Remember your coaches, what they did for you. You cannot know how it feels to play in grainy black and white in Boston Garden.
Coaches advance your story. They help you write your narrative and make memories. They teach. Education changes behavior. "We are what we repeatedly do."
After your parents, your coaches are your biggest fans.
Coaches take you places that you cannot go alone.
Coaches are culture warriors.
Coaches want you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
Coaches need you to play with force. "The meek shall inherit the earth," but don't succeed in sports.
Coaches remember indelible moments that you create.
- A Billerica player had perpetrated some atrocity upon one of our girls. I called a timeout. "Kiki" said, "Do you want me to take her out?" "Do you mean, like, for lunch?" "No, that is not how we play."
- Sometimes players "have a day." The player (13 years old) had been lights out in practice. She's making everything. Finally, she misses. An expletive shatters the silence, "$#*&." The gym erupts in laughter.
- Tryouts start in two minutes. I will start by sitting the girls on the baseline and asking for a volunteer. Hands fly. "That's not good enough. When you hear, "Vol..." be up like a rocket." Show enthusiasm. A tiny sixth grader, Naomi, comes up to me, "Coach, I am really excited to be here." She beat the system.
- We lost a tough game. Leonora tells the team, "I'm sorry. I was terrible. I lost the game." Bella puts her arm around her and says, "We win together and we lose together."
- "I am your mentor and your tormentor." - CAPT T.E. Walsh, my mentor from the Navy
Remember the coaches who help turn the impossible into reality.
Boston Garden, March 1973, with Coach Ellis Lane (right), and the late Coach Dick Kelley.
Lagniappe. Be seen and be heard. Become the heroine of your own story. Your job is to "live with force."
No comments:
Post a Comment