SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Friday night lights. There’s nothing like it for coaches like Kurt Hines of Coronado High School.
“This is my 24th year coaching high school football,” Hines said.
24 years of passion and love for the game and molding players.
On the Wednesday just before practice and two days before game day on Friday, Hines took to Twitter to announce something.
He posted a video that was less than a minute but, it had a powerful message.
“I just had a young man come in and quit,” Hines said in the Twitter video.
The video has garnered a lot of attention, getting close to two million views and tens of thousands of likes as of Friday night.
And the coach is going viral for the right reasons.
“He (the player) started to explain that they’ve always been a football family, they’ve always loved it, my father, my brother. I stopped him and I said 'Do you love it?' And he just breathed this deepest sigh of relief and said, 'No.' I said I’m proud of you,” Hines said in the Twitter video.
Not the words you’d think a coach of more than two decades would say.
“I’ve known him for a long time and he said, ‘Coach, I thought you were going to be so mad,’” Hines said in a Zoom interview ABC 10News.
“I looked at him and I said, 'I love you. I’m just proud of you,' It was great to see that smile.”
They were probably words that this seasoned coach probably wouldn’t have said in his earlier years.
“I wasn’t the same way when I first started coaching. I wish I was. The more mature I get I realize, it truly is - it sounds cliche - about empowering young men and young women to better young men and young women,” Hines said.
The coach said that the smile on his player’s face was something that he probably wouldn’t forget for a long time.
Hines also told ABC 10News that coming to the decision to quit a team isn't easy.
“There are some people on social media who said quitting is the easiest thing to do. It’s not. Quitting is hard because everyone in the world is going to judge you for it and all that stuff," Hines said.
One of the Coronado football assistant coaches told ABC 10News that he loved the video and the message behind it. He mentioned that the coaching staff and the team have been supportive of their former teammate.
He’s bringing a different kind of game plan on and off the field. Hines hopes that his message can be received and resonate with other coaches and do the same for their players.
“Football is not for everyone. Couldn’t be happier. Coaches, support your players if they want to be great. And, if they want to be great in something other than football, support them just the same,” Hines said in the video.
Coach Hines told ABC 10News there has been some negative responses to his video.
“I guess simply my message would be if we are only winning games, we are failing our young men and young women,” Hines said.
“If we’re building champions on and off the field, that’s going to do the world a lot better than the rings and trophies that are going to collect dust,”
But, he said there’s always going to be supporters and those against something on social media and hopes people don’t miss the message.
