The Story Behind WinForever
Pete Carroll slammed the book shut, stunned. He had been fired by the New England Patriots
and during the summer of 2000 found himself on the personal journey to figure out his next move.
While reading a book by legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, Pete Carroll realized that it took Coach Wooden sixteen years to win his first championship. Once Coach Wooden clearly stated his philosophy his teams won ten of the next twelve national titles.
That afternoon Carroll started putting his thoughts on paper. What began as a notebook full of beliefs, principles and values became Carroll’s coaching and life philosophy, as he was finally able to state who he was in 25 words or less.
Fast forward to 2007 and as his football team continued its reign atop the college football landscape at the University of Southern California, Carroll sat down with young assistant coach Yogi Roth. Roth was confident that the philosophy embedded in USC and within Carroll’s foundation, A Better LA, could impact more people in sports and beyond.
On a small whiteboard they laid out a plan and the WinForever brand was born. It began with a peace rally in Los Angeles, a feature on 60 Minutes and the New York Times best-selling book, Win Forever.
The movement was on and by the fall of 2009 Carroll and Roth officially co-founded WinForever. A world class team was strategically assembled and they would create the Nike WinForever Coaching Workshops, the Always Compete Speaker Series and the WinForever Application.
The mission was clear, WinForever would set out to create a massively scalable coaching and mentoring system to ‘Coach the World.’
Pete Carroll Pete's Twitter
The inspiration behind WinForever, Pete Carroll, head coach and executive vice president of the Seattle Seahawks, has dedicated his coaching career to impacting the "New Generation of Coaches for the Next Generation of Athletes."
Carroll returned to the NFL in 2010 and guided the Seahawks to an NFC West Division Championship and a playoff victory over the defending Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints.
Carroll returned to the NFL for his 36th year on the sidelines after spending the previous nine years (2001-09) as head coach at the University of Southern California, where his teams won seven consecutive Pac-10 titles (2002-08), two national championships (2003-04) and finished with a 97-19 record.
Carroll is also extremely involved in the community, as he co-founded "A Better LA" in 2003 in an effort to reduce gang violence and "provide a common language of hope" in Los Angeles. In 2012 he also launched "A Better Seattle" to create a shared vision and strategic approach to reduct gang and youth violence in Seattle.