Quotes
"An Athlete's Pride"
I'm a high school player. I'm a team player. I play with my friends and with some of my enemies, but I respect everyone when it comes to my sport. I know I'm not going to get a multi-million dollar contract to play professionally.. I play for love of the game. For the pride and honor, for the blood, sweat and tears it takes to make the team, to earn the spot, to win the game. I play because I can, I play because I know that my life would be empty without the sport I play. I would have a lack of everything my sport gives me... integrity, courage, talent, fearlessness, pride, strength, stamina, will, and the heart of a champion. If I didn't play, I would lose a part of me. I'm an athlete. I'm a champion, not because my team always wins, but because when we don't, we learn from our mistakes. I leave everything on the field and continue to push myself. I am never happy with second place. To play, you have to sacrifice everything, your body, your time, your sweat, blood, and tears, everything... for your team. I know what it is like to feel the anger and pain that comes along with "second best. I know what it is like to lose, to win, to want to quit, to want to cry, to not want to get up. I know what it is like to hear the cheers and yells for you. I know what it is like to feel the pressure of everyone on your shoulders. I know what it means to be an athlete, a true player, and that is why I play. I AM AN ATHLETE, A CHAMPION, A TRUE PLAYER."
Quotes to reinforce our character themes of the week
Teachable spirit
“Hold onto instruction, do not let go, guard it well, for it is your life.”
Proverbs 4:13
“Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”
George Washington Carver
“It is probable that your attitude, rather than your aptitude (skill, talent), will determine your altitude in life.” Unknown
Commitment
“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – Behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights” Mohamed Ali
“Make it a life rule to giver your best to whatever passes through your hands. Stamp it with your manhood. Let excellence be your trademark.”
Orison Marden (Author)
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
Malcom X
“Four brave, talented men who do not know each other will not dare attack a lion. Four less brave men, less talented men, who know and trust each other, will attack and attack resolutely.”
African Proverb
“The needs of the team must come first, we, not me, selflessness, humility and roles.”
Bruce Brown
“ To every man there comes a that special moment in his lifetime, when he is figuaretively tapped on the shoulder and offered a chance to do a very special thing, unigue to him and fitted to his talent; what a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which should be his finest hour.”
Winston Churchill (Prime minister of
"I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing, and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team."
Lou Holtz
Discipline and Poise
“He who lives without discipline, dies without honor.”
Proverb
“You can forgive lack of ability, but you cannot ever forgive lack of discipline.”
Forrest Gregg (
"I've never known anybody to achieve anything without Overcoming adversity."
Lou Holtz
"It doesn't take talent to hustle."
"One bout doesn't make a champion. One win or one loss isn't reflective of an entire career...Champions aren't made or lost with one battle."
“The boxer who wins may have been counted out several times, but didn’t hear the ref.”
H. E. Hanson
“A true competitor gets the most joy out of the most difficult circumstances. The real competitors love a tough situation – that is when they focus better and function better.”
John Wooden
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenges and controversy.”
Martin Luther Kink Jr.
“Losing doesn’t want to make me quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.”
Coach Paul Bryant (Crimson Time)
“Having a positive attitude is a choice that great teams make. Staying positive in any situation lifts your teammates and makes your whole team mentally tougher.”
Bruce E. Brown
“Courage is not the absence of fear. It is being afraid but being able to control that fear so you are able to perform at your highest ability. That's what makes a champion."
Confidence
“Confidence comes from being prepared”
John Wooden (UCLA basketball coach)
“ I fight for my country and my people – when we conquer, I will remain silent like a warrior should.”
Lacota Sioux
“By the time the game starts, the outcome has been decided. I never think about having a bad game because I am prepared.”
David Robinson
“I could have done better, I made a mistake or I accept responsibility and will be better next time. Let the team situation become a safe environment where others can be comfortable admitting their mistakes.”
Bruce Brown
Accountability/Work Ethic
“Good men prefer to be accountable.”
Michael Edwards
“Faced with a crisis, a man of character always falls back on himself.”
Charles De Gualle (Soldier)
“A family (team) is like a fist. Complete with communication, caring, trust, pride and collective responsibility. Family makes the individual parts of something stronger.”
Coach K.
“I could have done better, I made a mistake or I accept responsibility and will be better next time. Let the team situation become a safe environment where others can be comfortable admitting their mistakes.”
Bruce Brown
Integrity
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Character is what you really are, reputation is just what people say you are.”
John Wooden (UCLA basketball coach)
“Choices are the hinges of destiny”
Unkown
“One of the ultimate tests of personal character is the willingness and ability to do the right thing despite the cost and risks – to do it without any expectation of approval or advantage, but simply because it is the right thing to do.”
Michael Jordan
Pride
“Regardless of personal accomplishments, the only true satisfaction a player receives is the satisfaction that only comes from being part of a team.”
Vince Lombardi
“A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.”
Benjamin Franklin
“A great team, whether it is football or an organization, shares the same heartbeat.”
Coach Paul Bryant
“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to with when the match is even”
--Mohamed Ali
Leadership
“Judge the leader not by the number that are led, but by the number that are served.”
Unknown
“See beyond today – think beyond the season. Examine the traditions and covenants you are passing on to the next generation of athletes in your community. What will your legacy be for them?”
Bruce E. Brown
“I trust a leader who shows up, makes the tough call, takes the heat, sleeps well amidst the furor, and aggressively chomps in the next task in the morning with visual vitality.”
Tom Peters (Business management)
“The strength of the wolf in the pack, and the strength of the pack is in the wolf.”
Rudyard Kipling (Author)
“You will never see a great team where the most talented players are not the best workers.”
Bruce E. Brown
“A Lakota Indian did not try to stand out in the band of warriors. He strove to act bravely and honorably to help the group in whatever way he could to accomplish the group’s mission. If glory came his way during battle, he was obligated by his culture to give away his most prized possessions to friends, relatives and the poop upon returning home.”
"Teammates are there for each other even after the noise of the crowd is gone."
Jim Brown
Wisdom
"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."
~John Wooden
"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won’t be worth a dime."
~Babe Ruth
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t."
~ Jack Dempsey
"There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you're OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between."
~ Pat Riley
"One man practicing good sportsmanship is far better than 50 others preaching it."
~Knute K. Rockne
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
~John Wooden
"When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor." ~Pat Riley
“I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field.”
~Walter Payton
“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.” ~ Leroy "Satchel" Paige
“Lacrosse is about doing the little things right, time and time again” ~Ken DaRos
“To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be forgotten”
~unknown
The One You Feed:
An old Cherokee Indian was speaking to his grandson:
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil--he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good -- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a long minute, and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
“If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you won’t.
If you like to win, but don’t think you can,
It’s almost a cinch that you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a person’s will.
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re out-classed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be very sure of yourself
Before you can win the prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the strongest or fastest man.
But sooner or later the person who wins
Is the person who thinks he can.”
~ Walter D. Wintle
What to Believe In:
“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in”. ~ quote from the movie Secondhand Lions, 2003