In 1966, a British film called “A Man for All Seasons” was released.

Pop culture structured the phrase to refer to a person who is able to adapt to any situation or circumstance - and remain.

At Tamaqua, Jim McCabe has been living proof.

Since 1999, McCabe has coached three sports at the school. Since his graduation from East Stroudsburg University in 1997, the former 1992 Mahanoy Area graduate and wrestling standout has always maintained a year-round schedule.

In the process, McCabe has adopted the idiom and slogan “Trust the Process,” and the philosophy had certainly infiltrated and has helped produce success in the Blue Raiders’ boys soccer, track, and wrestling programs.

McCabe - head coach for all three sports - began using it after he returned to coaching after taking five years off from 2012-17 to help raise his daughters through some of their elementary and middle school years.

When he returned, McCabe had a new outlook on coaching due to an extensive approach to reading and adopted the new slogan. It was a matter of having an athlete trust the process all the way through and not just one game, meet, or match.

His athletes have bought into the undertaking under the program’s coach for all seasons.

“I think it’s a refreshing viewpoint to have from a coach,” said senior Stephen Behun, who is a member of the school’s track and wrestling teams. “Instead of focusing on the outcome of the next game or the next practice, he’s focused on seeing the outcome of the match we’re going to have in two months, or the last practice of the season.

“He has helped me and a lot of the other players slow down and understand that going to practice for a day, a week, or even a month doesn’t automatically make someone a better player.

“Instead, you have to constantly push yourself day in and day out, trusting that what you are doing is going to lead to long-term successes. Soccer has never come easy to me, and I just started playing varsity as a senior. It has been sometimes difficult to stick with it, but his long-term process has allowed me to stick with it.”

McCabe easily can be referred to as a coach for all seasons, as the occupation has been in his blood since his graduation from ESU, where he lettered in wrestling for two years. In fact, he traced his future teaching days back to assisting his uncle - who taught PE elementary school classes at Mahanoy Area in 1992.

The former Mahanoy wrestling standout took his first job as head track coach at Shenandoah Valley High School in 1998, roughly seven months after his ESU graduation. In the winter of ’97, McCabe was an assistant junior high coach wrestling coach at Mahanoy.

That soon developed into one form of his coaching trifecta the following year. McCabe was an assistant track coach at Tamaqua, and an assistant football and an assistant wrestling coach, both at Mahanoy.

From there, McCabe finally settled at Tamaqua in the 1999-2000 school year, being an assistant in football and track - as well as the head junior high wrestling coach. He began his soccer career at Tamaqua in 2016 as a girls soccer assistant after he served as a youth coach for his daughters.

His current philosophy on sports began to form after he read the book Mind Gym, which explains how your mind influences your performance on the field or on the court as much as your physical skill does.

“When people say the game is 90% mental, they have a point,” he noted. “We worry about training physically, but we also have to train mentally. I read the book, and then searched for others as well as podcasts about the topic.

“We want our athletes to avoid burnout. We have athletes and so do other programs who need to work to help support themselves or their families. I don’t have a problem with that, and the athletes will make sacrifices on their own time to make up the time they missed.

“I hear about coaches who will practice on a Sunday or have three-hour practices. You should be able to get everything done in an hour-and-a-half. You see too many teams who peak too early ... It is not always about winning a state championship, and failure isn’t a bad thing in the process.”

Senior Timmy Berg, another member of the track and wrestling teams, is a firm believer.

“Some may think the phrase ‘Trust the Process’ is overused or a cliché,” offered Berg. “However, coach McCabe really presents it in a way that inspires us all to go the extra mile. He always tells us that we will be better at the end of the season than when we started as long as we trust the process. And it’s really true. Success occurs during the process.

“What we do every day is what’s going to dictate our success. This philosophy has really helped me improve on and off the field because I’ve learned that failure is okay, but repeated failure is not.”

McCabe has taken his own advice to heart, a trait that has helped him maintain his busy coaching schedule.

“I let my coaches run practice recently and went to an IronPigs’ game with my buddies,” he recalled. “I feel like if I can keep this philosophy, I can keep coaching. I’m no longer laying awake thinking about what I could have done. If we are doing what we are supposed to do, everything will take care of itself.

“My wife has allowed me to spend all this time in coaching. Right now, I have a time in my mind when it will end. We’ll both know when it will be time.”

Tamaqua athletic director Michael Hromyak has appreciated his coach’s fresh approaches and contributions.

“Jim has proven to be one of the best all-around coaches in our school history,” beamed Hromyak. “He is a student of any sport he coaches and is a non-stop reader. He studies his crafts daily, and truly bleeds Blue and White.

“He loves to work with his students, not only making them better athletes, but also better people. To be a head coach for three main sports in our school and be extremely successful is because of his 100% dedication to our athletic programs.”

Through it all, it has been about a process.

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DIG PINK … The Jim Thorpe volleyball team is having a Dig Pink Match on Monday, Oct. 2 at the high school. The JV match starts at 5 p.m. with varsity following. The team is working to bring about breast cancer awareness. All proceeds from the evening will be given to local Jim Thorpe Area School District teachers who are battling breast cancer.

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ONE OF THE ELITE … On Sept. 14, Northwestern soccer player Matt Johnson reached a milestone when he recorded his 200th-career point. Johnson became just the second player in program history to accomplish that feat. He joins Troy Everett, who played for the Tigers in the early 1990s. Five days later, Johnson made history again when he scored two goals during a 12-0 victory over Saucon Valley. That put him at 82 career goals, passing Everett for the most in school history.

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MEMORABLE MEET … On Sept. 14, Northwestern cross country coach Chris Stitzel reached several milestones. The longtime mentor of both the boys and girls teams reached 900 career victories at the Colonial League meet at Catasauqua. Stitzel, now in his 25th season, also gained his 500th victory with the girls’ squad. This season, the two teams are a combined 27-7, with the boys 14-3 and the girls 13-4.

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UNSELFISH PLAY … On Sept. 13, Palmerton field hockey senior Sydney Frantz proved she can set up goals as well as score them. When Frantz fed teammate Celeste Hoffman for a goal during an eventual 7-3 Colonial League victory over Northern Lehigh, she broke the school’s career record for assists. The helper was her 41st, breaking the mark of 40 which was held by Saylor Burke.

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LUCKY NUMBER FIVE … Over the past two weeks, Lehighton field hockey player Gabby Brown and Northern Lehigh soccer player Katelynn Barthold both had games where they lit up the scoreboard. The two each recorded five goals during their memorable contests. On Sept. 15, Brown accounted for all five of her team’s goals when the Indians posted a 5-1 victory at Northern Lehigh. Then on Sept. 23, Barthold also registered five goals for the Bulldogs during a 7-1 win against Catasauqua.

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TWO TITLES BETTER THAN ONE … The Tamaqua boys and girls cross country teams have enjoyed recent success the past two weekends. On Sept. 16, the two Blue Raider squads won team titles at the Cardinal Clash Invitational. They followed that up the following Saturday when both copped first at the Schuylkill Haven Invitational. At the Haven event, Levi Kunkel placed first in the boys race with teammate Tony Marchetti finishing a close second.

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JUST IN TIME … In a showdown between top Colonial League girls soccer teams on Sept. 16, Northwestern and Southern Lehigh were knotted at 1-1 as the clock was winding down in regulation. The Tigers received a penalty corner late in the contest and Kherington Yezik ended up being the beneficiary when she scored with six seconds left to help her team win and stay undefeated in league play.