SEMO's Coach Tuke reminds his team about the process

It�s easy to focus on results, particularly in sports. It�s not to say winning isn�t important, because it is. We root for our favorite team to score the most points or make a big defensive play. But winning is the result, not the driver.

Last week the Southeast Missouri State football team faced conference foe Tennessee Tech and scored a school record 70 points in their lopsided win. Scoring 70 points will get attention. But if you talk with head coach Tom Matukewicz, otherwise known as Coach Tuke, the focus won�t be on the points scored. It will be on the process.

�You have to get off the result train,� Tuke said in an interview with me Wednesday afternoon. �If you�re on the result train you�re going to live an up and down life. You really have to get on the process train. It�s about steady process that it takes to accumulate a successful life, not a successful moment.�

He wants to win as much as anyone. No question about it. But the path to victory begins and ends with process.

�Winning is important. But that can�t be the focus. Focus on winning doesn�t help you win. Focus on the process helps you win.�

For Tuke and the Redhawks, the process has four pillars: Attitude, Effort, Discipline and Love.

He said attitude is about personal responsibility. �Stand up and own it. I�m responsible for where I�m at because of the decisions I�ve made up until this day.�

Southeast Missouri State inside linebacker Eli Morris (27)and tight end Austin Crump (84) celebrate with the "Sign Off" necklace after defeating SIU on Sept. 15 in Carbondale, Illinois. Ben Matthews

Effort comes down to not only doing your job, but giving your best effort. Sports reporter Phillip Suitts wrote about this recently with the Redhawks �Sign Off� necklace. When a player gives his best effort, someone on the team will get the necklace out and bring it over in recognition. If you�re �signing off� on something, you�re putting your name on it. Give your best effort. Every play. Every game. And that process, more times than not, will lead to the desired result.

Discipline is the third pillar. It�s not about just giving your best effort one time. Or practicing hard one day. It�s the day-to-day, sometimes moment-to-moment, discipline. Or as Tuke said: �Can you repeat it over and over and over?�

And finally, love. Tuke is a straight shooter. �It�s not about you,� he said about this pillar. The idea of love, in this context, means being there and giving your best for the team. Thinking of others before self.

Like any sport team, business or organization, the process comes down to leadership � something that has been a focus for Tuke in his four-plus years at Southeast whether it be through leadership books or day-to-day coaching.

�Leadership is going somewhere and taking somebody with you,� he said. �If you�re not doing both of those, that�s not a leader. If you�re not headed somewhere and you�re not trying to bring someone along with you, you�re not a leader. You�re part of a team.�

That�s the simple explanation, but it�s much more complex to demonstrate.

�Leadership is taking responsibility for something you can�t really control,� Tuke said. �You can�t control other human beings, but it is your responsibility to lead them.�

He knows it�s not possible to control his players, but what he can do is live out a life worth emulating. His faith in Christ is central in that effort. To fill his own bucket he meets with a group of men for lunch each Monday. He said he regularly leaves that group with principles he wants to use in his own life.

Tuke talks with an enthusiasm you would expect from a football coach. He�s intense, focused and driven to get the maximum out of this 2018 team. He also knows he has a bigger purpose � to influence as many lives as possible. Not just his players, but the people his players influence in the years to come as husbands, fathers and professionals.

�Be everything you want your team to be, because if it�s not happening in me it won�t happen through me. Or if it�s not happening in the leader, it won�t happen through the leader.�

It�s a lesson Tuke preaches in football but applies in all aspects of life.

Lucas Presson is the assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian.