Winning is a priority, but what constitutes winning?
As the author of countless columns over the years, it would be easy for me to sit here and recount my favorite plays, players, teams and games from the past decade.High school sports in Holmes County are as popular as corn growing in fields, buggies on county roads and Mary Hummel’s awesome homemade pies on Thursdays at Hummel Insurance.
But rather than reminisce about the old days, or look for the future in my magic crystal ball, the one thing that this decade has been to me more than anything else has been the way our coaching staff and youth have approached the games they play.
It’s pretty easy for us adults to sit back in our recliner at home, or sit behind our desk at work and proffer fine lines like “Back when I was a kid...” However, those days being some time around the turn of two centuries ago, I’m sure that many of those fading memories are much embellished in our own minds.
The fact is, those good old days weren’t necessarily all that great to begin with, and they aren’t all that much different than these new, young days. The only big difference is that kids today let their texting do their talking rather than their mouths.
Truth be told, when I look at some of the teams and coaches from the past decade, I see some dedicated folks who are striving to be the best they can be. I look at programs which are pretty doggone demanding, from the high school girls hoops teams to the Knights wrestling program, to Hawks baseball and soccer.
I look at the way Hiland girls basketball coach Dave Schlabach approaches the game, and his philosophy, and the way he pours himself into getting every ounce he can out of his girls while encouraging them to put forth a maximum effort, and I see the same persona that patrolled the Hawks Nest in the 1980s for the boys in Perry Reese Jr. It’s the same drive for perfection that Jack Van Reeth exhorted his girls to strive for during three straight state titles in the 1980s. The same could be said for Bobby Maltarich’s incredible teams of the 1990s and into 2000. It’s not much different than the disciplined style of one Robert Schrock, who led Hiland’s basketball glory years of the 1960s, or Brooks Harris’ baseball teams of West Holmes during that same era. But even if our teams haven’t been winning titles, we’ve been blessed with coaches who are still teaching some valuable life lessons. These are quality people, like former West Holmes boys basketball coach Kelly Seboe, and Hiland girls’ soccer coach Pat Miller, who may not sport winning records, but whose character shines through as fine examples for the kids to follow. These are good people... people we can entrust our kids to and feel good about it.
What I have found over the years is that, in general, our school districts tend to hire quality coaches to lead our youth, something that we should never take for granted. These are people who are not only qualified, but who truly care about the kids they are working with. Of course each has their own unique character traits, and some we may not necessarily agree with, but my point is that as a whole, we have been blessed with people at the top of our sports teams who genuinely care. While there have been more disagreements and petty bickering over the years than we would care to admit, all in all, I’d say we are very fortunate to have sidestepped the major sports pitfalls that have felled many a community.
It’s easy for us as fans to be hard on our coaches. They do, after all, have the all-important task of producing victories and championships. But lest we forget, they also have a much greater task at hand: That of helping to mold our sons and daughters into quality people (not that the responsibility should ever be wrested away from the parents).
Too often we yell, judge, complain, back-stab and trod upon our coaches when things don’t go the way we want them to. What we have to keep in mind is, we aren’t the ones dedicating countless hours into teaching not just our own children, but hosts of others. We need to keep that in mind the next time we spout off.
We also need to constantly remind ourselves (and sometimes our neighbors) that these are high school kids — kids who were passing notes in grade school a few heartbeats ago. These players don’t deserve our judgment for their game, but rather our support for their effort. Do they all give everything they have? No, but that hasn’t changed any over the years.
But for the most part, we have great kids, who work hard, respect others and have learned a great deal about sportsmanship, work ethic and teamwork over the years.
Most of them are out there doing the best they can. Shouldn’t that be enough for us?
Too often we sit at games and feel like the kids owe us an entertaining evening, when in reality, it should be us who are there in support of them.
It makes you wonder, what if the players and coaches judged the fans on the same basis as the fans judged the teams. How would that play out?