Why? 3/9/12
As a follow up to lasts week blog – our family did indeed grow this past week. Jeff and Kirsten Powers are proud parents of twins, a boy named Jeff Jr. and a girl named Avery. Adam and Kerri Wright had a baby boy this past Wednesday. They still have not named the little boy. I hear they are thinking “Polo”. Just kidding… anyway parents and babies are all doing well. I am very excited for the Wrights and the Power’s family. Our family is growing and I guess that kind of makes me a grandfather.
We have had another good week of training although we have a few guys that are a feeling a little beat up and broken down. Besides a few days missed for Jeff and Adam this week we have had three others that have been sick this week with flu like symptoms. The end result was that we had to actually cancel our normal competition Wednesday (this is our normal night when we have a full four quarter inter-squad scrimmage) and move it to Friday. Unfortunately, we had some disappointed fans come out expecting a scrimmage and instead watched a normal training. Most weeks we will have these scrimmages and fans are welcome to come out to Oaks Christian. Scrimmages generally begin at 7:45 pm. Next week, due to our schedule we will be having our scrimmage on Thursday night. As coaches, we are treating these scrimmages like real games. Video taping, taking stats, running shot clocks and bringing in real officials. By doing this we are adding 15 more good competitive games to our schedule and giving ourselves a chance to evaluate all the players in more game situations. Normally, we see some very competitive high level water polo. I would encourage anyone from the community to come out and watch. It is a great way to learn the game and support our team. There is no charge to come watch.
This week I had a patient at my office ask me “why do I do this? Why do I spend countless hours coaching these guys as they are preparing for the Olympic Games? I simply told him that I love what I do. Sure it is a strain - keeping all areas of my life in balance but to me it is a tremendous opportunity to push myself and my team to our limits. I believe that within each of us there is a desire to see how good we can be in whatever we do. In many jobs people may get into the day after day routine and lose track of this concept. However, with the Olympic Games this is the goal. To push yourself - mind, body and spirit to the limits and to see how much you can improve and in our case contribute to the team to help them potentially win a gold medal. There is huge risk involved in the process, in fact, most will fail. Many will not even make the team and only one team ultimately wins a gold medal. However, the real success or the real joy is in the journey - the pursuit of excellence itself. My dad always emphasized to me that “a man can be no happier than when he knows he has done his best”. This is what we are all trying to reach. To do our best on the biggest stage that there is in sport with the whole world watching. It is an amazing journey and along the way we find out much about ourselves and our team mates. We become a family with each one wanting the best for one another. When you want to win for your team mates more than yourself it is powerful. The Olympic Games are bigger than any one of us. It is a great honor and opportunity to represent our country in this journey. Each one of us will carry a responsibility to one another and our country to represent us well. Finally, I do this for the relationships. There are not too many opportunities like this in life where you get to dedicate and spend hours on end with a group of men that are fully committed to reaching a goal together. You build powerful relationships that last a lifetime. A few years back we had a reunion for our 1984 Olympic team. After 25 years that connection that each of us still felt with one another was powerful. Each one at some point during the evening commented that being a part of the Olympic team was so special because of the friendships that they had made with each other. We (human beings) all crave close connections with others and this provides each of us with that opportunity.
In two weeks we host Montenegro, Germany and Italy for a series of games at CLU. Check the USA Water Polo website or follow this blog for more info. Friday March 23rd, USA vs. Italy at 5 pm. Saturday March 24th, USA vs. Germany at 4 pm and Sunday March 25th USA vs. Montenegro at 4 pm. Hope to see you all out there supporting our team.
Go USA - see you at the pool.
Coach
We have had another good week of training although we have a few guys that are a feeling a little beat up and broken down. Besides a few days missed for Jeff and Adam this week we have had three others that have been sick this week with flu like symptoms. The end result was that we had to actually cancel our normal competition Wednesday (this is our normal night when we have a full four quarter inter-squad scrimmage) and move it to Friday. Unfortunately, we had some disappointed fans come out expecting a scrimmage and instead watched a normal training. Most weeks we will have these scrimmages and fans are welcome to come out to Oaks Christian. Scrimmages generally begin at 7:45 pm. Next week, due to our schedule we will be having our scrimmage on Thursday night. As coaches, we are treating these scrimmages like real games. Video taping, taking stats, running shot clocks and bringing in real officials. By doing this we are adding 15 more good competitive games to our schedule and giving ourselves a chance to evaluate all the players in more game situations. Normally, we see some very competitive high level water polo. I would encourage anyone from the community to come out and watch. It is a great way to learn the game and support our team. There is no charge to come watch.
This week I had a patient at my office ask me “why do I do this? Why do I spend countless hours coaching these guys as they are preparing for the Olympic Games? I simply told him that I love what I do. Sure it is a strain - keeping all areas of my life in balance but to me it is a tremendous opportunity to push myself and my team to our limits. I believe that within each of us there is a desire to see how good we can be in whatever we do. In many jobs people may get into the day after day routine and lose track of this concept. However, with the Olympic Games this is the goal. To push yourself - mind, body and spirit to the limits and to see how much you can improve and in our case contribute to the team to help them potentially win a gold medal. There is huge risk involved in the process, in fact, most will fail. Many will not even make the team and only one team ultimately wins a gold medal. However, the real success or the real joy is in the journey - the pursuit of excellence itself. My dad always emphasized to me that “a man can be no happier than when he knows he has done his best”. This is what we are all trying to reach. To do our best on the biggest stage that there is in sport with the whole world watching. It is an amazing journey and along the way we find out much about ourselves and our team mates. We become a family with each one wanting the best for one another. When you want to win for your team mates more than yourself it is powerful. The Olympic Games are bigger than any one of us. It is a great honor and opportunity to represent our country in this journey. Each one of us will carry a responsibility to one another and our country to represent us well. Finally, I do this for the relationships. There are not too many opportunities like this in life where you get to dedicate and spend hours on end with a group of men that are fully committed to reaching a goal together. You build powerful relationships that last a lifetime. A few years back we had a reunion for our 1984 Olympic team. After 25 years that connection that each of us still felt with one another was powerful. Each one at some point during the evening commented that being a part of the Olympic team was so special because of the friendships that they had made with each other. We (human beings) all crave close connections with others and this provides each of us with that opportunity.
In two weeks we host Montenegro, Germany and Italy for a series of games at CLU. Check the USA Water Polo website or follow this blog for more info. Friday March 23rd, USA vs. Italy at 5 pm. Saturday March 24th, USA vs. Germany at 4 pm and Sunday March 25th USA vs. Montenegro at 4 pm. Hope to see you all out there supporting our team.
Go USA - see you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
8:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home