Dreams do come true

Dreams do come true

Most of us that are coaches have a certain picture or two on display for people to see when they come to our house or office. The picture may be of a special team we were a part of or it may be with a former player. If we have our picture taken with someone in the coaching profession that is well known we put that on display as well.

These pictures have meaning and we keep them out not necessarily to brag, but to bring back fond memories. Also the pictures bring up good conversation for those that see the pictures.

I enjoy seeing other people’s pictures and to hear their stories. When I first become a NCAA Division I assistant coach in the summer of 1995 I made a trip to Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa. We were recruiting a big kid from their school and over a period time I got to know the assistant coach fairly well. The more I got to know this assistant I knew he was the kind of coach that was going to be a very good one day.

I was impressed with the coach’s hard work, his willingness to help his student-athletes and his hunger to be a better in his profession. As with most junior college jobs the assistants don’t get paid a lot of money. One of the perks (if you would call it a perk) was free housing in the student dorms.

He and his wife had an apartment right in the middle of all the other dorm rooms. It was like a step down from an old Days Inn Hotel. I saw the living situation and thought this guy is either crazy or really wants to coach on the college level. College kids living around them on all sides and then he with his wife in this little apartment in the middle of all the chaos.

The first day we met he took me to his apartment/dorm room. Once we were there he showed me his “prized picture.” As I stated earlier most all coaches have them somewhere on display. He was proud to show me a picture of him and Coach Rick Pitino, who at the time was the head coach at the University of Kentucky.

This young coach had been a player at Morehead State University. You could tell in the picture Coach Pitino is not just congratulating him on a good game, but making a sincere comment to him. I asked him what Pitino said. He told me that Pitino was very complimentary of how this young assistant had played as a player and wanted him to know that he (Pitino) respected his effort. You could tell emotionally how important the picture was and even more important were Pitino comments.
To have a coach of Pitino’s stature go out of his way like that to say something special when you are a player had to be special.

This young coach continued to work hard and moved his way up the coaching ladder. He took a head-coaching job at a junior college for a school that’s program had not had success for a very good for a long time. He quickly turned it around and took them to the national tournament. With that he was able to land a job at the Division I level as an assistant coach. Once there he carved out a reputation for himself as a hard worker and someone that had a good career in front of him. He was well respected by those that knew him.

A couple of years ago he had the golden opportunity to go back to his alma mater, Morehead State, as the head coach. I’m not sure if there were many people that wanted to be a head coach more that he did at the time. One of his mentors told me that he was worried if his pupil didn’t get this job he may jump off a building he wanted it so bad.

Fast forward to this past Thursday. I was in Jackson, Tennessee to watch to our Belhaven women’s basketball team participate in the NAIA national tournament. It was their first trip in school history. It was fun to be there to cheer them on in their game vs. Azuza Pacific.

With recruiting, my own 5 kids, still moping about our season that had just finished when I saw the NCAA brackets and filled one out I didn’t study it very well. I didn’t really take a look at first round match-ups.

As I was watching our women play my seat was positioned a few rows behind the press table. One of the young men at the press table had his computer on to the NCAA tournament, but I couldn’t concentrate on our women’s game and the game on the computer. I did try to get the updated scores on my phone a couple of times for the NCAA games, but it was too slow and like I said hard to watch a game and keep up with four NCAA games going on.

I did notice that on the computer the game on was the Louisville-Morehead State game. As the Louisville-Morehead State game came down to the wire I heard some people saying we might be seeing an upset. As my eyes went from our women’s team on the floor and then to the computer I still couldn’t see what was going on with the Louisville-Morehead game.

When action stopped on the floor in front of me and there was a timeout in our women’s game I saw what I couldn’t believe. The Louisville-Morehead game was over. Louisville’s star player had his head in his hands on the bench. On the floor sprawled out in exhilaration was Morehead State’s star player. Morehead had upset Louisville!

Then it hit me Donnie Tyndall (the head coach at Morehead State) was going up against Rick Pitino. Not only that, now he has beat Pitino. The young coach I had met 15 years ago with the picture of him as a player with Pitino now had beat Pitino as a coach. What a win. What emotions. Facing a hero in game like that and then to beat the hero.

I began to think of the enormity of the Morehead State win and thought of the picture in Donnie’s dorm/apartment I saw 15 years ago. The thought that just kept going through my mind was, “dreams can come true.” They may take time, but they can come true with time, blood, sweat and tears.

This one game can be a career changer for Donnie. For all the coaches that toil and work their tails off and don’t get recognized when success stories happen like Donnie’s happen I want them to have hope and not give up on their dreams. Donnie had a dream, a vision and a plan.

I get to work in one of the greatest professions. Coaching can be a very tough, unforgiving, imperfect profession, but it is still a great profession that offers the opportunity to chase dreams. Yes, coaching takes a lot of beatings from the press and we make our fair share of mistakes, but we are dream givers.

I am in the business of giving kids a chance to reach high aspirations. We are privileged to provide a college education, playing college athletics and most importantly at Belhaven, we can give student-athletes a Christian environment for them to grow.

Whether you cheer for Morehead State or not on Saturday afternoon is your choice. Understand that Donnie Tyndall the head coach is just like you and me. He started from humble beginnings and those that know him best couldn’t be happier for him that he is on this stage. I want to leave you with the point to never stop believing in your dream and never stop dreaming in the people around you.

Dreams do come true.



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