Category: sports

John Wooden’s UCLA men’s basketball teams won 10 National Championships in 12 years–including 7 in a row during the mid-60’s through the mid-70’s.  At one point, they won 88 games in a row.  Detractors cried, “Foul!”–implying that they must have broken some rule or done something else unethical to get there.

The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series–including 5 in a row from 1949-1953 and 3 in a row from 1998-2000.  People wrote off their success by attributing it to the deep pockets of the owner.  Allegedly, no one else could afford to compete.

The Boston Celtics have 17 NBA Championship banners hanging from the rafters at the TD Garden and chief architect, Red Auerbach was considered an evil mastermind.

The New England Patriots have won 5 Superbowls and have been divisional champs 14 of the last 16 years.  Can you think of any other NFL team that generates as much loathing from fans from coast to coast?  Everywhere but in New England and with former New England transplants

The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team has won 11 National Championships and has the 2 longest win streaks in NCAA history (men’s or women’s) with 111 and 90.  They also have the 3rd longest streak for women’s teams with 70.  Their coach for the last 33 years, Geno Auriemma, will be coaching for his 1000th win against 135 losses on November 19th.  And the sports pundits claim that the Huskies’ success is bad for women’s basketball.  Since when is doing your best year after year bad for your sport.

I coached high school cross-country for over 25 years and was blessed with many hard-working athletes who earned 4 State Championships and a record over that time of 377-37–including a 55-meet win streak.  We didn’t cheat or act in an unethical way.  Coming from a small school where football was the big fall sport, we certainly didn’t outspend anyone.  And I seriously doubt that anyone ever considered me an evil mastermind.  And I certainly don’t believe that our success was detrimental to our sport.

We simply believed that “Here’s how we’re going to beat you.  We’re going to outwork you.  That’s it.  That’s all there is to it.”  I think it’s always been that way with teams and individuals who have attained some measure of success.  Too many people “hate us because they ain’t us.”  And that’s a sorry state to be in,

Hard work always pays off; mere talk puts no bread on the table. (Proverbs 14:23)

I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)

 

You’ve all been to the course and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. (I Corinthians 9:24-25)

 

With apologies to Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times…”

I recently had the pleasure and great honor to have two of my All-State Cross-Country teams inducted into their high school athletic Hall of Fame.

I took even greater pleasure and felt honored by the stories and memories several of them shared with the audience.  To them, running was fun.  It was cathartic. It became an attitude—a way of life.  One they learned from those who ran before them and then passed on to those who followed.

I think the most notable thing during that time of sharing was what I didn’t hear.  They rarely mentioned the meets they won or the championships they earned.  If there was a funny story involved, or a lesson to be learned from a particular race, then it was alright to share it.  Otherwise, the topics ranged from the stories they shared, the friendships formed, the lessons learned and the effect their running experience had on their lives.

These were guys that had married, had children, had furthered their education and worked at a variety of jobs.  But they all started as kids from a little school in north-central Massachusetts.

Narragansett Regional is a small Massachusetts high school with a population of 382 students.  This opposed to, let’s say, Brockton High which checks in with 4,174 students.  The numbers range down from there for all 1,854 schools in Massachusetts.  This gives you some idea of the enormity of their accomplishment.  But we had one “advantage.”  By a special dispensation from the State, 7^th and 8^th-graders were eligible to try out for the varsity teams.  Imagine the “advantage” that gave us—running 12 and 13-year-olds against teams with 30-40 members, many whom were upper classmen.  Not only that, but our athletes could also choose football, soccer or golf.  It left a small pool of athletes to choose from.

But compete we did.  From 7^th grade on.  And each year, we got better.  And soon, the older runners were looking out for the younger.  Members of the same family began to join.  Former runners became coaches.  A tradition was created.  And the expectations began to rise to the point where any loss was considered an insult to the program.

I suppose there was a certain amount of arrogance involved.  But is it arrogance if you really are better than everyone else?  We would always “jog” the course before any meet.  Intimidating?  How about having brutal workouts the day before a meet?  Or climbing Mt. Monadnock twice the day of a meet?  Or running in championship meets with a broken arm or a broken toe?  We worked hard and believed we worked harder than anyone else.  Ergo, we should win.  If we didn’t, it meant that we needed to work harder.  And we did. And, by the way, our girls’ team was right with us each day working just as hard.  We had dozens of trails we named that ranged from ¾ of a mile to 10+ miles.  We ran on trails, on dirt roads, on tar roads, through swamps and rivers, on trails and off trails, up 60-degree inclines and down the same ones.  We ran distance, middle distance and sprints.  We did repeat workout for every distance up to a mile.  And we did it regardless of the weather.  It actually seemed like the meets were our easy days

I know this must sound like all work and no play.  We worked hard and played hard—nearly every day.  Yet, it was fun.  We enjoyed beating on each other and ragging on each other and sometimes even fighting with each other.  But we all had each other’s backs.  We could harass each other, but anyone from the outside did so at their own risk.

Notice I used “we” through most of this writing.  The teams we honored treated me as more than just a coach and I truly appreciated it.  So, they worked their tails off and I went along for the ride.

And what a ride it was!