In high school I was a nerd, and I was on the football team.
But I wasn’t playing football because I was any good at it or because I actually believed that I had a future in sports. I was on the football team because all of my friends were on the team. In fact I was quite weak, skinny, and uncoordinated.
I hated the practices. The tough workouts, the painful hitting drills, and those two-a-day hot summers with little playing time on game days to show for it.
So, I would always try to slip through the workouts unnoticed and by putting in as little effort as possible. If ever I thought that I could get away with jogging during a football drill instead of doing it full speed, or with doing only 3 squat reps in the weight room instead of 8…. I went for it.
But I had one coach who always caught me slacking off. It was like he had eyes on the back of his head, and he would force me to do the workouts and drills over… and over… and over again – to prove a point: that doing the work right the first time is far better for me than trying to cut corners. Oh how I despised him.
Seemingly outmatched, I eventually settled into my fate, gave up resisting, and started to comply as he never let up on me, week after week.
I started doing the actual workouts. Ugh.
Fast forward a few months, and this same bully of a football coach inserts me into our first game of the season after one of our starting defensive players gets injured in the first quarter.
Hmmm.
It’s a tie game.
Me, coach? Are you sure? You do know that there are 50 other players standing next to me on these sidelines that can actually play football, right?
At least these were my thoughts as I somehow nervously made my way onto the field and into the most important game of my life – just hoping to not let the team down.
During the first few plays of the game, the opposing team comes right at me – throwing the ball twice to the wide receiver that I’m in charge of defending. They want to test out the replacement guy.
Somehow, miraculously, I manage to stop both attempts and ultimately earn the respect and praise of my fellow teammates as I make my way back to the huddle, encouraged by their ecstatic faces.
I went on to have a good game and the same coach who was picking on me just months before not only congratulated me, but he gave me the starting job for the remainder of the season.
What’s the point?
I realized after that game, after he put me into a situation where I had no faith in myself and his reputation was on the line, that he was never picking on me.
Instead, he was pushing me.
He saw potential in me well before I ever had an ounce of belief in myself or my own abilities. And he pushed me so I could get better so that I would be ready when an opportunity came.
And it came and I performed.
I couldn’t be more grateful for someone believing in me and helping me reach my potential, exceeding even my own expectations for myself.
I never had to be watched over again in practices or workouts after this game because I all of a sudden had a responsibility to my team members and to the coach that gave me a chance. I WANTED to get better every practice.
Inspired, I now hope to become what Coach Harvey from Star City, Arkansas, was to me, someone who can help others exceed even their own beliefs in themselves.
Cedric