Last week, I told you all teams had common opponents that could damage or beat them if given a chance.
During a 26-year broadcasting career, I often said the following, which remains true.
Teams could be destroyed by many different forces, such as interfering principals, booster clubs, unfair media, a busy-body school board or school director, a fan or group of fans or parents – especially parents – and also a small group of folks usually seen hanging around and trying to “advise” winning teams and good players.
There is another group of enemies that are just as deadly: jealously, envy, pride, a haughty or superior attitude, arrogance, egotism and selfishness. These can be very harmful if even one player, or perhaps, a coach is afflicted for any length of time. They are just as harmful or deadly to just about any team project be it athletic, business, government or whatever.
Any one of these can cause a loss of motivation, focus, effort and, maybe most important, they can destroy the team concept.
Where do these feelings come from?
1. These feelings are natural and exist within all of us.
Jealousy was the major cause of the world’s first murder. And remember how arrogant the Philistines were when David showed up to fight Goliath?
Everyone possesses these feelings in some amount, and I’ve got centuries of examples as proof.
2. Our student-athletes have been watching professional sports from many sources for many years.
In large part, the professional athletes of today are some of the most selfish in the history of sport and appear to be interested in themselves – their money, their stats, their image and their “brand.”
They spend a lot of time hogging the spotlight or blaming others.
Many of these athletes are some of the best known people in the country and student athletes follow their every move.
3. Many of these feelings begin with parents, sometimes a friend or “interested” third party, usually an over-zealous fan or wanna’ be coach from an independent team.
These folks plant ideas into the heads of young student-athletes. These ideas take root and, if repeated often enough, begin to grow.
Often their questions and comments sound like this:
• You need to score more, carry the ball more or get more playing time, and certainly get more credit.
• Why didn’t you make the all-star team, all-tournament or the all-area team?
• Why did the newspaper not interview you or put your picture in print or make you the player of the week?
• Why didn’t you start? You should be starting! You would at another school.
The list could go on, but you get the idea.
Most coaches struggle with these things on a daily basis. They are very aware these enemies can strike without warning and ruin a season.
Coaches are also aware teams lose games for lots of reasons, and one of them being that sometimes, teams beat themselves. So, what is in the heart and mind of each player directly affects game performance. What happens off the floor between games is often as important as the actual game.
We can only hope our games are decided by talent, hard work, coaching, preparation and practice, and the level of play. |
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