Coach Little

Coach Hagen Little is the new strength and conditioning coach here at GHS. He graduated from Graham High School, where he played football and track and field. After high school, Coach Little went on to Lehigh University and did college track. Coach Little then had an opportunity to work for the Kansas City Chiefs for a year. While he did that, he attended online school. After that year with the Chiefs was up, Coach Little finished up his schooling at Abilene Christian University.  While in College, he majored in Kinesiology and minored in coaching. When asked what inspired him to coach in the first place, his response was “In highschool I loved working out, I had a coach who was a very inspirational strength coach for me, he showed me how to have fun in the weight room. When I got to college, I injured my knee from lifting wrong; and my strength coach just didn’t believe in what we were doing because he didn’t like us as a team. So, I wanted to make sure that if I ever became a strength coach I would treat everyone the same, keep everyone healthy, and have fun at the same time. Hard work doesn’t have to be so gruesome, so I try to make things more fun.” Of course coaching is going to have its weak moments along with its really great moments because that’s how life works. Coach Little has learned a lot while coaching and says, “Coaching is not always what you think it’s going to be. When I was playing in highschool, I always thought coaches were so calm, collected, and just had everything together.. and I was just so naive. When I became a coach, I realized that there was a whole lot of work that goes into it. Lots of headaches and stress, but there is a lot more joy as a coach, because when you get a win it means a lot more now than it did in high school because of all the long hours and hard work that goes into coaching. You could be up all night trying to figure things out and you’re stressing out. So when you do have a win, it feels so much more rewarding and means more. When something bad happens, it hurts a little bit more.” As you can see, coaching is hard work but rewarding in the end. We need good coaches like Coach Little to keep our athletes motivated and working hard. Student athletes can always use more advice from coaches who have been in their spots before when it gets tough for them. When I asked Coach what his biggest piece of advice was he said “Enjoy every moment. I wish I could go back to playing in Highschool and enjoy every moment a little bit more when I could go hang out with my friends after a game or after practice and play Halo on my Xbox. When I was in Highschool, I was worried about being the best all the time when I should’ve just enjoyed being in High School. Once it’s over, there is no going back. The older you get, the more life starts to get in your way. I wish I could talk to my friends the same way I did in high school. So yeah, enjoy the time while you have it.” Student athletes are very lucky to have a coach who cares about them as much as Coach Little does. Without coaches who care, our athletics department would not be as successful as they are right now.