Sikeston FB coach among many immersed in growth at L.E.A.D. event

Sikeston High School athletes are not spending their summers lounging around a swimming pool, or worse, playing video games all day.

Regardless of their sport, the Bulldogs’ best are in the weight rooms and athletic fields preparing themselves for success in the coming school year.

That preparation carried over to mental and emotional training on Tuesday, as Sikeston athletes were found in abundance at the L.E.A.D. (Love, Effort, Attitude, and (self) Discipline) seminar on leadership, put on by Southeast Missouri State football, an event that attracted over 200 people from all walks of life and demographics to the City of Miner Convention Center. And it wasn’t just the young people absorbing the knowledge from Redhawk coaches and players, it was the Bulldog leadership, as well.

“I’ve preached leadership in three facets,” third-year Bulldog football coach Treston Pulley said. “To be a leader, you’ve got to show up, you’ve got to work hard, and you’ve got to encourage (others).”

Pulley has spent this off-season analyzing his players’ development to death, but on Tuesday, he was immersed in how he could grow in his position in impacting the young people of Sikeston.

“Those three things,” Pulley continued, “help make you a leader.”

Pulley’s first step for his athletes to become leaders was “to show up.”

“If you’re there on time,” Pulley said, “you can hold people accountable. If not, who is going to listen to you?”

The second trait that Sikeston football players are taught to exhibit, according to Pulley, is work ethic.

“If you are working hard,” Pulley said, “people see that.”

Pulley said he developed that “facet” during his days as a player at Lincoln University.

“That was one of my styles of leadership,” Pulley said, “I just worked hard, and I was always there. I didn’t talk a lot to people, but people saw my work ethic.”

Pulley felt that it was imperative that he and the rest of the Bulldog coaches, and players, for that matter, were always positive with each other.

‘Always say ‘Hey, good here,’” Pulley explained, “and ‘Good job, there. Let me help you on this bench press,’ and small things like that.”

Pulley said he felt that leadership was relationship-based.

“In order to have influence, you have to put the leg work in,” Pulley said. “The ground shakers are where you get the energy from.”

Pulley cited Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., as a leader, who “had influence because he did the groundwork in leading the (freedom and civil rights’) marches and protests.”

Pulley has begun the process of professional growth by working towards his administrative license and has career aspirations to evolve in his career field.

Earlier in his career, he learned of a philosophy called the “A+ method,” which he puts into practice regularly to this day.

“It involves alignment, assignment, aggressive, and attack,” Pulley explained. “We can put these into our workforce. I know that I have to be at work at 7 a.m. That is my alignment. When I get to work, what is my assignment?

“Being aggressive is having confidence in everything that you do. I can write this 10-page paper aggressively because I have confidence in what I am talking about. And attacking it is just putting it all out on the table and letting the chips fall where they may.”

Pulley said those four traits within the “A+ method” are his “four boulders, my non-negotiables, and I won’t budge from them.”