"Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live." - Henry David Thoreau
Another season of college basketball tipped off on October 15th. In five months, March Madness will begin, and fans around the world will marvel at the skill, teamwork, and motivation of college basketball players. However, the journey will have begun much earlier. This week, in gyms around the country, more than 30,000 college basketball players laced up their shoes with the newest version of hoop dreams. Regardless of the player, the team, or the level, this time of year inspires hope. Whether it's an NBA All-Star or a high school reserve, everyone is undefeated at this time of year, and players everywhere believe this is the year their team wins big.
As we started practice this week at the University of St. Thomas, the same optimism abounds. Coming off a 30-1 season that ended in the Division III Elite Eight, our team is hopeful to build on our success from the past several seasons. I feel blessed to get to work with a tremendous group of individuals each day; players and coaches who share the motivation and desire to attain excellence together.
http://www.stthomas.edu/aquin/090320AlmostPerfect/index.html
What has always fascinated me about the first day of basketball practice is the energy in the air. Players are excited to run sprints, to hear the whistles amidst the squeaking of new tennis shoes, and even to hear coaches implore them to play harder when the players feel they're already playing as hard as they possibly can.
This energy is particularly noticeable in early drills in practice. Most practices start with warm-up drills that do not vary a whole lot between grade school, high school, college, and the pros. Although the skills of players at these levels vary widely, the lay-ups, shooting, and passing drills are relatively similar. Invariably, the first day finds players diving for every loose ball, running the floor like there is no tomorrow, and cheering on teammates for effort and execution. In sum, players exude a passion for their sport that is contagious and energizing.
On Thursday of last week, I looked at 30 eager student-athletes, some who were embarking on their final season of college basketball and others who were participating in their first college practice. A month from now, games will begin and reality will set in for teams across the country. Not every team will win a conference championship, much less a National Championship this season. Moreover, four months from now, when bumps and bruises have set in on bodies and egos, many teams will not have the same hope, nor practice with the same passion they did last Thursday.
Watching our first practice got me to wondering...if this hope and optimism can be such a positive force (see previous Goal Posts for background on hope and learned optimism), what would each day of our lives be like if we could replicate the energy and passion of the first day of practice with our families, our work, our personal growth, and our relationships? What if we could treat every day like college basketball players treat October 15th?
Let's give it a shot today...and tomorrow...and the next day. We might be surprised by how much passion each one of us has inside of us. If we live with passion, five months from now, we may have the same feeling that the national champs have when they're cutting down the nets - the feeling that dreams, whether in hoops or in other hopes, can come true, and they start with each one of us.
