Top 18 Quotes & Sayings by Morgan Wootten

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American coach Morgan Wootten.
Last updated on April 21, 2025.
Morgan Wootten

Morgan Bayard Wootten was an American high school basketball coach for 46 seasons at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He led the Stags to five national championships and 33 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) titles. In 2000, he was the third high school coach to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the first high school only coach to be inducted.

I'm glad the NCAA is pushing back the 3-point line a foot. I'm a big supporter of the 3-point shot; it's exciting. I hope the high schools adopt the same rule.
That's the beauty of coaching. You get to touch lives, you get to make a difference. You get to do things for people who will never pay you back and they say you never have had a perfect day until you've done something for someone who will never pay you back.
Players would empty their souls to me; you cannot fathom the stories I've heard, everything from the good to the bad. I tried whatever I could to work things out. — © Morgan Wootten
Players would empty their souls to me; you cannot fathom the stories I've heard, everything from the good to the bad. I tried whatever I could to work things out.
The big thing is to make a winning effort. I'm not obsessed with wins.
To be successful in coaching you have to treat your team like a family. The leader needs backing from everyone.
It's amazing the things you hear from your players talking to them one on one. I never embarrassed a player, I spoke with him alone.
You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going.
True basketball coaches are great teachers and you do not humiliate, you do not physically go after, you do not push or shove, you do not berate, if you are a true coach. If you humiliate or curse them, that won't do it. Coaches like that are not coaches.
It's often been said that you learn more from losing than you do from winning. I think, if you're wise, you learn from both. You learn a lot from a loss. You learn what is it that we're not doing to get to where we want to go. It really gets your attention and it really motivates the work ethic of your team when you're not doing well.
If I can pay the bills, I'm happy.
I fell in love with coaching. I loved interacting with young people, having the opportunity to make a tremendous impression on them.
The big thing is to make a winning effort. Im not obsessed with wins.
Basketball is a game and their primary reason for participating in the sport is simply for the pleasure they experience while playing. Don't be afraid to lose. Have fun while you're busy playing hard and playing smart.
Play hard, play smart, play together, have fun.
You get to do things for people who will never pay you back and they say you never have had a perfect day until you've done something for someone who will never pay you back.
Leadership starts at the top.
You are the real teachers. You have these children when they are at their emotional peaks and lows. That's when they are the most pliable. It doesn't take any intelligence to send a kid home with his head hanging between his knees. But to send him home with his head up every night might show a little coaching.
Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution than on the outcome of the game — © Morgan Wootten
Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution than on the outcome of the game
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