Dreams and Dream Boxes

Yesterday was the first day of school and the first day of a new journey for our basketball team. There was excitement and anxiety in the air as the team gathered at 6:15 a.m. for our first team challenge. We require our players to pass five challenges which include a 12 minute run and four strength tests. This is our way of determining mental toughness as well as fitness. For those who pass on the first day, we celebrate with them. For those who fail, they receive the opportunity to try again and again and again until they are able to make the Golden Eagle standard. When a player passes her challenges, she sends the message to her teammates that she has expended the energy over the summer months to work hard on her dream of being the best she can be. We believe in dreams here. We believe that dreams are the first step to reality and that the more a player can dream and feel that dream resonate within her, the more likely she is to become her dream. Over the summer months, we asked the players to keep a dream box--a box where they place quotes, articles, and pictures cut out from magazines, books, and newspapers which represent their dreams. The idea was that every day they would feed their dreams. Last night when we met as a team, each player brought her dream box to share with teammates. Every player had an opportunity to talk briefly about her dream box and to share with the group a favorite item from her box. As I sat there listening to them, I was moved by the passion with which they spoke. Almost every quote had something to do with heart, determination, or team. Afterward, Jihan, our team clown, pulled out a roll of toilet paper from her box to share with the coaches. She explained to us, "I wanted to make certain that we flushed last year down the toilet." I think it is a good idea to leave last year behind us while keeping the lessons that we learned from that experience in front of us. As we think about this year, we want to keep our beliefs lined up with our dreams. We want to feed those dreams daily keeping them fresh in our minds and hearts.

Move-In Day at UC

On Saturday the 23rd, new students were allowed to move into the UC residence halls. It has been our tradition to meet our new student-athletes with a group of returners to assist with their first move away from home. As they arrive, we greet them and grab a load of their furniture, clothes, basketballs, and shoes (oh my goodness--the shoes) to take to their room.

In this way, the freshmen and transfers get an opportunity to meet their teammates and we establish on their first day of being on campus that we are here to help one another. It is so critical that we establish early the feeling of being here for one another. If a team is going to survive, it has to buy into the idea of family.

We want our players to take responsibility for one another. We believe that in order to be the best we can be that we must take care of eachother. We cannot simply come together on the court at game time and expect to play as a unit without understanding the family concept off the court.

Don't get me wrong, we don't expect each team member to be the best friend of each other member. We do, however, want them to understand who will be by their side in times of joy, heartache, celebration, and sickness. We want them to believe without hesitation that a teammate will be there for them in the best of times and in the worst of times. It is important to feel both on the court and off the court that we are here to share with one another, to help each other through whatever challenges we might face this year. There is no better feeling than to know that you have a support group when you want to share laughter, love, or tears.

This year the newcomers were given opportunities to know their teammates prior to their first day on campus. Our senior class (Kika, Jen, and Jihan) embraced leadership over the summer by encouraging teammates via text messages and phone calls to work on their skills. They also arranged two separate occasions to get together and play some pick-up basketball. When senior members of the team go outside themselves to consider others, it is a great sign for a year of team unity.

I am thrilled with the first weekend of Golden Eagle basketball which showed the promise of leadership and togetherness. Join me later this week as I talk about the first day of conditioning.

How about those Olympic Women

As I continue to be awed by the accomplishments and feats of the 2008 Olympians, I am most amazed at the older women who are not only competing but winnning like Dara Torres, the 41 year old, mother of a two year old daughter, five time Olympian who won three silver medals. WOW! Just thinking about that one makes me exhausted. Then there is the 38 year old Romanian, the mother of a teenager, who won the marathon. It wasn't that long ago that it was a common misperception that women couldn't endure any type of endurance sport and that women around the age of 20 were getting past their prime. Just 40 years ago, most girls in the United States didn't play the five player basketball game. It was believed that girls couldn't run the distance of the full 94 feet of a court, therefore the court was divided into two different sections with the players unable to cross the midline. On one end would be a three-on-three game of guards who only defended and forwards who only shot the ball. Once the ball was passed across midcourt, one group of the three-on-three rested while the other group played. How women have evolved! Somewhere it began with a woman who believed she could do something better--something different--that she was stronger, faster, and tougher than others believed she was. It just began with a thought . . . and an attitude that she could do it. I'm certain many people told Dara that she was too old--that she was way past her prime. How fortunate we all are that she listened to her inner self and did what she knew she could do. Imagine the inner strength of that woman! Because she dared to think that she could, she has inspired many others to go beyond their age limitation, to push themselves to another place. Inspiration begins with self belief, the inner confidence to go beyond one's doubts and fears. It is the battle of self versus self which is the true stuggle all athletes hold. It has been said many times that the toughest opponent an athlete will ever face is herself. It is the truth. These women had to find peace with their inner battle then discover a way to overcome societal belief systems. I am glad they had the fortitude to hold true to their desires and hope other women will be motivated to hold true to their dreams and not to listen to those who tell them they can't. It is my hope that my athletes will have watched the women in the Olympic Games and will be inspired by their passion and love for their sport--that they will note that the true talent is not on the outside but on the inside. **My intention is to blog two times a week and I hope that you will join me as I talk about the University of Charleston Golden Eagles and our journey this season.

Thinking Olympics

As a former Olympian, I have been glued to the television set for the past week. Watching the Opening Ceremony brought back a flood of emotions I had hidden somewhere deep within my heart. I cried as I watched the athletes marching into the Bird's Nest feeling that moment of 1984 all over again. There were 80,000 fans screaming, "U.S. A. . . U.S.A." They were there to cheer us on, to celebrate the years we had been training, to share our dreams, our goals, and our hopes. My heart thumped as I marched; my breathing became labored; and I felt the joyous tears drizzle down my cheeks. It was all I had hoped for--all I had imagined. This was a moment I had practiced in my dreams a thousand times, and now I was there in the midst of all those incredible athletes. It does seem now like it was a dream--almost as if it were somebody else's life. It is hard to imagine that I was an Olympian. Now 24 years later, I still have that passion for athletics--for the belief that athletics are more than muscles wound tightly around a body. It is more than a ball going in a hoop, a leap over a hurdle, a dive off a platform, a body pulling through water. While it is the body that we might admire--that delicious lean, beautiful body which can glide, float, sprint, jump, and run; it is the heart which determines the greatness. Every Olympian has a story. Every athlete has a tale about perseverance, persistance, obstacles, and challenges. None of them will tell you that it was easy--that their workouts were simple--that they never felt a drop of sweat. Some of them will tell tales about things they sacrificed: time, money, relationships, jobs. Their stories are about dreams and passion. Their stories are about people who were willing to do whatever was necessary to follow their passion. This is one of the things athletics represents: learning to follow one's passion and to feel the glory in doing that. It is overcoming doubt, insecurity, self limitations, and fear. It is the inner struggle which defines us. This is what I truly love about athletics: the opportunity for self growth. What I took away from being an Olympian in '84 and '88 was more than the experience of walking in an Opening Ceremony or playing against great competition. I became a different person through the opportunites of playing athletics. It is what I wish to give to my players.