Adversity message rcole

rcole
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Joined: May 2006

Gender: Male
Posts: 259
Location: South
Carolina

Re: quitters in your school

Reply #15 Today at 10:09am

This thread just made me think of something from a few years ago. I
was at a school that was stuggling with the level of interest in football.
Football had become a bit of a joke amongst the student body. We were
0-9 going in to the last game fo the year which was a rivalry game that
also involved a massive charity fundraising competition between the two
shcools (raised over 300,000 in one week combined). The principle
asked the head coach to make a PA announcement to the student body
on gameday. He delegated it to me and this is what I threw together in
the 30 minutes that I had. I adressed some of the issued that this
thread raises and that quitting and quitters always raise. Our kids really
appreciated it. Notice the subtle jab at the kids we lost along the way.
There are several references to things we as a team had talked about
throughout the year.

On Monday July the 30th at 8:00 am, 53 young men stepped onto the
practice fields behind the football stadium to begin what is known from
coast to coast, by young and old, as two-a-days. The temperatures that
week and in the following weeks would soar to 100 degrees, with the
heat index hitting 105 degrees on multiple days. The heat was brutal,
and dangerous. Six high school football players died of heat stroke last
year. They labored, they battled, they pressed on through the heat.
Then came adversity. They lost some games and the journey got harder,
the road got steeper. They battled, they pressed on, they fought
through. They shook it off and stepped up.
Then came the critics. The cheers overshadowed by jeers. The ribbing,
the teasing from small minds and weak souls. They battled, they pressed
on, they fought through. They shook it off and stepped up.
Then came attrition. They lost some of their brothers who wilted under
the pressure. They picked up the slack. They battled, they pressed on,
they fought through. They shook it off and stepped up.
Then came more critics. More teasing from spectators who dare not risk
victory nor defeat. They battled, they pressed on, they fought through.
They shook it off and stepped up.
Then came the moment. The moment in time when they realized what
they were fighting for. They were fighting for each other, they were
fighting for the fans, the fans that traveled to Clinton and stood at the
fence cheering each snap of the game. They were fighting for their
parents who supported them at every turn. But they also realized they
were fighting for the boo birds and the negative Nancies too. They were
in fact fighting through all of the adversity and all of the turmoil for the
critics, the small minds and weak souls. They were fighting for those
people who didnt have the discipline to maintain their eligibility, the
people who didnt have the heart to battle the heat, to stand up to the
critics. They were battling for those who did not have the courage to
battle themselves. They were fighting for the critics because they

couldnt and wouldnt fight.

Through it all they learned some lessons. They learned that life is not
easy. But you press on. When marriage gets hard, and it willwhen
parenting gets hard, and it willwhen life hits you in the mouth, and it
willyou press on, you fight for what is important no matter how hard it
gets. They learned to be players, not spectators, doers, not talkers. They
learned how to sweat and bleed for someone else. The learned how to
get knocked down, get back up, dust themselves off, and go at it again.
They learned that real men have empathy for others, defend others, and
love others.
Tonight the seniors take the field to battle for the last time. They need
your support. They deserve your support. They have battled for you, all
of you, now they need you to stand behind them, all of you.
Battered but not beaten, bruised but not deterred, they rise to battle
once more. They invite you to join them. They have only begun to fight.

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"If you want to be importantwonderful. If you want to be recognizedwonderful. If you want to

be greatwonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant."
MLK