Saturday, October 2, 2010

Put Me In Coach

We needed something to do last night, other than our Friday night ritual of fried rice at our favorite “hole in the wall” Asian restaurant, so we decided to go to a high school football game.

We have a friend that coaches football. Throughout his career it has been mostly at the college level and he even has a few of his college players that are now playing in the NFL. He retired two years ago. Last spring a small rural high school contacted him to see if he would consider being the head football coach. I should add that this team has only won two games in the last TEN years and one of those games was a forfeit. Bill loves the game and he thought this would be a way to give back to the community no matter what the odds. The first game they were defeated something like 64 – 0 and the games that followed also ended in defeat. Bill is competitive and he wasn’t there to lose but he also is a realist. He does not have a “give it up” mentality. He treats his players like winners and makes them work hard. When they do something wrong he tells them and they may even have to pay for that mistake with extra drills. It’s no different than where many of us are now. We are worth the effort to make us winners. We have to find ways to get better and more focused and to even do things we don’t want to do to make up for our shortcomings. Last night the Lancers were victorious and if you think Bill is going to let up on the discipline and work ethics he shows at his practices … well, you know the answer to that question.

I’ve seen this before but for every point the team scored, the cheerleaders had to drop to the ground and do pushups. The Lancers scored a touchdown and extra point, so it was 7 pushups. It wasn’t too long before they scored another touchdown … 14 pushups and the another TD for 21 pushups. These girls were NOT used to doing this and you could see them struggling. The next score they changed to jumping jacks which made me think when you no longer can do a type of exercise without it coming to a point where you don’t want to do it, so you don’t that ... you shouldn't give up on it totally, just try something else.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. I want to share something else about the game, but I’ll wait until tomorrow

3 comments:

Ann (-50 lbs in -60 lb challenge) said...

What a FANTASTIC post !! I loved this narrative, the similarities and lessons drawn - heck, I love football too.

How awesome is this coach, to give his best to these boys, and not cave and just give them sympathy?!! (WHich, of course, would not help these players achieve their goals.) I love this coach!

I'm going to think of this story about Bill, and the team, and even the exhausted cheerleaders, switching to jumping jacks!

This is my favorite post of the weekend!

xxox

TinaM said...

Don't give up on it, just try something else. Makes SO much sense :)

NAN said...

Good post, Mensa! I didn't get things done yesterday- RAIN- but I was able to adjust LOL. Grandson's birthday is tomorrow so I am baking 48 cupcakes for his class and baseball team. Boxed cupcakes don't tempt me a bit but I did decide to not attend the church potluck after services; we have them often and why go off 'program' when I'm doing so well? Have a great Sunday!