Overcoming Past Shortcomings and Hardships

Last Friday, I had the honor to coach at the NIACC senior all star game. It was a great experience-awesome athletes to coach, fun environment, and my team ended up winning! I realized that technically, it was the 2nd year in my career that my coaching season ended with a win…the first was 2016 when we won state. In basketball, unless you win the championship, your season will end with a loss and adversity. It’s a tough pill to swallow but it’s reality. It got me thinking about how people handle loss and overcome adversity along with negative publicity, after experiencing a loss.

The NCAA tournament gives us a number of examples of how players/coaches/teams have handled adversity and overcome loss going forward.

We all watched the Iowa/UConn women’s game on Friday night (this is being written before the championship game on Sunday!) and saw the game end on a “controversial” call against UConn. A number of commentators talked about how that one call lost the game for UConn. Here is what their star, Paige Bueckers, said about the end of the game: "Everybody can make a big deal about that one single play but not one single play wins a basketball game or loses a basketball game, I feel like I made a lot of mistakes that could've prevented that play." What a class response to probably the most difficult loss of her career-she took personal accountability and did not blame anyone or anything else.

If you have been watching the NCAA men’s tournament, you are probably aware of the story of Purdue. Last year, they lost in the first round to a #16 seed. In the estimation of head coach Matt Painter, Purdue reached the Final Four this year by not running from adversity. Painter said the Boilermakers were not necessarily driven by past tournament failures, well-worn issues such as handling pressure and perimeter shooting, but they took a full, honest measurement of their NCAA Tournament misfortune. "Just a purpose," Painter said. "There's no doubt when you have that adversity, you have to face that adversity. I think that's something that we really talked about this year is not getting away from that. Sometimes when people say derogatory things about you, it upsets you. But when it's true -- make some adjustments to that." We all know Purdue has taken those lessons to heart and are one win away from a national championship as I write this.

Many of you will remember UMBC upsetting Virginia in the NCAA tournament in 2018. Virginia was also a #1 seed that lost to a #16 seed-the first time that had ever happened. There was a lot of criticism of Virginia at the time but I would like to focus on the reaction of Virginia Coach Tony Bennett.  This had to be an overwhelmingly tough experience-losing the game on the biggest stage in a never done before circumstance.

How did Tony Bennett handle it? With class…

At the end of the game, he hugged the UMBC coach and greeted every player. He immediately went on TV and explained the loss while giving great praise to UMBC. Here are some of the things he said:

"But, trying to tell the guys in there, this is life. It can't define you. You enjoy the good times, and you have to be able to take the bad times. When you step into the arena and you're in the arena, the consequences can be historic losses, tough losses, great wins, and you have to deal with that, that's the job."

Unfortunately, all coaches are going to be faced with situations like this-you were expected to win, things didn't go well, your team loses, everyone has questions. It is going to happen to ALL coaches and probably many times!

When facing these tough circumstances, remember the reason most people got into coaching or teaching: to work with young people, teach them life lessons, and be a role model for everyone we work with. Coaching/teaching will give you lots of great moments, but also some heart-wrenching difficult moments as well. Sports fans are aware that Coach Bennett and Virginia went on to win the national championship the very next year, overcoming the heartbreak and turmoil from the previous year.

What do these stories remind us of? We are going to face heart break and losses in our lives-how do we handle them? This is a great reminder to remember our why and keep your emotions in tact when faced with hardships in our lives. Reacting with class and not overreacting is best practice. Is there anything that can be learned from our loss that can help us and/or our team going forward? Do I need to take personable accountability for what has happened? In today’s world, too often people are looking to blame others when adversity hits. We should always control what we can control and be a role model for others to follow. Have a great week!

Coach K