When a coach takes over a struggling program, it takes some work to get on the path to success.

In order to do this, it starts with rebuilding the culture.

At least that’s the approach taken by Jim Ahern, currently the head coach at Lansing Catholic (Mich.).

Ahern, who has been coaching high school football since 1967, has been involved in his fair share of program rebuilding. Ahern believes that long before Xs and Os, turning around a program begins with shifting the team mentality and culture.

“You have to get the kids and community to buy into what you are doing,” said Ahern.

As a recent guest of the USA Football Coach and Coordinator podcast, Ahern outlined the phases that a rebuilding program goes through:

Hoping that the team can win. The first thing Ahern noticed among his new teams was a lack of confidence and a sense of defeat. The only thing they really had going for them was hope.

“You first come into a program when they haven’t been winning; they just hope they can win,” said Ahern.

Merely hoping to win, however, isn’t good enough, which leads to the second step.

Thinking that the team can win. After the team begins to get a taste of the new culture, the attitude begins to transform from hoping to win to having the belief that winning is possible.

“They progress into ‘I think I can win this game,’” Ahern said.

Although this is a big step for a once-struggling program, it isn’t the final step.

Expecting that the team will win. Once everyone buys into the culture, winning is no longer thought of as just a possibility—it is an expectation.

“After you’re really established, they expect to win.”

Ahern points out that each team has its own unique set of circumstances and challenges, so progressing through these stages takes place at different paces.

SEE ALSO: The USA Football Coach Performance Center

“Sometimes it will happen quicker at one place than it will another,” he said.

Along with player attitudes, everything else changes as a new culture takes root in the program.

“It’s a gradual change where the culture changes, and the work ethic changes and all the things involved in the program will change over time.”