"When you teach other people, you teach yourself." - Itzhak Perlman
From the firehose of experience, life shares lessons. Recall the scene from August Rush where he assembles his music from city sounds.
Ask "are we building a program or a statue?" Confidence fosters success. But ego interferes with good decisions. Learn from others' mistakes and successes.
Stories of success and failure endure.
1. "We will not lose to them again." We lost at home to the twice defending state champions by two. Coach Lane was livid. "The only reason they won was because it said LEXINGTON on their jerseys. You're better than they are but you don't believe it." Their press made the difference. So, every practice we practiced 5 on 7, no dribble, until presses were gifts. In the rematch we crushed them 70-52 and beat them in the sectional championship in Boston Garden in overtime. Coach was right.
2. "It's the scoreboard, not the scorebook." Up eight, 55 seconds left with the ball and a full shot clock. The local girls should have an easy victory. Five seconds later a player hoists a trey, misses, and the opponents have a chance. Play to win not fatten your stats. Plus, if a college coach WERE watching, she'd cancel you then and there.
3. "Make the right play." Up 1 with the ball and 31 seconds to go in a critical postseason game with two elite free throw shooters on the floor. The opponent should foul, but they don't have to because our player shoots an elbow jumper with 12 seconds left. The opponents score and win. Basketball is eighty percent mental.
4. "It's not over." We trailed by eight with 1:59 left, no threes, no shot clock. We steal and score multiple times and ice the game with a pair of free throws late to win by three. It said, WAKEFIELD on our jerseys.
5. "Time waits for no man." Melrose, with a full complement of timeouts, led by ten with a future WNBA player waiting to enter the game at the table. The lead evaporated in ninety seconds without a timeout expended in a two-point loss.
6. "Don't get hurt needlessly." Health is fragile. The game was out of reach as our team led by fifteen with seconds remaining. With a few seconds remaining, a player dove and clipped an opponent, taking out her knee. Be a basketball player not a bull in a China shop. Use common sense.
7. "Be fierce." Melrose led Burlington by 25 with four minutes left, despite Burlington having "taken out" two of our starters with violent play during the game. Melrose cleared the bench; Burlington outscored them 18-0 down the stretch. Burlington parents mouthed off, "we're every bit as good as you." The girls were furious. They begged the coach not to hold back in the rematch, especially with Shey Peddy going for her 1000th point. The coach took a timeout with the team leading 42-12 after ten minutes. "You made your point." Shey scored over twenty in the first half.
8. "Be hard to play." I chatted with a Wakefield coach before the game. "Melrose is always hard to play, as they have talent and five girls running." Movement kills defenses.
9. "You can't escape politics; keep playing hard." The politician's son got cut and his father was determined to exact a pound of flesh. In a town that had sent the football team to Bermuda for winning a state championship two years earlier, winning was suddenly secondary. Behind the scenes, the politician sought the coach's removal. He tracked minutes and arranged a kangaroo court about team tryouts and playing time across sports. But the team kept winning, thirteen in a row. The coach survived and eventually went into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.
10."Respect the game." We trailed the playoff game by fifteen with three minutes left. I pulled the starters, figuratively waving the white flag. The Salem coach left his in AND stayed in full court pressure to try to run it up.
