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| (Four generations of Hunter men, along with my son, I have pictures of five generations) |
I have listened to many coaches and have had coaches who tried to put things into perspective for us as players and coaches. I really wonder if anybody "gets" it until they "get" it. Probably not, that is why people say "you just don't get it", I guess.
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| (Our church family at our annual Fall Picnic) |
Faith - To me, and this has actually changed in the last six months, it is everything. Faith used to be something that I had along with everything else. It was there when I needed it, but now I feel every single step should be about faith. Some people have said to me recently, "I read your blog, you have gotten pretty religious lately" to which I say, I just am not holding it back anymore, I am not pretending to be something different than what I am. You say I am religious? I say, not enough. To me everything else flows from this, yet I feel I am just a regular guy and not a radical, but I guess that is for others to decide for themselves.
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| (The four of us along with Kristi's sister "Aunt Megan") |
Family - My wife and my kids. I love them and will not prioritize my job over spending time with them. One of my self imposed rules is that I bring nothing about my coaching job home. It makes for longer days sometimes, but when I hit that door my kiddos and wife have my full attention (my wife teaches elementary school so you can probably guess she does bring work home....every night). I hug and kiss all three of them a lot because I do not want them to doubt ever how I feel about them.
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| (The Henryville Golden Band) |
School - For the players, but even for me our school should come before our team. One thing I have tried to do is push the idea of Henryville High School and all of its components should be supportive of each other. It often feels like each group is too competitive with other groups within the same school. I wish every single thing we did at HHS won the state championship, I really do. I want all of our players to understand that our school gives them great opportunities and they should be supportive of their classmates in their endeavors especially if they want them to come to our games.
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| (2009 15-8 S.A.C Champions) |
Team - If the team doesn't do well, who cares if you can do things individually. People remember players of championship teams better than they do good players off losing teams. Play hard (for the team), Play Smart (for the team and together) and Have Fun! (for the team enjoying the individual accolades of others wanting them to succeed). Every team that wins gets along it is the teams that aren't successful where you see if they will stay together or divide.
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| (Yep, me...circa 1988) |
Self - Yes, we should be lowest on the list of priorities. How much are you giving of yourself for the betterment of others? for the team? for the school? for your family? for your faith? You should be selfish in improving your skills for the betterment of you and ultimately the team which brings joy to the school, your family and playing for your faith. What is interesting is that as a player you should use your individual skills to help the team and understand that you are no more important than any other player, however, your individual skills can hurt the team. Those decisions to break team and school rules will hurt the team which is a huge act of selfishness and often immaturity.
We have discussed in FCA that often the immediate, emotional reaction to any given situation is the easiest choice, but probably the wrong choice that will not make things better often making the situation worse. I believe that in those situations where you react immediately and emotionally you have put the least of the list at the top of the list and that is something to reflect upon and prepare when those situations arise.
