A Life Lesson

 Like many of you, I watched the bowl game last night between Oregon and Indiana. A heck of a game, and to be honest, I vacillated on who I wanted to win. Both are from the Big Ten, with Oregon being a recent addition. Indiana had been at the bottom for so long, but this year, they turned it around and went undefeated. They have an opportunity to win the College Football Championship. From the very bottom to the top of the heap!

But one team had to lose. No ties. One winner and one loser. 

As a high school basketball coach, I’ve been there. One team I coached won a state championship- the second smallest school in the state of Wyoming! The year before, we had played for the championship and lost. It happens. 

I changed high schools after a two-year stint as a graduate assistant at a university, and I taught and coached at a moderately large school in Wisconsin. Loved it. In my last year, I resigned at the beginning of the season, effective at the end of the season, because I wanted to end with my seniors, a great group of young men. We didn’t go as far as we had wanted, like Oregon, last night. I felt for the coach, and I felt for the team. Been there. Felt it. It hurts.

What impressed me was what head coach Dan Lanning said after the game. I’m going to cut and paste it from an article on MSN.com for you, because I don’t want to misinterpret his words and inject my own. It would be a disservice to him and to you who read my posts. This is what Coach Lanning said: -- 

The Hardest Part of Being in the Locker Room Right Now:

“Man, you hurt for those guys because the world is going to judge everybody in that room based on the result tonight. I’m going to judge those guys on the kind of fathers they become someday, the kind of husbands they become someday. But in this moment, you feel like a failure, right, for them, and they’re not. They’re not failures. These guys won a lot of damn ball games. They’ve had a lot of success. They’ve changed some people’s lives, but right now, that moment is going to hurt.”

“And the hard part, you know, you got guys like Bryce (Boettcher) that they don’t get to be a Duck anymore. They will be a Duck forever, but he does not get to go wear that uniform and go play a game for us again. I really wanted that for them, really wanted them to be able to enjoy that and experience that, and they don’t get to.”

“And I didn’t do a good enough job of getting them there. They set the stage where there might be an opportunity down the road where somebody in this program is able to create something like that again, but he won’t get to share that. But he will be a part of that if we’re able to accomplish that moving forward.”

What Quarterback Dante Moore Can Learn From This Experience:

“I think every man can learn from adversity. I just told that whole locker room, right, this is going to be about how you respond in life. This is going to be a life lesson that a lot of people never get. We just got our butt kicked. Right? That’s going to happen in life, right, and not just Dante. Every single person in the locker room, every coach, every person can learn, ‘Hey, how do you respond to that?’ Some people crawl into a hole, right, don’t face the music.”

“Some people say, ‘Okay, let’s figure it out. Let me challenge myself so I can be better. Let me be an example of how you handle moments like this.’ I think there is a way to handle that. Dante has been exceptional. Bryce, these guys have been exceptional, stewards of what we wanted to look like all year long. And it’s gone right for us 13 times. Didn’t go right tonight. And you can’t let that overshadow.”

“Every one of us has unbelievable disappointment. Learn from it. But there’s a lot of lessons to be learned for everybody in life, and we’ll learn the hard lessons here. And you know what, most people will never be in the position where they get to learn that lesson that we get to learn on. These guys were in that position.”

His (Coach Lanning’s) Opening Statement:

“First off, all the credit in the world to Indiana. Said it before that they’re an unbelievably well-coached team. I think that was really apparent tonight. They started off hot, and they really didn’t slow down. They were able to run it and have success. Passing at their defense played outstanding. We were able to generate a little momentum there at times, but we were so far in the hole that you really couldn’t create yourself out of that.”

“And the takeaway is obviously they were able to create some. We didn’t create those. They won average starting field position throughout the night. Their special teams were special. You see a really complete team. And I think they obviously have a great chance to keep it going and have unbelievable success. Credit to the coach Cignetti and credit to those players. They’ve got great leadership and a veteran team that really showed up.” --

I think we can learn a great deal from Coach Lanning’s comments. To say what he said in the way he said it is the mark of a humble, compassionate, and wise leader. Those young men who played and will play for him, those coaches who coached alongside him, will be better human beings from having been associated with him. Honestly, his comments, his actions, and his demeanor on the sideline make me want to get to know him. Even more and even at age 72, it makes me want to grab a helmet and some shoulder pads and play for him. Hell, I’ll even be the ball or water boy. If I had a son, that’s the man I’d want coaching him, learning from him. Something to think about …

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!

To My Readers:

I wanted to make sure I shared the following promo code for the Holiday Season! 

Use the promo code: SEASON20

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You can find all ten of my books, including my two latest books, Fan Mail and Black Yéʼii (The Evil One) on the Black Rose Writing website. But even if you miss this promotion, you can find all my books on my website at https://www.jrlewisauthor.com  

For those of you in the Fredericksburg, Virginia, area, I will be at a sale and signing for all my books at the Howell Library (formerly England Run) located in Stafford County, at 806 Lyons Boulevard Fredericksburg, VA 22406 on Saturday, January 24, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. I will be in the library lobby just inside the main doors. Hope to see you there!