John O'Sullivan visits Canton High School

John O'Sullivan discussing the
importance of Joy in sports

On this past Tuesday- October 7th, 2025- the Canton High School Athletic department hosted renowned author and expert on team dynamics- John O'Sullivan.  John worked with 100 student athlete leaders in workshops during the day, our entire Bulldog coaching staff in the afternoon, and addressed more than 600 student athletes and parents in the CHS Morse Auditorium that evening. It was a great day to be a Bulldog. 

One of John's books, Champion Teammate, has a chapter that focuses on the importance of gratitude so that is the approach I will take in this blog entry. 

First- Thank you to John O'Sullivan.  John came to CHS on the heals of a three-week work trip to France that kept him from his home and family in Bend, Oregon.  His Canton pitstop on his way home came after three-weeks on the road. I cannot thank him enough for stopping here and sharing with us his insight and passion of teams. 

He had so many important, simple yet powerful messages for our Bulldog community.  Here are just a few-

• Your influence is never neutral. 
• How you do one thing is how you do everything.
• I've never seen anyone make somebody better by making them feel worse.

CLICK HERE for more info on John

Second- Thank you to our CHS Athletic Booster Club.  Our CHS Athletic Booster Club is filled with true heroes. They do the work behind the scenes to help make the CHS student athlete experience a special one. Their help with banquets, senior nights, championship recognition, equipment enhancements, and so much more!  Please consider joining today. CLICK HERE to join. 

Captains and future CHS athletics leaders worked
hard with John digging into team and leadership

Finally- Thank you to our CHS Coaches and Student Athletes- These type of experiences are only effective if those participants who are in the audience buy-in.

Our coaches were awesome in their workshop. They asked questions. Pushed back. Added real a real world angle to the discussion. And ultimately our coaches walked away with a great reminder of some of the most important things we do. 

Our student athletes were awesome in both the workshops and the evening presentation. I sat in on all of the events. Our kids were active, assertive and super-attentive during the workshops. And our kids were an excellent audience for John's evening speech. Not too easy to get a group of hundreds of high school kids engaged. That takes a great presenter AND a great audience. We had both. 

Our parents must be commended for taking the time to come out and share in our messaging.  Parents are such a HUGE part of a child's athletic journey. Having them hear the same message as their child(ren) is so important. Thanks to those who attended. 

So- That's a wrap.  Let's us all take some of  these messages as we navigate the rest of the 2025-26 Bulldog athletic year! Go dogs!

Oops. Almost forgot- thanks to the custodians, library staff administration and other staff who helped to make the day impactful.