Laughter Creates Unity

I like this team. I realize I say that every year but this team makes me laugh and laughter is good for the soul. Of course, there are times when laughter is not appropriate such as after a loss, during a frozen push-up, running a sprint, doing a competitive drill and when my eyes are five times their size and veins are popping out of my forehead.

This team has a good sense of timing their laughs, knowing when to tease, when to let something go and when I will laugh along with them. Friday night during our initial team meeting, a meeting which is usually full of tension due to the string of rules and regulations I impose, the team had me laughing--a deep bellie laugh with tears at the edge of my eyelids.

If I were to relate the stories to somebody else, they probably wouldn't find them funny. It was one of those deals where you had to be there to think it was funny, yet as a group we can reivist those moments and find the laughter again. This ability to laugh together has already sealed our unity--provided us with a togetherness that other teams can only pray they can achieve. It has given us an intimacy, a feeling of oneness that we will be able to utilize during the challenging times.

Friday night wasn't all laughter; it was team business and motivation for the future. It was a time for sharing when the players read a page from their workout journal which I had requested them to keep over the summer. The journal will be a concrete reminder of the daily grind they put themselves through to find their dreams. When they shared their toughest workout day of the summer, I found I was amazed at their willingness to spend hours and hours getting better. There was Canada (Lisanne) who "ran through grass as high as my waist in the hottest of days . . . uphill both ways." There was Katy who played basketball for two hours against the Chinese, then spent another hour weight lifting, then another hour doing shooting, then did an ab workout. There were others whose workouts were just as impressive.

After we had laughed at Canada's rendition of her workout which became tougher with each telling, we each wrote our biggest strengths on a piece of paper. Then I had them add to that paper their vision of a perfect game. We then took those papers and hid them in the gym in a place where they wouldn't be discovered. So our strengths and our perfect game will be in the gym waiting for us all year long.

I am not certain where this year will take us, but I am convinced we will find laughter along the way.