How to Be a Great Teammate
Putting the team first with St. Thomas assistant coach Bethany Brausen
By Shane Frederick
TWO-TIME NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPION Bethany Brausen says one of the things that’s most important to any program’s success is having players who are good teammates. The new University of St. Thomas assistant coach has some advice for young players.
CONNECT WITH TEAMMATES
“The more you can figure out what makes each person different and unique, the better teammate you can become,” Brausen said. “That could be in small moments, whether it’s before a game with a superstition with each player, or off the ice by having a reflective conversation you know is meaningful to them. Pay attention to what’s meaningful and what’s important in their lives. It’s really just that individualistic approach, looking at each person and what makes them tick.”
BE ACCOUNTABLE
“I’m stealing this one from Coach (Joel) Johnson. He talks a lot about accountability and the ability to walk across the room and be open with teammates. “When things go wrong, conversations get misunderstood or moments are just challenging, the easy thing to do is kind of brush it under the rug or go to another teammate on the side and complain about it. The hardest thing to do is hold each other accountable in a loving way. Walk across the room, address it and be honest. Keep your guard down. I think that’s really important.”
TRUST & COMMUNICATION
“You’re sharing your life alongside your teammates, whether that’s in the conversations you have or the experiences you have together. Those are opportunities to build that foundation of trust with your teammates. And once you do that, that sets you up to have other people lean on you. “When we can build trust through communications and through how you behave, you can lead, and people are going to follow you.”
HAVE & SHOW EMPATHY
“If you can have empathy for the other people that you’re competing with, that can be really big. Oftentimes in sports everyone is expected to be tough and lean into the grit. But I think what’s really challenging in those moments is to have that empathy for one another and to realize that everyone’s life is very complicated. Everyone’s coming to the table with different things every single day. “The more understanding we have and the more appreciation and patience we have with our teammates, the better teammate we can be.”
TEAM FIRST
“I tell athletes all the time: You signed up for a team sport. If you want to go at it on your own and make it your show, sign up for golf or tennis or something else. But for a team sport like hockey, you’ve got to buy into the idea that you are showing up, not just for yourself, but for every other person on your team on a daily basis. And so, it’s not just about you, but it’s about others who are actually counting on you. “It comes down to being a part of that bigger process. It’s about really committing and buying into that idea that it’s about us; it’s not about the individual.”