Three of Vancouver’s favourite coaches – 
Wally Buono, Don Hay and Ryan Walter – are blowing away clichés while proving the great value of sport as a teacher of success, failure and leadership.

Image: Rick Ernst/The Province

Ryan Walter has lived his life striving for personal and team success – and he’s found it. As an NHL captain, Stanley Cup winner, coach, broadcaster, author and now months into his new role as president of the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Heat, Walter has truly done it all in his sport. And he believes his leadership skills have played a huge role in his achievements.

Holding a master’s degree in business leadership, Walter is now trying to apply everything he’s learned from his days on the ice and in the classroom to his new job overseeing an entire organization.

“One of my professors told me everything rises and falls on leadership and I think that’s such an important statement,” Walter says. “You can have great players, but you can lose with great players. That’s where leadership makes such a difference. Most people look only at the game and ask ‘who’s yelling the loudest’ and say ‘well, that’s the leader’ and that’s very seldom true. I think there is this mystique that there is only one leader on a team and he does everything and that’s rarely the case. My premise coming out of pro sports and even now as an executive is that success comes from leaders leading leaders. You really don’t have time for followers.”

Walter and Hay work with rosters that are smaller than the one Wally Buono has to deal with. So an argument can be made that it’s tougher to lead a football team than a hockey club. But Buono doesn’t make distinctions. He believes the same principles of strong leadership will yield results in either sport – and in all walks of life.

“At the end of it, there has to be someone who sets the vision, sets the plans, sets the goals and then tries to get everyone to work together to achieve all that,” he says. “The longer you’re in leadership, you only get better if you learn to adapt, change and do all the things that have to occur to get victories.”

In sports, wins are what matter most – just ask Wally Buono, Don Hay and Ryan Walter. They all know success in sports comes through preparation, execution and leadership. It’s much tougher – but in the end much more satisfying – than a scriptwriter simply deciding the outcome the way it’s done in the movies.

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