Ponder this

Ladies,

Ponder this...

• Eight weeks of your summer are gone
• For you seniors, this is your final summer
• Season officially starts a week from Monday
• Your first meet is four weeks from Monday
• Everyone runs Varsity in the first meet - no limit to team size
• I have no idea who the top-7 is right now, much less the top-3

It's crazy for me to think how quickly the summer has passed, and painful to think how quickly the season will go (and with it a truly terrific group of girls). I want to freeze this moment and keep it forever. And you haven't even raced yet.

You have something truly special - protect it jealously. Coach Jo hit on it yesterday in her comment section... the importance of understanding the worth and value of every member of this team, and more importantly, the absolute necessity of supporting every single girl as if they were your most valuable runner.

I've coached a lot of teams, both boys and girls. In some respects it's great when your numbers swell, because the odds of finding a successful combination of athletes goes up as the participation level rises, but there is also a risk. The more girls you put in a room, the more likely it is you will have drama. It's a fact, no getting around it.

This is where I have to call on your maturity, appeal to your ability to give of yourselves for the common good. See, THAT'S where girls usually shine above boys - you understand that others have feelings and want to be wanted. You also have a much better communal understanding and are usually far more willing to cooperate than are boys. Boys will follow leaders because they are regimented (mainly); girls follow leaders because they want to be part of something (mainly). 

That oversimplifies the issue I know, but as a rule of thumb you can follow that logic. So... if you are a leader (or hope to become one) how does this help you? Easy. Be the person you would follow. Do you like it when people are negative to you all the time? Do you like it when people yell at you? Do you like it when people exclude you?

Answer is obvious - no! You follow people because you respect them. You respect them because they imbue qualities you wish you had, and hope to develop. Leaders inspire you, make you feel necessary and more importantly wanted. Leaders can be fun to be around, are forgiving of human nature when possible, understand we are all limited in our own ways, and forgive. Leaders lead by setting a good example, by seeking the best in themselves, never taking the easy way out. 

Think of anyone you really admire and respect, anyone at all in your life that fits the bill. Could be an older relative, a friend, a sibling, but have you ever thought about what makes you want to listen to them? Those can be the qualities of leadership. 

This sport has an individual component, true enough, but the truth is nobody on this team is going anywhere without the team. No one can do it on their own. Day-by-day, each and every one of you benefits by being surrounded by all these girls. 

You absolutely can and should compete with one another to be the best on the team, but even if you reach the goal, the very next thing you should reach for is the hand of the girl behind you, so that you may help lift her up to a higher place. A true leader wants each and every girl on the team to be their very best, even if it means that girl may knock the leader out of the top spot. Only in this way can the team progress as far as possible by season's end. A leader is a servant, always looking for ways to make things better for the team. 

I mean this sincerely when I say developing your potential as a leader is of far greater importance to me than developing your running. Sports are the great metaphor of life, and believe it or not, the original purpose of sports was just that - to develop team-building, leadership, cooperation... skills that are necessary for life. We sometimes forget that in pursuit of the win. Don't lose focus of what's truly important here - your development as a productive adult, someone to be admired and respected, and someone who has a great deal to contribute to our society.

I'm so proud of you ladies, I truly am. You all have good souls, and I think you do care about one another. Every now and then, I think it's worth reminding you that we need to make the effort to show one another.