How does a man who is normally reserved in the eyes of his players celebrate a big win? He lets out a giant scream after the game. Minutes after Broomfield shocked Windsor with a 37-25 win over the defending Class 4A state champions, coach Blair Hubbard shocked his players with a celebratory scream in the end zone. He was thrilled to see the things he preaches on the field turn into a much-deserved victory. It's moments like those that allow him to take pride in the way that he coaches high school kids. And with the result going in his favor against Windsor, he has been named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Q: What's your main motivation behind coaching and continuing to coach high school kids?
The thing that I want to do as a coach is just help these guys to know that through sports, they can learn lessons in life. As a coach, if I'm not taking time to teach those lessons I feel like I'm doing a disservice. The thing that I really enjoy is those times later in life when kids call me up and they're getting married or they're having kids and knowing that I've had an opportunity to have a positive impact in their lives for the future.
Q: Why do you coach the way you coach?
The way I coach, I tell the guys that I have two rules. Those two rules are based of General (Norman) Schwarzkopf's rules of leadership; to take charge and use good judgement. I want to build relationships and I want to family. I actually just talked about this (with the team) last week. You can't build a family with a bunch of rules, but you build a family with relationships. If you're brought into a family, you've got a responsibility to take upon yourself. So that's the way I coach. I think my staff has bought into that also, that we want to build relationships. We still want to hold kids accountable, but that accountability comes from their personal responsibility and love for one another. That's why I coach the way I do.
Q: From the perspective of your players, what do you think it's like to be coached by you?
I would say that they probably know that first of all, that I care about them. Second of all, they know that I'm passionate about the game and passionate about seeing them be successful. Part of that is holding the kids accountable to being disciplined. It's just a good balance with relationship and with accountability.
Q: How do you define success through your coaching?
Success for our coaching is making sure our kids are as successful as they can be individually and collectively on the field. Beyond that, making sure kids are graduating and hopefully going on to college, whether they're playing or not, and getting that college degree and getting that great start in life.
Q: What do you tell your boys going into a game last week where you face the defending state champions?
Three things that we have that are the core of our program, that have always been a part of my program, we call it our DNA. That is our toughness. That there is no fear no matter who we're playing and no matter where we're playing them. And then our love for each other. I just reminded the kids of that in the locker room before we took the field against Windsor. I told them that we were going to have to show a lot of toughness tonight against a great team. We're going to have to come out with no fear and then play for the love of each other. The guys did that. The big thing on Friday night was let's put together four disciplined quarters of football. We had no turnovers, we had less than five penalties in the game and the kids did really good job of playing with discipline and leaving our DNA out there on the field on Friday.
Q: A lot of coaches like to talk about the lessons that they teach kids after a loss, but what lessons can you teach them coming off a game and a win like you had on Friday?
It's the same thing we were preaching all week long and even though we got the win against Wheat Ridge the week before, we had a number of turnovers and a number of penalties and just showing guys that if we can play disciplined football, that it will pay off. We might not always win, but at least we're not fighting ourselves; becoming our own worst enemy. And that was the thing coming out of this win, we were able to point to the fact that our discipline paid off in that game.
Q: That can be a win that can be special in a season, what do you remember about those moments and those wins and those accomplishments when it comes to your relationship with your kids?
I'm a pretty reserved coach on the sidelines during the games and pretty reserved during practice. Seeing the kids' smiles on their faces and hugging each other after the game, it's the first time they've ever beat Windsor is what some of the older kids told me. We got the kids together in the endzone at the end of the game and kind of quieted them down and I just let out a huge "Oh yeah!" I think the kids were shocked and we partied for a few more seconds there before we calmed them down again and I think them seeing that emotion from me is something that caught them off guard and they were pretty excited about. But just seeing the smiles on their faces when we got on the bus and got home was a lot of fun.
