The Background:
NUT graduated almost the entire roster and replaced it with almost all
sophomores and freshmen. We went to
WarmUp and got pwned, we went to Midwest Throwdown and lost a game we thought
we could win. We had a bid to Easterns
based on the strength of our previous season.
Easterns
was the biggest tournament that NUT had played in a long time. In the first round we played North Carolinaand got thrashed – it felt like 21-3. We
couldn’t catch, couldn’t throw, and had no idea how to play defense. There is a moment that will stay with me forever:
Sahaj has a wide open Jeremy for a swing, and puts it 50 feet in the air -
straight out of bounds.
The Epiphany:
“We spent an hour and a half warming up
before the North Carolina game! The whole time Yiding and Champe had their
headphones in and were listening to music, they never do that and I was
freaking out!” – The Toph.
The Lesson:
I
needle my class of 2017 a lot. I call
them soft, nervous nellies, easily frightened, and catastrophizers. I spend a lot of time blaming them for being
scared of playing Frisbee. At some point
the leadership (read: I) needs to own that the feelings of the team are
impressions of what the leadership is portraying.
Attitude
reflects leadership, captain.
The antedote about Champe and Yiding reminds me of a couple of a quote by Satchel Paige: "And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines", as in don't change your approach just because of the situation. He also said, "never do nothing till your muscles are loosed up", which is fitting here as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is spot-on Fro-zone! I could list a bunch of reasons/excuses as to why I had headphones on that morning, but the more important thing I think is to acknowledge that you all still supported and believed in the team we built together despite the captains' weaknesses (or at least my own). And because of that, we took it to the other teams we played at Easterns! That was the most fun tournament I've ever played in.
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