Influencing Young Lives Through Coaching In Woodbury

Paul Mork has been coaching for 54 years.

The football coach has helped mold the lives of scores of young people, and now he’s being recognized for his work.

Mork, 75, was recently named the 2012 Power of Influence Award winner by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association. He’s also up for a national award.

“It’s a very humbling experience,” he said.

The award has been handed out since 2006 and Mork said he has tried to “help high school boys become men.”

“If you’re bleeding from your finger, you’re really not hurt. If it’s raining outside, we can still practice—you’re not going to shrink,” he said.

But mostly, Mork said he tries to instill values in the young people he coaches so they go on to lead productive and healthy lives in the home and workplace.

Mork said wants his athletes to “be humble when they win and stout-hearted when they lose.”

The former English teacher put those ideas into writing in his book, The Power of Becoming. The idea behind the book, Mork said, is: “How to lead a meaningful life in a crazy world.”

“What are you becoming today?” he said. “Don’t tell me you were all-conference last year. Don’t tell me you were a D student last year. … What are you becoming?”

Mork, who will enter his fifth season leading the Eagles on the gridiron next fall, said he most enjoys watching players improve and running into them down the road. He told of a recent encounter with a player he hadn’t seen in 35 years who was working at a prison in Michigan.

In an email to New Life staff, athletics director Curt Wetsel lauded Mork for the honor.

“We certainly know, from experience, that Coach Mork exceeds all of the qualifications and adds the spiritual dimension that truly make him special,” Wetsel wrote. “We are blessed to have Coach Mork touching the lives of all of us at New Life Academy.”