Embrace Every Day

Well since moving to the UP and taking on a new challenge in life, I have debated on when and what to write a new blog about. Today it hit me as it is Jimmy V week and I watched the classic Jim Valvano ESPY speech and then I see a video on twitter about a student-athlete at Madison College who battled through Cancer, that I need to share what I have seen and this is a great time to write my next blog.

Just this week I was asked by a student at the school I teach at, what is your favorite quote. While I enjoy quotes and believe in the impact they have, this question made me realize I have never truly thought about my favorite quote and the impact it has on me. After just a couple minutes of thought, I realized it was an easier question than I originally thought. I went straight towards the Jim Valvano ESPY speech and a quote that I will never forget and will always be with me. Jimmy V during his 1993 ESPY speech said these profound words that have always stuck with me,

"There are three things we all should do every day. No. 1 is laugh. You should laugh every day. No. 2 is think. You should spend some time in thought. No. 3 is you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it, if you laugh, you think and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heckuva day." 

I remember the first time I heard Jimmy V's speech I was in high school and I saw it on ESPN. Ever since that day I think it is a shame that ESPN just shares it once a year on its network as it is something that really resonated with me. That being said it is something I look forward to watching every year on ESPN and provides perspective for not only me but the thousands of viewers, so thank you ESPN for never forgetting Jimmy V and the impact his words can have.

While that speech has had an impact on me for years, tonight I was able to see another video and speech thanks to the world of Twitter that impacted me and inspired this blog post. While I do not know Pierson Gibis, his story is one that needs to be told and shared. Pierson is a current Madison College baseball player who has battled through Cancer. I urge you to watch his speech and video below. I do not feel I can do his story justice so I will just pull out a couple quotes that really impacted me. Pierson stated,

"You don't know the meaning of a grind until surviving every day is a battle in itself." Later on he went on to say, "Each day is a gift and an opportunity in itself, that people need to learn to appreciate more." 

Tonight, while watching Jimmy V and having the privilege to hear Pierson Gibis story, it inspired to write this blog and to urge people to embrace every day. Another very important piece to this post for me is that while watching these two speeches tonight, I could not help but notice and think about the letter and picture I have on my desk. I personally have lost one family member to Cancer and it has had an impact on me ever since he passed away when I was in 6th grade. My grandpa was one of the biggest people who inspired my love for baseball as any time I saw him we would always talk about the game and the horrendous 1990 Brewers teams. And every time I saw him he would have to tell me his stories about seeing Ted Williams play Minor League baseball. These are images and stories that I will never forget. As I have moved to the UP and tried to take another step in the game of baseball by coaching college baseball, I know my grandpa is here with me and would be proud of how the game has impacted my life.

The two speeches below share how precious life is and how people need to be thankful for every opportunity they are given. So Jimmy V and Pierson Gibis, I want to thank you for the motivation and reminder to embrace every day to it's fullest.

For anyone that has been inspired or feels the need to support Cancer research do not hesitate to do so at Jimmy V's website or any other local or national foundation. Remember any amount can help and to "Embrace every day!"

Youth Sports... What is it about?!

I have been wanting to write on this topic for a while and as I sit and hope for a snow day tomorrow, I thought this might be the perfect time.

While I have only coached youth sports the past 2 years as a 5th grade and 8th grade basketball coach, I have been around youth sports my whole life and think it is an epidemic across our county, state and country right now.

When I first think about this topic, I think about what is the point of youth sports? I think if you ask myself, most High School coaches and even most parents they will say it is to develop the children's ability and also for them to have an enjoyable childhood while playing sports.

Sports teach us so much and I think I am as much a product of that than anyone. I was fortunate enough to grow up with parents (especially a father) who valued youth sports possibly more than anything else. One of the lifelong lessons I will take from my dad during his days of running Grafton Little League, being a board member of the Grafton Basketball Club, Grafton Booster Club and organizations at church is to put others before yourself and family. While that may sound bad at first, he showed me that while providing for my family, he had a greater responsibility than to just coach a team that his son was on. He gave that up to help 300+ kids in Grafton Little League. When being involved in youth sports is it more valuable to help 10-12 kids who your child is friends with or be someone who everyone in the organization knows and create positive relationships with countless children and adults. I think the ability to create positive relationships with more than just his kid and his kid's team showed me that my dad valued everyone else as much as he did me. And isn't that what kids and people want? To be valued and to have someone who cares for them. While I always knew my dad cared for me, I also knew that he put plenty of others before me and would always do what is best for the organization and not his kid!

One of the reasons for me wanting to write this post was a recent experience I had at a youth event I was coaching in. While I know coaching 8th graders is close to High School and what everyone wants athletes to be ready for, I was shocked and taken back at some actions I see out of youth coaches. While I hate throwing opposing coaches under a bus I have seen more than once during this past season where all coaches care about is winning in 8th grade. Whether it is a coach playing 7-8 players in order to win instead of the 12-14 on their team or if it is a coach putting his starters in to press a team when their bench is in and they are winning. After seeing this happen multiple times this season, I explained to my 8th grade team that my job is to develop all 12 players, not 5 after a heartbreaking loss where I let our "bench" players stay in the game and experience late game pressure, that they otherwise would have never experienced before High School. Yes the emotion of losing the game hurt but it was a learning experience for all of my players on what they can do to get better to prepare themselves for high school. Isn't that what the point of youth sports is? To get better and get ready to High School. I also told my team one of my favorite quotes from a couple of my other high school coaches, "Our games are not in the paper". Meaning who cares if we win or lose, my job is to get everyone ready for high school athletics. While it may have been a disappointing season for some of the players as we may have lost more games than we thought we would before the season, I would not change a thing as I know I did my job to develop not just 3-4-5 or 6 players on the team, I did my best to develop all 12 and give them experiences that will help them in the future. Who cares about winning in youth sports! Anytime I ask youth sports coaches "how is it going" and they immediately respond with some type of win loss record or if they won or loss the most recent game, that is always alarming to me. I don't care if 9-10-11 years old won a game or lost a game against there so called rivals, I care about are the kids learning the game and are they all developing and experiencing difficult situations within the game.

