By Joanna Chadwick
Nine years ago, Derby football coach Brandon Clark asked Kevin Chase, then the CEO of Verus Bank, to be the Panthers’ culture coach.
Chase joined the staff and was in charge of culture, as well as creating the One Degree Compass, a program that included every player volunteering for a service project.
“Putting Kevin as the culture coach and creating One Degree Compass was purely meant for football,” Clark said.
But the duo not only took it beyond Derby football, they also co-wrote a book with author Dave Gordon. Their book launch was Sept. 28.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d be a co-author of a book,” Clark said. “Learning that realm of how to write a book, how long it takes to get the final product – I’ve grown from it.”
When Clark got into coaching, it was all about discipline, the weight room, Xs and Os, getting the players to buy in, he said.
“But working on culture, it just made me excited to go out to practice, to meet with the coaches on Sundays,” Clark said. “We know there’s a lot of valuable lessons in coaching through culture. It has helped with not getting burned out with coaching.”
Clark and Chase had taken their One Degree Compass beyond Derby, talking to different companies. Then about 4-5 years ago, Clark purchased Gordon’s book, “TIP: A Simple Strategy to Inspire High Performance and Lasting Success,” for his entire staff.
“I was so touched by the book, so I emailed him and told him I was buying it for the whole coaching staff,” Clark said. “He reached out and said the email couldn’t come at a better time. He said, ‘after they read it, I’d love to hop online and meet with him.’”
They didn’t connect, and then Covid hit.
But after Derby won the 6A title in the fall of 2020, Clark put out a thank you list that included Gordon.
“I felt his book helped our coaching staff get through the Covid year,” Clark said. “I emailed him again, and before you knew it, Kevin and I were on the plane to meet with him about culture. It was a full day of culture talk.
“He mentioned after hearing all the stories, that we should write a book…. Dave thought our message about culture and the stories we had were relatable to everybody – not just football teams and business leaders, but everybody. He said, ‘you need to get your message out beyond Derby, beyond the companies you’re working with.’”
The story follows a banker, Luke, who goes to his 20th reunion and reconnects with his football coach and then meets the cowboy, where he learns valuable lessons.
“A lot of people have said that they felt they were the main character,” Clark said. “There are things that will kind of trigger, ‘oh yeah, I’ve lived that before.’”
