I hate to admit it, but I'm tired! There's really nothing I can do about it because it's just that time of year and there are only so many hours in the day. Today was President's Day and school was closed so when I pulled into the PE parking lot at 10:30am mine was the only car in sight. When I finally left the same parking lot at 10:10 pm mine was the only car in sight. During those nearly 12 hours I watched videotape, prepared for practice, practiced, watched more tape, sent out 25 emails, and then watched tape of possible playoff opponents. At about 6:00pm Linda and Taylor came to the office with dinner and after eating at my desk, I updated the web page and then Linda and I made recruiting phone calls for three hours while Taylor played on the floor and in the hallway. Holiday or not, it was just a typical Monday. . .
Tommorow night I'm going to a high school game in Eugene. Wednesday night we play in Coos Bay and then on Thursday night I'm going to a high school game just south of Portland. On Friday I'm going to a high school playoff game in Glendale and then on Saturday morning I have Southern Region meetings in Albany before continuing on to Longview, WA to watch Lower Columbia and South Puget Sound play. (We will probably play the loser of that game in the first round of the playoffs.) It's going to be the middle of the night before I get back home. It's a good thing gas is so cheap!! Throw in practice every day, more videotape, more emails, more recruiting calls and spending time promoting our sophomores and you have a good idea how I spend my time. I get tired just writing about it!! So why do I do it?
Because the girls and I all understand our roles. Since I expect, even demand, their very best effort, they have every right to expect my very best effort. We all have high expectations of each other and we don't want to let each other down. When I am tired and don't want to do it for myself, I do it for them. And I like to think that when they are tired and don't want to do it for themselves, then they do it for me and for each other. Stephen Covey once wrote that "Private victories precede public victories." The private victories are tiring but the public victories are awesome!!!!
About Me
- Dave Stricklin
- Roseburg, Oregon
- Women's Basketball Coach Umpqua Community College
1 comment:
One thing that I never second guessed, when I played for you, was the fact that we all knew you were committed to the team. Everyone always knew that you did everything possible to ensure our team’s success and our success in the future. Honestly, I would like to say that I always gave as much effort as you, but there were definitely those days when I was a part of one of those practices where you wondered who in the world had shown up to practice because it was not your team. I strongly believe that I owe you so much for helping me find a school that would give me a scholarship. I know that I would never have been able to do so with out all your help. While you talk about being tired I can’t remember a single time in my years at UCC that I can remember you looking or acting tired. You never showed it in practice, Monday meetings or, well, ever. I don’t know how many coaches can say that they have given their team the best opportunity to win and succeed every single day. In the future I hope to be half as good of a coach as you are. I am proud to tell people that I played at UCC for Dave Stricklin and that he is the hardest working “genius” that I have ever known. Thanks for being so tired and still helping me become a better college player than high school player and getting me so many opportunities to get the rest of my education paid for. We love the blog and every day when we get online the first thing we do is check to see if you have written anything.
Keep on writing!
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