Getting Better Each Day
By Pedro Morales
he referee blows the whistle, his hand pointing at the basketball player, indicating he has committed a foul. Knowing he has just committed his fifth foul and according to basketball rules must leave the game, he takes a look at the scoreboard; his team is losing by 8 points with less than a minute left to play in the championship game! He takes a couple of steps toward the bench and begins to realize that not only is his basketball season over but also is his quest of winning the league championship. His emotions take over, tears flow down his cheeks and he can hardly make it back to the bench without the help of one of the coaches, who tries to console him. The buzzer sounds, ending the game and his season. The team lines up to shake hands with the victorious school and newly crowned champions. While very difficult, each boy does exactly what he has been taught from the first day he entered school: he displays sportsmanship at all times. The boys walk off the court extremely disappointed but with their heads held high. They enter the locker room and have a minute or two on their own before the coaches enter. Entering the room, the coaches look out at the 13 boys; each one is crying, trying to understand what went wrong. The head coach has mixed emotions, part of him hurting for them, wishing he could help them feel better, but another side extremely proud of their school spirit, grit, and determination. What can make a group of boys reach such a level of emotions? Of course they want to win; we all want that, but what drives young athletes to such emotional states and how should a coach handle such a situation? Over the past few years, the Saint David’s athletic program has continued to look deeper into these types of questions, and has enhanced its professional development program to
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avail of the most current research in athletics for boys. We have added more sports to our program to expand the opportunities for our boys, for example squash and indoor track have become part of our Seventh and Eighth Grade program. In addition, our coaches have attended various coaching clinics covering basketball, track and field, and sports injuries to name a few. Just this past summer we had two coaches spend four weeks in Spain working with the world famous F.C. Barcelona soccer team ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q???A?????
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