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University of Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl said Monday night that coaches should raise the level of expectations for their players in life.

One the featured speakers at a Character Counts motivational program at Thompson-Boling Arena for coaches and mentors, he said as an example that coaches working with high-risk youngsters should hope their players accomplish more in life than just staying out of jail.

"You should see something in them that they don't see in themselves," he said.

Approximately 200-300 people used to hearing UT coaches and others talk about game preparation instead heard about life preparation.

UT head football coach Phil Fulmer, another speaker, said he was greatly influenced as a youth by coaches, and he encouraged those attending to always be honest.

"You don't survive in the Southeastern Conference, nor will you influence people in a proper fashion, if you are not an honest person," he said. "If you do it in an honest way, you will never have to look over your shoulder."

Lady Vol softball coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly discussed the importance of handling good and bad situations, pointing out that life is 20 percent what happens and 80 percent how it is handled.

"We must not lose sight of the powerful role we play in athletes," said Ralph Weekly. "If we make the little things important, the big things will take care of themselves."

Lady Vols' assistant basketball coach Nikki Caldwell talked about the theme of caring and used a timeout coach Pat Summitt called in an NCAA Tournament semifinal game against North Carolina last spring as an example.

"She said that we were not leaving here without a national championship," Caldwell remembered. "They would never have believed that if she had not fostered a caring relationship beforehand."

Former Olympian and fitness promotion coordinator Missy Kane said that she was a wayward teenager who decided to go out for track at UT as a walk-on. The coaches helped her, she said, and 11 years later she made the 1984 Olympic team.

SEC referee Rocky Goode discussed the importance of respecting oneself, respecting others, having others respect you and respecting the game.

UT men's athletics director Mike Hamilton was also scheduled to attend, but he had to cancel due to illness. UT women's athletics director Joan Cronan and Summitt were also scheduled to participate, but they were in New York, where Summitt was being honored as one of "America's Best Leaders of 2007" by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

Program master of ceremonies and radio show host Hallerin Hilton Hill compared character lessons to building a skyscraper. "If you want to go higher, you have to go deeper," he said.

Among those in attendance, youth coach Greg Evans of Knoxville found the program worthwhile.

"Children are real susceptible to what goes on," he said, adding that proper teaching lessons can help them.

Also recognized was fifth-grader Jasmine Duthu of Copper Ridge Elementary, a Character Counts national essay competition winner.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.