Time and Place

OK, I like to think I know a little about sports. I did choose early in my life what I wanted to do and have a wonderful job that I love covering sports. I will have fun with our coaches telling them what I think about their strategy and lineups and those kinds of things. For the most part, they know that it is my way of trying to keep them loose.

We at Hardin-Simmons are blessed to have great coaches, who first love their kids and second love their job. It is not all about wins and losses, but the wins sure are nice and the losses sure are painful. I have yet to come across coaches that didn’t want to win and would do whatever they thought was right to win.

All of our coaches put in a ton of time every day to have successful programs and there is not one of them that does not prepare his or her team to win a game. Not one that has ever gone out of their way to try to lose a game. The coaches do what they have been trained to do to make their teams successful.

What people on the outside looking in don’t see is the time and effort the coaches put into recruiting, practicing, fundraising, promoting, being counselors on and off the field or court, preparing game plans, watching film and all of that comes before the actual game.

Most rational people understand the job they do, but when irrational people think that they know more about what is going on with a team and they think they know how to deal with it bugs me to no end. Coaches understand that dealing with parents or fans is also part of the job, but remember there is always a time and a place for everything.

The emotion of a big win or a tough loss makes people handle emotions in a different way. One thing we at HSU have always done, at least since I have been here, is win with class. When it happens we lose with class as well. Every game that is played there is a winner and a loser and it is not always your team that wins.

I encourage each and every fan out there to savior the wins and be disappointed in the losses, but always remember that our coaches and our kids give every amount of effort they have into winning. It does not always happen. If you have a problem with a loss, deal with it personally. Don’t take it out on the kids or coaches, because I can promise you one thing they take every loss as hard if not harder than any fan out there.