Jamy Bechler

Providing Insights on Leadership and Success. Coach Bechler is a John Maxwell Leadership Team Member.

Persevering to Finish Strong

Has your season been disappointing? Are you frustrated with your results? Do you have a sense of despair? Do you feel that there is little hope?   If so, then I want to encourage you today to run the race with perseverance and finish strong. Don’t be discouraged.

I am reminded of the Jacob Riis’ quote concerning rock sculptures…

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

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Hope Is Not The Best Strategy

“I hope we do better this year.”

“I hope that I start.”

“I hope that we win the championship.”

“I hope that I get recruited by college scouts.”

Have you ever said any of those statements?  Have you ever used the word ‘hope’ in describing something about your athletic team or your athletic career?  Have you ever wished that something was different but did nothing about it?

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Keep Athletic Departments Accountable

This editorial appeared in the Chronicle-Tribune on May 21, 2015

We are both grateful and concerned about the effort to plan spending for the Marion High School athletic department. Last week Athletic Director Jamy Bechler came to the school board and said he has been working in the past year to clean up the spending of funds that fall outside of the overall school budget.

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Bechler Transforms Marion’s Athletic Spending

(editor’s note: This article was written by the Chronicle-Tribune’s Jillian Fellows on May 14, 2015. Photo is of Bechler addressing the crowd at the Marion turf field dedication ceremony in August)

When Jamy Bechler was appointed director of the Marion High School athletic department last spring, he took command of sports teams with a storied and successful past as well as a mountain of debt from more than a decade of unchecked spending.

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Marion Student-Athletes Learning Leadership Skills

(originally published on January 25, 2015)

Some Marion High School student-athletes are learning how to be better leaders in order to help their teams on the field of competition and improve the world around them.

About 25 student-athletes from various teams at Marion met weekly this past semester before school to learn about different leadership concepts.

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Opportunity Knocks

(originally published on January 9, 2015)

The Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes will battle Monday night in the first-ever College Football Playoffs Championship Game. Both teams have glaring examples of people who took advantage of opportunities presented to them and didn’t quit or become disruptive to their teams. I will come back to these Bucks and Ducks in a moment.

As a long-time coach and now an athletic director, it pains me every time that I see a student-athlete get disgruntled over playing time or their role on the team. In nearly every case, the player quits. Oh, they might not quit the team and they might not even make a visible show but slowly and surely they cash out mentally. Instead of seeing the opportunity in every challenge, as Winston Churchill used to say, they see the difficulty in every opportunity. Unfortunately instead of persevering, they make excuses and take on a victim-mentality.

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Win the Day

(originally published on January 1, 2015)

It’s the first day of the new year.  This is a day of new beginnings.  It is a day that gets people thinking about change.   I went to the gym this afternoon for my normal exercise session.  There were a number of new people there that I haven’t seen before.  I think this will become the new normal…at least for a month or so.  New Year’s resolutions abound.  Promises are made.  Commitments are revealed.

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Bechler to lead the Marion Athletic Department

The new leader of Marion Giants athletics brings collegiate-level experience and a vision for maximizing student-athlete potential, supporting coaches, and generating community excitement.

Jamy Bechler will take over as director of athletics at Marion High School starting June 2. He was approved by the Marion Community Schools Board of School Trustees during its regular meeting on May 14.

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Dave Ramsey’s Cookie Cutter Answers Taste Good

(originally published on December 19, 2013)

Today I read an article by a financial “expert” saying that people should not listen to Dave Ramsey and his financial advice because people’s lives are too complex and important to be boiled down into short cookie cutter answers or platitudes.  Unfortunately, many other financial analysts have also had problems with his method of advising people on how to be financially successful.

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