Young people routinely grow up to love their childhood coaches. These leaders routinely criticize and push the envelopes of the same young people who claim later to love them like a parent. Why?
Because they did not just love them enough to encourage them. They cared enough to tell them the truth when they were messing up so they could improve. As a result, the students came away from the situation better people than they entered it. They are not the same kid with reasonable talent that they were when they went into the relationship. Now they are athletes with developed talent and skills they would not have without careful correction and guidance.
So, in their later years they appreciate the coach’s work and care. They feel close to him or her, because the coach knew their weaknesses and believed in them anyway. They encouraged them when the winning results they were striving for needed skills they did not yet have, but the coach helped them to achieve.