UNC Soccer Coach Anson Dorrance requires his players read and discuss The Leadership Moment. Michael Useem writes, "It requires us to make an active choice among plausible alternatives, and it depends on bringing others along, on mobilizing them to get the job done. Leadership is at its best when the vision is strategic, the voice persuasive, and the results tangible."
Arlene Blum led the first all-woman expedition to climb Annapurna (1978), one of fourteen Nepalese peaks over eight thousand meters. Two women summited and two died. The vital lessons include risk-benefit ratios and the inclusion of women as high adventurers. Women faced the same opportunity and peril as men. Later, she also helped to ban dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals from flame-retardant infant clothing.
Francis Perkins witnessed the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist fire as a young woman. 146 garment workers (123 women), locked in the sweatshop, died in 1911. Perkins became a worker rights advocate and helped push through minimum wage and maximum hour workweeks. She became the first woman to achieve cabinet-level posting as the Secretary of Labor under Franklin Roosevelt. Women inform deep contributions to society.
General Robert E. Lee overcame overwhelming numerical and information deficiencies to beat Union General Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville in May 1863. Chancellorsville teaches student-athletes that they can adapt and overcome, gaining victory against prohibitive odds. But it was a Pyrrhic victory, ultimately sacrificing Lt. General Stonewall Jackson.
(Animated summary of the Civil War, 600,000 deaths, and wounds that remain open today.) The Emancipation Proclamation (January1863) helped prevent English and French recognition of the Confederacy.
Without formal military training, Bowdoin Professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain commanded the Maine 20th regiment at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg. His brilliant bayonet counterattack against the Alabama 15th was a decisive moment in the battle. He earned the Congressional Medal of Honor and received the Confederacy's surrender at Appomattox. When asked how he achieved his military education, the professor answered, "I can learn."
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an African-American journalist who spearheaded the anti-lynching campaign in America. She wrote the Red Record (1895), decrying the lynching and mistreatment of black people since the Emancipation Proclamation. She felt that lynching was another method designed to suppress the economic advancement of blacks. She helped found the NAACP. Ida B. Wells' lessons teach the importance of working to do right.
Like Colonel Chamberlain, we can learn.
Lagniappe: Chris Oliver teaches 3-on-0 progression. I'm not sure we're ready for this. Maybe that means we need it. Each group has 3 players and 2 balls and everyone shoots each trip down.