I don’t know why the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on our country has impacted me so greatly this morning… but it has!
There have been tons of posts on my Facebook page about remembering. It’s painful to remember but sooooooo important. We’d be doing ourselves a disservice— and psychologists would say “harm”— to try and block out the terrible events that have occurred in our lives.
How does this tie in to coaching football? Welllllllllll… if you believe that football is a metaphor for life like I do; then, you can learn from confronting the past. Hopefully, by doing so, you won’t make the same mistake again!
I had to learn that lesson the hard way the first year I was a HC. We were 2 and 1 at the time and had what we ALL thought was going to be an easy game that week. Practices were lackluster but I didn’t say anything cuz we were so confident. Friday got here and it was pouring down rain. The game got postponed to Saturday afternoon. That’s when things started falling apart. One of our starters came to me and said that he would have to miss the game. His sister was getting married on Saturday and he was in the wedding party! OK… I understood. We’d be OK without him, I thought!
We got over to the school and the field hadn’t been cut and the lines were faded out. It was pretty pathetic. Our warm-ups were as bad as the field conditions. That’s when it hit me! I’m sure it was the Lord exhorting me to stop everything and call the team up… and chew them out goooood! But, no… I just stood there.
The home team’s band attempted to play the National Anthem. It was awful. I noticed a couple of our players snickering at it. I knew what they were thinking: their band sucks and so does their team!
You can probably figure out the ending. We were behind with 2 minutes left in the game. We made a valiant effort to drive the length of the field but to no avail. It was a crushing defeat! We went on a 3 game losing streak and never recovered.
I NEVER forgot all the mistakes I made that day. It was that off-season that I first read what was to become my coaching (and life) mantra: PROPER Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!!!
That lack of proper preparation was the driving force that helped me face up to reality. Never again was I going to say that I did not prepare my team properly— both physically and (more importantly!) mentally.
Never forget! ALWAYS remember! God bless the USA!!!
