"All I Ever Needed to Know"

Learn across domains. You learned sports lessons in kindergarten. 

Robert Fulghum wrote a best seller, "All I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten." Book banning is a smaller problem than lack of reading.  

Apply the lessons. 

Share everything. Share your time, energy, and experience with others. Be a mentor to younger teammates and be willing to listen to experienced voices. 

Play fair. Melrose volleyball won the MIAA Sportsmanship Award in the past. Be enthusiastic for each other. 

Don't hit people. Communicate. You run into problems when you run into each other. 

Put things back where you found them. Leave the gym in better condition than when you found it. Remember Legacy and the All-Blacks New Zealand rugby team and "sweep the sheds." 

Clean up your own mess. And another thing. "Were you raised in a barn?"

Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody. Every team runs into some rough patches in relationships. Say "I'm sorry." 

Live a balanced life. Sports are important but they follow family and academics in importance. "Take care of business." Another theme from James Kerr's Legacy is "better people make better All-Blacks." 

Take a nap every afternoon. LeBron James gets twelve hours of sleep a day. More sleep equals higher performance. 

LOOK! Everything you need to know is there somewhere. Be coachable. Your coaches will put you in position to succeed. 

Stick together. Everyone can't be a great player. But everyone can choose to be a great teammate. You're on a lot of teams, starting with your family. Not many people can put the team first all the time. But coaches and teammates remember those who can. 

Lagniappe. Keep line shots in play. Check your technique with cellphone video.