honors. This approach emphasizes sacrifice, discipline, and unity, ensuring that the behaviors most important to team culture are at the forefront. Moreover, by sharing these stories repeatedly, players internalize these values on a daily basis. Nellis advises, “Don’t be afraid to repeat your stories and core values day after day, because that will be ingrained in our players” (07:30).
Over time, the power of sacrifice becomes visible in every drill, every practice, and every game. It unites teammates across positions and personalities, creating a program where players invest not for personal glory, but for the good of all.
Implementing Sacrifice in Your Program
Coaches can start applying these principles immediately:
- Model sacrifice at the top. Your choices set the tone for the entire program.
- Celebrate role players. Recognize the unsung contributors publicly and consistently.
- Reinforce core values daily. Stories, awards, and reminders make sacrifice tangible.
Ultimately, embracing the power of sacrifice in team culture doesn’t just improve performance—it fosters character, accountability, and a lasting legacy that extends far beyond the football field.
Related:
What You Reward Gets Repeated: Rethinking Team Awards and Recognition- Joel Nellis
From the Weight Room to Social Media: Celebrating Effort to Build Momentum
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Transcript
Joel Nellis (00:00)
Hi there. My name is Joel Nellis. I’m the head football coach at Brookfield Central High School in Brookfield, Wisconsin. I’ve been the head coach now going on seven years, and I’m excited to talk on this podcast about our core values and the one that I think has proved to be the most valuable. At the end of the 2021 season, heading into 2022, I knew there were some things that I needed to change. I took over for a very successful head coach named Jed Kennedy.
And he had created his own culture as a part of our program. and I had sort of adopted that, that culture and that, that SANE, which was me, U S team and continued that and just felt like after 2021, we had had kind of a rough year. I felt like I needed to do some things that were a bit different and kind of make things that were my own. And, you know, we looked into a lot of different things and I’d really come about with, you know, listening to the focus three podcasts.
The Kite family, you know, I put together a lot of stuff and resources on culture, but I wanted to make something that was our own and not just unique to me, but I’m always the person that believes in buy-in. So I met with our coaching staff and got their feedback because, you know, without a great coaching staff buy-in, you’re not going to have buy-in that’s going to go down to the rest of the program. So I felt really strongly that we had to get some core ideas around what we wanted to do. And we came up with
the idea of brotherhood and under brotherhood we came with sort of five stars or five core values and those were discipline which we labeled as the commitment to the highest standard regardless of circumstances, relentlessness, an uncommon effort to achieve your personal best, trust that is anchored in the consistency of your and accountability for your actions, sacrifice, it’s not about me and then unity being we’re unbreakable together and I think
when it’s really hard to pick one of those five and say that it’s only one thing that can lead to our success, because we sort of view it as a continuum. If you’re not relentless, if you’re not disciplined, we can’t trust you. And then we can’t trust you, that’s going be hard to put you on the field. But where I think that the magic is, especially with today’s day and age, is really in that sacrifice piece.
And I found that even the idea of MeUS Team, which is the sort of rally point that we had prior, was I really came along with the idea that it’s not about you. And to be a part of the team, it has to be about more than just yourself. And I think kids really buy into that idea of being a part of something unique and different that’s not just part of themselves. So I think there’s two stories that I can sort of…
illustrate that I think would be helpful. The number one thing that I tell our team, I tell our parents, and I even spoke in a clinic this last weekend and talked about was the idea that no one in our program gets everything they want. You when I took over for Coach Kennedy, I really had the idea that I wanted to be a play caller. I hadn’t had the opportunity to call plays at the varsity level. And then two years in, I realized how taxing it was to be both a play caller and a head coach. And so I had to.
take a step back from the thing that I wanted to do the most, which was play calling and hand.
Joel Nellis (03:09)
and hand that over to another individual to call play, someone that I trusted and believed in. Because what my role was going to be was, hey, are you there?
