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The Importance Of Positivity For Kids With Difficult Backgrounds

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Henry Thomas, a 2017 Double-Goal Coach® Award Winner, coaches basketball, football, and track and field for the Gainesville State School juvenile correctional facility of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Working with incarcerated youth, one of the most important life lessons Thomas emphasizes is “to never give up, even if you are outmatched,” he said. “It’s not about wins and losses. It’s about camaraderie and teamwork, because once they get out of here, they’ll have to know how to work with other people.

Thomas shares in this video that he always tries to be as positive as he possibly can with his athletes, knowing that a lot of his kids come from single-parent homes with no father figure, and had no structure as they grew up. At Gainesville State School, a lot of kids hadn't participated in sports because they had been in trouble for most of their lives, but by teaching the fundamentals and structure in a positive way, Thomas notices that kids begin to thrive with both the structure and positivity that wasn't there before.