Peaks and Valleys (and more valleys)

"Five, four, three, two, one!" The team screams and jumps for joy, a great win to start the season. My son's team on the other hand, walk off the field dejected. The team lines up for the ceremonial hand shake, players wet and cold after a long day, ending in an ugly loss. Their game started at 4:00pm but all players needed to be at the field at 11:30am for the opening day festivities. After the opening day ceremony, the players watched the other games, ran around and went through emotional highs and lows in an attempt to occupy their extended time. As coaches the struggle was trying to keep them loose, while laboring to slowly build their energy to peak at kickoff. Nothing worked.

"For those who have played sports before, you all have had one of these days, a bad loss." The head coach says, "And now that is out of our system..." he pauses, then exclaims, "We as coaches failed to get you ready, and that will not happen again.", then looks at each dispirited face, "But each one of you need to reflect on your performance today and think about your commitment to your teammates and to the team." "We go back to work on Tuesday, come ready to amaze me, I love you all...now everyone put your hands in..."

Powerful words