Joel Nellis (03:20)
The story that I wanna highlight around sacrifice from my own personal side is what I’d like to share with the team every single year before we start. I share it at our parent meeting, I share it with our players, I try to make it a reoccurring message throughout the course of the year because I think it’s really important to talk about the fact that everyone on our team is sacrificing. So when I took over for Coach Kennedy, the biggest thing I wanted to do was I wanted to be a varsity play caller. I’d only called plays on the JV level.
and hadn’t got the opportunity to call plays on varsity. And I did so for the first two years with mixed results. I had a very talented team in which we got pretty good results on and not as talented team that I think I, it kind of became overwhelming to do everything I needed to do with being a head coach and in the film study to be a coordinator. So I relinquished my play calling duties in my third season, handing it over to someone that I trusted that had been in our staff with me as an assistant and believe that he would do a really good job.
And for me, I try to tell that story often to our players because it’s a sacrifice on my behalf. And I really lead with the sentiment that no one in our program gets everything they want. Me as the head coach, I would love to be able to call plays. Our offensive coordinator would love to be able to call the plays that he wants to, or maybe he only wants to run all the time instead of pass all the time. And that’s not indicative of what we want. All of our coaches maybe wish they had things they could put in. All of our players wish they had more carries. All of our players wish they had more reps.
and so on and so forth down the line. And I think it’s a really important thing to illustrate that not everybody in the program gets what they want. And it’s not just that, and that goes all the way up to the highest level of me being the head coach, but then also our top players. Our top players don’t get everything that they possibly want. And it hasn’t been like that ever in our program. So I think it’s really important to know and as a way to unify around sacrifices to let everyone know that they are not getting
everything that they want. The story that I’m going to highlight that I think then goes even further is I look at a player, Evan Lyakopoulos. Evan was a senior for us and he had worked his guts out into his senior year and was competing for a chance to play. But, you know, we had some other bigger bodies and he sort of
not that he lost his spot, but he was kind of at a different role where he was maybe a backup, but really a huge role player for us on scout team. And Evan had the chance to take an internship at a high school level at the Medical College of Wisconsin that was nearby. And so Evan, with what his role was gonna be, we knew that it was gonna be worth him going to maybe missing part of practice to then come back. Evan would come back.
fully padded for practice, even if it meant being there for the last 15 minutes. He didn’t care. He wanted to help his team in whatever way possible. He gave his best effort. He stepped in where needed if it was to fill a role, maybe even in a position that he wasn’t gonna play, but he never wanted to come out of practice. And I think that permeated there. The thing that I’ll give Evan a ton of credit for is one practice in the summer, his dog passed away.
He had, they went there to the hospital, the veterinary hospital, put his dog down, and then he came back to practice. And I give him a ton of credit that I bet that he would have, I was more than willing to give him the day off. I was more than willing to let him go, but he said that it was gonna feel better for him to be there and to get his mind off of it. And when anyone else tells me they have something small going on,
you know, that they may need to miss four, they’re not sure of, I can remind them that of the things that Evan did to sacrifice for our program and to put himself in a position to help. It wasn’t the position that he wanted, he was just, he was a starter or played more snaps, but he embraced the role that he had. He sacrificed in any way possible to help our team contribute and contribute to our team in a meaningful way. And I think it’s examples like that.
That really can you unify your players and I think if you look back the best thing I enjoy about talking about sacrifice is that it’s really on talking about The most highly decorated player it usually is about those role players those lower level players They’re doing anything and everything they can to help the team and those are the guys that are never going to get Enough credit for what they do, but it gives you a chance to amplify their voice and their story
as a part of your team and I really think that that unifies all the players below and the players above. And you get to tell those stories over and over and over again and I think it builds that other kids can now look and see what sacrifice could look like for them and how it could make them an important part of your team. And then lastly, what you reward gets repeated and we have our core value awards that we awarded our banquet.
do most improve, we don’t do an MVP. We have our awards that are voted on by the coaches and given to the players. And obviously, Evan has senior year won the sacrifice award. And those are something that will be special and unique to him. He gets a plaque, he gets talked about the banquet. We share examples of what he did. And then this year I’m going to look to put together a board that lives in our locker room that shows those core value winners year after year.
So again, I I hope that culture is something that you guys are actively working on. Don’t be afraid to make changes in your culture, but work with your coaching staff and your players to get a pulse of what your identity is. And then the one thing I would say is a big recommendation is don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. I think the more I look at it, I have to do a better job of repeating my stories and repeating our core values and emphasizing them day after day, because I think that will be ingrained in our players and that will help us with better results.
Best of luck this upcoming season and in future. Take care.