While I played in college, we had a stairway from our locker room to the gym floor. On the wall at the turn in the stairs there was a quote that said
Practice and Play with the Poise and Intensity of a National Championship Team
Playing for entire college career and seeing that quote every day you would think that it would have some meaning to us as players. I don’t know if my teammates, the players before or after I played thought about the quote very often. Like most things that you see over and over you take for granted. The college coach I played for was one of the most respected coaches in the profession, Don Meyer, and he is still coaching at Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD.
As a kid you do not take full advantage of the things that are available and definitely most kids today just like when we were kids do not understand to full blessings of life. We can all fall into the trap of taking things for granted like solid relationships, a caring mate, a friend you can share anything with and being able to be healthy enough just to walk and run around.
I put the sign up in our stairway here at Belhaven College just as we had while in college. What does that mean, “Practice and play with the poise and intensity of a national championship team”? Maybe I could word it different, but in respect for my coach I made the sign say exactly what he put on that wall over 25 years ago.
Poise
To practice and play with poise and intensity. Poise means self-assurance, composure, self-control, dignity. I know our coach was more concerned with us as people than he was at winning a national championship team. He was not a win at all costs coach and he didn’t try to cut corners. He wanted your best. Whatever you could give that’s what he wanted. Was he hard to play for? Did he push us hard? Did he yell? Yes, yes, and yes. Not a player that played for him would disagree, but probably those of us that made it through four years of playing for him would ever say he was unfair, that he cared only about himself, or that he only played favorites. That is tough to do in coaching, teaching, running a business, pastoring a church or anything else.
How do you push, yell, and be hard to play for but you are fair, care about others more than yourself, or play favorites? I do not know how he did it because I struggle as a husband, parent, and coach to do the things Coach did and coach the way he coached. Our styles are different and our personalities are not the same, but he taught me a lot about myself.
Why am I sharing something with you that happened 25 years ago? I say these things to let you know I was sharing with someone recently about Coach Meyer and how he was hard to play for at times, but always fair. Most people ask what it was like to play for Coach Meyer because he is so well known around the country as a fantastic coach. I usually answer, “It was a great experience” To be honest sometimes I leave out the word “great” and just say “It was an experience, but one of the best of my life”.
It was an experience that I am not sure I have ever fully appreciated or will ever fully appreciate. But here is the thing I have just recently realized: He never made things personal. We were not “stupid” “idiots” or any other downgrading you can think of to call someone. He was on us hard and never let up, but I look back and see that you never left practice or a game defeated or dejected. You might not have like the outcome, but he had the ability even when he chewed you out that you the entire time he was correct and you deserved whatever he was going to dish out.
All of his former players laugh now about being singled out and may have caught the brunt of his displeasure a time or two. The funnier thing is that we usually deserved everything he dished out to us and we look back and realize that time he really got us was well deserved.
I know this is a real area that I am trying to correct in not making other fell attacked personally. Whether it is my wife, my own kids, or anyone associated with our basketball program. I want to be able to push and motivate others to give their best, but not at the expense of tearing them down. Hopefully I someday turn the corner and not get disgusted when others let me down or don’t give their best. I can still find ways to communicate without making others fell lower and making myself look better. Even though he was animated on the sidelines and any one that played for him can give you a great story about being chewed out by him about something he had that POISE. He had poise to know when to push and when to let up. He had the poise to teach and emphasize with us what it meant to have class and carry ourselves a certain way. He made you want to be better. Even today he instilled in me the desire to keep trying to improve to not be satisfied and to have the poise and belief that I could get better.
Intensity
Intensity means strength, concentration, passion and power. Coach had unbelievable intensity when it came to working. He was relentless. We knew he would always be prepared and if a game came down to coaching we would have a great chance of winning because Coach was going to put us in position to win. Even if we lost on the scoreboard Coach would have us leave thinking we were winners because he stressed being intense about how you played. I have tried to bring those positive aspects of intensity in how I am as a mate, a father and coach.
It is amazing how important intensity is to having success. Intensity is the ability to do what you are supposed to do even when you don’t want to do whatever that task may be. He taught me how important it was to have that intensity and desire.
As I played my four years in college I looked at the sign too many times to count and walked by it many time without even thinking about the sign. I was one of the fortunate ones that came through the program and my last year we did win the National Championship. It was not with talent, but with Poise and Intensity and also practicing and playing like that all the time. The more interesting thing is that although we had a good team we were not the most talented team coach ever had, nor the most intense, nor the most poised, nor the most athletic. It is just for that season it all came together. The players before us that built the program and the ones that came after to continue the tradition were just as important as our team was in winning the National Championship.
What I learned most was that it took a group of individuals committed to a goal, determined to follow leadership, and a willingness to put aside individual attention.
To do the saying “Practice and play with poise and intensity of a National Championship team” means to give to something bigger than yourself.
Halftime
I feel as if I am the halftime of my career (being 45 years old) and that makes me think I have come into the locker room of life. I have played the first half and made many mistakes, but fortunately, I still am in the game. Now I get ready to come out of the locker room for the second half of life hopefully.
For me I want to win that National Championship and get the glory of being perceived as a successful coach. I want to be able to say I played on a National Championship team and coached a National Championship team. That goal still sits in the back of my mind. More important now is how I coach the young men I encounter the remainder of my career. I have made more mistakes than most during the first half of my career, have regretted decisions, was too hard on certain players, too distant with some players, allowed outside influences distract me from the goal of developing my team and young men.
My vision now is to make the next half count. To adjust the game plan of my career a little bit I am saying I will make decisions and decide:
1. To be more passionate about developing the young men in the program
2. To make each guy feel important
3. To be more passionate about sharing God’s love with each member of our program
4. To help each player find out what his gift is in life and to help him pursue his dream.
5. To be a coach that sees development takes time and is not always determined by the won-loss record
6. To relax and let God be God and for me to serve Him
I want to be where God is working and He is working here in our program. It is not always visible, but it is happening and I want to help people see the vision and see what can be done when a group of coaches and players all strive to play for the same goal. That goal is to glorify God in what we do and in how we play. I am thankful for each day I have to be a coach, to be someone that is the trenches in helping young men find their Spiritual meaning and what God has for their life, to help them grow academically so they can be successful in what their chosen field or profession may be and to challenge them athletically. It is not easy and it takes a lot of determination, but I know there is a pay off down the road. I tell people the great thing about my job is that “I have no idea what I am doing”. I mean that I have no idea what of these young men that come through our program are going to do in life one day. I have no idea how they are going to turn out during their time with us and once they leave. I pray we invest in their lives enough and pour ourselves into them that they benefit a great deal by being part of our program. Even with the uncertainty, I am sure excited about seeing what will happen with them one day and what they will become. There is great joy in this journey.
