THOSE WHO STAY WILL BE CHAMPIONS

Any player that has come through the Hardin-Simmons football program has heard this phrase uttered by Coach Keeling and it is even on a sign above the door in the locker room.

THOSE WHO STAY WILL BE CHAMPIONS

I was watching some of pregame NFL shows and heard them talking about how Randy Moss’ attitude has been great all season. He has fit in well with his teammates and has been a model citizen. That is not surprising. When he was playing with the Raiders and was losing his attitude was deemed poor. Now he is a model citizen. I don’t know him, but the leopard hardly ever changes its spots.

I think his attitude boils down to one thing – he is winning. It is a lot easier to do the right thing when things are going your way. What you do when you are down or face adversity is the true measure of your character.

There are plenty of life lessons learned from playing athletics. It is easy to give up when things don’t go your way. That is the easy way out. I have a ton of respect for those who have gone through hard times and have found the will to stick it out. If you talk to them down the road they are a lot stronger person for that.

There is a group of men’s basketball players that went through that from the transition of coaches about seven or eight years ago. Bryan Conover, Jordan Clower, Jason Eaker, Jonas Fuller, Carl Thompson and others are a group that went through some tough times and not a lot of wins. They went through those tough times together and showed great class in doing so. Those guys will be prepared for whatever they end up doing in life and I know at least three of those people are involved with basketball and will be or already are great coaches.

We have had kids, like all schools have; go through deaths in the family, divorce, financial problems at home, etc. They went through a lot to stay on their teams. They were able to stick it out and make the best of their situation. Often times it is their teammates and coaches that help them get through the tough times.

I understand that things happen and for whatever reason a person needs to leave their team. It could be to concentrate on academics, it could be to get another job to pay for school, or various other reasons. It is even acceptable when you have another year of eligibility left, but you don’t want to play anymore and you tell your coaches. That is fine, at least the coaches have a chance to recruit and replace them.

What is hard to understand is why someone would quit on their teammates in the middle of the year and give up just because things get a little hard. Those tough times are what make you stronger. To put in all of the hard work, the extra weight training in the offseason, to go through the highs and lows together and then when things don’t seem to be going your way you quit that is hard to understand. When you have done it once it makes it easier to do it again later on in life.

I guess that everything is supposed to be easy.