Like many Americans, this author avidly read everything I could find about Tim Walz after Kamala Harris chose him as her vice presidential candidate.

I didn’t have to hear or read more than three paragraphs before my interest took a major hit. There it was: Tim Walz was a former high school football coach and defensive coordinator for a state championship-winning team in Minnesota. He also taught geography and social studies.

Well, I have spent my entire career working with high school coaches and have made some observations:

• First, some of the smartest, most inspiring, and most sensible leaders I’ve ever met have been top football coaches.
• And second, some of the most mentally retarded and ineffective people I’ve ever met were high school football coaches.

The same could be said of workers in virtually any profession, including doctors, lawyers, business managers, and sportswriters. There are really, really good ones, and there are really, really terrible ones. I know dozens of high school football coaches who would have been successful in any profession they chose.

Gulfport coaching legend Lindy Callahan immediately comes to mind. Coach Callahan is 96 years young now, and I would probably still vote for him no matter what office he held. He could have, in the words of the great Jake Gaither, taken his and beat yours, or taken yours and beat his. He would have been a great mayor, congressman, or governor. The same could be said of Marion “Chief” Henley, who won 116 games and lost only eight as coach of the old Carver High School in Picayune in the days before integration.

Callahan and Henley both possessed all the qualities, traits, and interpersonal skills that make successful football coaches. They were smart, but they also surrounded themselves with competent people. They inspired the young people who played for them. They inspired respect, but they also inspired uncommon love and devotion. They were quick on their feet and adaptable when the chips were down. They worked and worked and worked. They inspired others to work just as hard as they did.

I’ve been playing a lot of golf lately with Mike Justice, another very successful, championship-winning high school football coach who would have been successful even if he had been a lumber hauler in Itawamba County like his father. We were talking the other day about whether the same qualities and characteristics that make a successful football coach also make a good vice president or even president. As we know all too well, a vice president is only a heartbeat away from a promotion.

Justice believes the best way to succeed as a high school football coach is to “surround yourself with good people, run a system you believe in and get really good at it. Stick with it no matter what.”

Justice said: “You should believe in what you are doing and you should be able to inspire your players to believe in it and buy into it.”

Those sound like the qualities and characteristics needed to be an effective government leader. But I still have a hard time imagining Justice in the Oval Office—or seeing him in a suit and tie every day. He feels the same way.

Not many coaches venture into politics here, even though in small towns in Mississippi a successful football coach is often the most popular and respected man in town. One possible reason: According to the law, state pension payments for retired coaches would be frozen on the day they take office.

It’s important to note that there were more cheerleaders than players or coaches who became influential decision makers in government. Senator John Stennis was a cheerleader at Mississippi State. Senators Trent Lott and Thad Cochran were both cheerleaders at Ole Miss. I’m not sure what that tells us. “Hotty Toddy” and “Hail State,” I guess.

And I know what many readers are thinking: But what about Tommy Tuberville, the former Ole Miss football coach turned Alabama senator who told us he would only leave Oxford in a pine coffin but then flew off to Auburn in a private jet?

Frankly, I don’t count Tuberville out more than I trust him. He spent four years at Ole Miss, winning 25 games and losing 20. In fact, I’m not sure Alabamans should count him as one of their own. After all, he was living in Florida – and had been for years – when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate in Alabama.

If you ask me, Tuberville’s record as a senator does not set a good example for coaches-turned-politicians. For nearly a year in 2023, he held back all promotions of senior U.S. military officers, drawing the ire of the country’s military leadership and many in his own party who believed he was endangering the country’s security.

“There is no one more military than me,” said Tuberville, who has never served a second in any branch of the military.

But back to the original topic of this column: Can a high school football coach become a successful leader on the national level?

My opinion: Some could, many couldn’t. One thing is certain: many of the qualities that make a very successful coach would also benefit a vice president or president.