Three F-words for Success

I meet young people all the time who express an interest in sports but think because they didn’t have a pair of cleats to complement their diapers or because they didn’t play with a club or league, it’s too late. It is NEVER too late to try!

My most inspirational and influential coach is Century High School health teacher Alice Heberlein.  Alice was inducted into the ISU Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 after being a standout volleyball player from 1980-1984. She was my coach in 1990 when Poky won the state volleyball championship and then for two years later when I played at ISU. I got to coach alongside her at both Poky and Century, and my years with her in the gym, on long bus rides and at the receiving end of hundreds of her serves, sets and spikes led to my conclusion of three F-words for success: fire, fundamentals and fitness.

The most successful athletes posses a mighty measure of all three, but at a middle or high school level, students can get their foot through the door and onto the court or field with any two.

First there has to be a fire. Alice got cut from the seventh grade team when she was a kid and didn’t try out again until she was a junior. During her first year playing, she made the all-state team in California! She had skipped a grade, so she was only 15 years old, but she had a fire in her heart for the sport.

What does a “fire” mean?  It means getting up early to run, lift weights or do sit-ups. It means riding your bike to the batting cages if you don’t have a ride. It means finding ways through odd summer jobs or keeping your room clean to earn money for equipment or camps that can help, and finding time to work on dribbling with your non-dominant hand or tossing a football with someone. Coach Alice always said, or rather yelled, “You gotta want it!”

The second F-word is “fundamentals.” I am a naturally athletic person. I can catch and throw and run and jump and have always had a natural court or field sense. I’m not talking Olympic-quality natural ability. I’m talking enough athletic fundamentals to be confident when I try a new sport and I have a great time playing.  So what if you don’t quite have a natural flair, but you still want to play? Fundamentals can be developed with practice and that fire I was just talking about.

The final F-word is “fitness”.  A lot can be accomplished with a strong core, stamina, speed and agility. Run, jump and play!

 Other F-words like financing and fundraising will come later but fire, fundamentals and fitness can all be enhanced over a summer. Light that fire, refine some fundamentals, and get fit! The fun will follow.