Throughout his nearly five decade career in athletic leadership, Dr. Marty Durden has written extensively about the “servant-leader” model of sports coaching. Recently, Durden released his new book, “More than Winning: The Servant-Leader Coach in Contemporary Society” that is available for purchase on Amazon.
In the book Durden, a 2016 doctoral graduate from the Academy, shares his insight and research about the transformational influence of servant-leadership coaching.
“My research has shown that servant-leadership coaching elicits a higher level of sustained effort,” Durden said. “Young people who view their coach through the lens of trust tend to face the crucible of athletics with a higher degree of determination…The Higher Standard is the antidote to the insipient uptick of unethical incidents in our beloved (coaching) profession.”
Durden is a veteran coach whose teams have won state championships in basketball, baseball, football, and golf over the span of nearly five decades. His final career stop was as athletic director at Calvary Christian School in Columbus, Ga.
He previously worked as the athletic director at Presbyterian School in Houston, and has also has worked as an adjunct professor at Belhaven University, Concordia Texas University and at Houston Baptist University. He earned his Doctor of Education degree from the Academy while working full time in the profession.
“The Academy means the world to me,” Durden said. “I knew I needed to get my doctorate for my career, and Dr. Fred Cromartie (Academy Director of Doctoral Studies) and the faculty and staff at the Academy were just so helpful to me. Dr. Cromartie really embraced the concept of servant leadership in coaching and helped me along throughout the dissertation process. I can’t say enough about how great he and the Academy faculty were to me.
“To me, real learning happens when you are free to explore ideas. The Academy helped me to grow and to learn by giving me the freedom to explore the big ideas. Everything I learned from the Academy has been absolutely applicable to almost everything I do professionally on a daily basis.
“I was working as a coach and administrator while I pursued my degree, and the Academy really helped me as a working professional. I was able to keep my job while furthering my education. I would recommend the Academy to anyone and everyone.”
The book focuses on servant leadership coaching philosophy as a method to help others. I’m glad to see someone writing about servant leadership coaching philosophy. I think this is a great method to help others, but there are a few things I would change about the article. First, the title could be more specific. Second, in the first paragraph, the book is described as a “how-to” guide. I would recommend changing this to “a guide that explores” or something similar, as it is not a step-by-step guide. Finally, I would add more information about the author and their credentials.