While this thought and ideas may be common, I have noticed it is a lot harder to act on  then what I originally thought. Growing up around my dad and Tony Lukas, Mike Donahue, Corey Esselman, Tim Chopp and others who always put Grafton Little League before whatever team they were coaching, I just always thought that's how it was, but I am sadly mistaken. Youth sports is in a trying time in our country and I hope more and more people realize that winning doesn't matter at the youth level, while I know keeping score and such is good as it builds competitiveness in kids, teaching them how to win and lose is also just as important. For anyone who has not read Mike Matheny's book The Matheny Manifesto I would highly suggest it as it starts out with a letter he wrote to parents as he was beginning to coach his son's youth baseball team. To say it lightly, Mike Matheny gets it!

I will leave you with some of my favorite excerpts from Matheny's letter to the parents:

"I'm asking you to grab the concept that this going to be ALL about the boys. if anything in this is about you, we need a change of plans. My main goals are to: 

1. Teach these boys how to play baseball the right way.
2. Make a positive impact on them as young men
3. Do all this with class"

"We may not win every game game, but we will be the classiest coaches, players, and parents at every game we play. The boys are going to show respect for their teammates, the opposition, and for the umpires-- no matter what."

"I believe the biggest role a parent can play is to be a silent source of encouragement. If you ask most boys what they want their parents to do during a game, they'll say "nothing." Again this is ALL about the boys. I know youth league parents fell they must cheer and shout, "Come on, let's go, you can do it!" but even that just adds more pressure."

"Let me go on record right now that we will not have good umpiring. The sooner we all understand and accept that, the better off we will be... But at no time will our boys be allowed to show any emotion whatsoever toward the umpire."

"Along with where he hits in the lineup and his amount of playing time, which position a kid plays is one of the most complained about issues. I need you to know that I am trying to develop each boy individually."

"One of the greatest lessons my father taught me was that my coach was always right--even when he was wrong. That principle is a great life lesson about how things really work. Our culture has lost respect for authority, because kids hear their parents complain about teachers and coaches."

These are just some of the key points hit on throughout Matheny's book that I feel very fortunate that my parents instilled in me as well. 

So as I conclude this post, just remember youth sports is about developing and having fun for all kids involved, not winning!

South Carolina and Coaching

This past week I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a rare opportunity for a high school basketball team from Wisconsin. As a member of the Port Washington High School Basketball coaching staff I was able to go along on a Varsity trip to South Carolina for a 3 day tournament. Not only was it a great experience on the court but any time you can get away from the snow you will always take it!

Being part of an out-of-state trip like that is something that not a lot of high school programs get to experience for any sport. To be able to do it with a special senior class and a basketball program that I have had the privilege of helping out the last 3 years was truly a memorable experience. These types of trips often do more for the players and coaches off the court than it does on the court. While a 14 hour bus ride might be grueling it is a time to grow relationships and become closer as a group. Not to mention the games in the hotel rooms, the going out to eat and just enjoying each other's company all week. All of these things were true on our trip to South Carolina and I do not think it is a coincidence that we played some of the best basketball we have all year on our way to a Claw Classic Championship.

As far as the on-court experience, our players got to enjoy 3 consecutive victories against teams we had little knowledge or scouting for. One of the things that sticks out the most to me about our 3 consecutive victories was the fact that it came 3 days in a row after driving 14 hours on a bus. That is tough for professional athletes to do as NBA players hate back to backs but our player's gutted out a long bus ride and some long days to win on back to back to back nights. Hopefully there is more to come from the Pirates this year as they continue to grow as a team on and off the court.

Two moments that stick out to me from the last week that brings me back to why I coach go back to one of my first blog posts about "Every Kid Needs a Champion". On the bus ride a player I have had the privilege of coaching the last couple years came up and just wanted to talk. While this may not be a big "AHA" moment, it shows me the relationship and trust that this player has in me and that they know I truly care about them as a player, student and person. This player also shows me the respect and reminds me that they care about me as well. That is something that was evident again yesterday as I was out and about and had a former player come up and give me a hug and spend time talking with me about what is going on in life. The ability and willingness that players show to communicate with me gets me back to the "Why I coach". Creating these relationships with young adults where they are willing to trust me and show that they value our relationship is the real reason I am a coach. While winning Championships and traveling to the #ABCA2019 Clinic this weekend in Dallas are great experiences, the relationships with the players is the real reason why I am a coach.

I have included some pictures from our trip to South Carolina and you can see in one of the videos how much the players enjoy the head coach, Brian Hebein as they were waiting for him in the locker room to celebrate the Championship. What a great moment that everyone who was involved will never forget. Continue to make memories as an athlete, scholar, coach, and help those around you!

We were able to hold a shoot around before our first game thanks to a 1000 win coach in South Carolina. 5 time State Champion, Tim Whipple, thanks again Coach!

The boys after the Championship!

Port boys taking a picture with the team from Australia who was there supporting us in the Championship game!