THE MOST CHERISHED VICTORIES

The following is titled "I Love You Enough For Our Players" and was written by Coach Wayne Walters.  I found this in "A Collection of Thoughts on Life" by Dale Brown whom is a dear friend and mentor.  This book an short but powerful read that I go to often inspiration for myself and my team.  Here is Coach Walters passage:

Some day when my players are ole enough to understand the logic that motivates coaches, I will tell them:

I love you enough to worry where you were going after late practice3s, and with whom and how much sleep and study time I left you.

I loved you enough to insist that you take personal responsibility for your actions instead of letting you make excuses.

I love you enough to be silent and let teammates workout the differences between themselves and discover how much we really need each other.

I love you enough to tell you what we needed from you to be successful and to be disappointed when you did not deliver.

I loved you enough to pick you up and emotionally carry you when times were toughest and bring you back to reality when you thought that you were a little better than you were.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, tears and disappointment in my eyes.  Players must learn that coaches are human and not perfect.

But, most of all, I loved you enough to do what needed to be done to build your character and the character of your teammates even though I knew that you would cruse me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all.  I am glad that we won them, because in the end those are the most cherished victories.