Soft skills, such as communication, critical thinking, and conflict resolution have often been on the back burner of education reform. Common Core standards were introduced as a method of bridging the gap between academic skills and soft skills through fostering creativity and collaboration. It has been shown that soft skills are not necessarily taught but acquired through example, requiring teachers to foster teacher-student relationships. In theory, this is a great practice, but in reality teachers often struggle in creating classrooms that are safe learning environments for students with one reason being, the lack of relationship building skills by teachers. This study investigated how schools can encourage personnel who work with the same groups of students who are well versed in relationship building with students, namely athletic coaches. First, benefits of student-teacher relationships are explored, followed by how athletic coaches at the secondary level serve similar purposes as classroom teachers do. It is shown that coaches give directed feedback, work with students to develop their communication skills, as well as teach students how to self-regulate. With this in mind, athletic coaches could use their experiences gained from their coaching environment to mentor teachers on how to better their relationships with students and create a safe classroom environment in order to help students learn soft skills that are needed for college and career readiness. Implications for leadership and the application of athletic coaching methods are discussed through a social justice lens. This study consisted of a survey and interviews with athletic coaches in secondary schools to better understand how athletic coaches build relationships with their student-athletes, how the student-athletes benefit from relationship building, and how they could be applied in a secondary classroom. The study found that there are four latent variables being the coach's commitment to the athlete, coach's self efficacy, the coach's support of the athlete's wants, and lastly the coach's belief in the athlete. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]