Thursday, February 4, 2010

My Pride Runneth Over

Yesterday I went to a sports scholarship signing, and wow, did it do my heart good.

No, it wasn't the one from my school that made the Front Page of the St. Pete Times, and the front of the sports page in the trib. Those were cool too, but didn't fill me with the same sense of joy and pride that the one earlier in the day did.

The one earlier was very low key. ESPN didn't have live coverage as they did when our two blue chip athletes signed with the State's two best football universities yesterday. This one was one of our female track and field athletes signing with a small mid-western school. There was only one photographer there, and I'm pretty sure he was hired by the school, not ESPN, not even a local paper. But you know who else was there?

Her Mom, Her Dad, Her Elementary School and middle school gym teacher and track coach one of her best friends from school, her current girls track coach, and me, the head coach from her last two years.
I won't over state things, I had very little to do with her success. The girls coach is very much a person in control and did not ask for nor accept much help. I'd like to think I set a good example by being there everyday and by staying in relatively good shape myself, by having the track unlocked, the lights on, and the equipment out for practice every day. Regardless, she and her parents seemed very happy that I wanted to be there and that I was obviously happy that she was getting the chance to accept a scholarship to same U that her parents attended a few decades before.

To me, her story was much more compelling than that of the Mega-Blue Chip recruits that are constantly told how much talent they have. Our track girl, walks around campus unnoticed, humble, and grateful to be in a place that offers her an education with highly qualified educators. She has no sense of entitlement, and I think there's a story there!

12 comments:

superdave524 said...

Now that IS a good story. Did you contribute to her success? Well, if Woody Allen was correct that 80% of life is just showing up, then absolutely you did. Congrats.

runsforbeer said...

This is the best part of being a coach! I wish we had more athletes like these. Enjoy!

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