June 2, 2011--Rod's 3/4 Mile
I had coffee yesterday morning with my friend Rod. He's a retired school superintendent from Ohio who has been living here full time for at least the past 25 years. It is one of my deepest pleasures when returning to the Mid Coast to reconnect with him after a long winter's separation.
After the usual catch-up about family and health, our conversation turned to sports. He was telling me that back in the day some of the most effective educators he knew were his coaches. "You know, the coach of my district's high school track team had an almost perfect graduation rate. Sure he had his kids studying hard to stay eligible, but it was more than just that. He worked a lot of lessons into the mix about life and how team sports prepared people for it. He used to say, 'Make sure you stay in school so you can remain on the track team because from it you can learn how to be successful in life.'"
"I had a basketball coach like that," I said, "back in elementary school--Burt Ludwig was his name--and he was always drawing life lessons from ideas about how to play the game. I remember him teaching us to be competitive, to keep our eye on winning--though not at any price--and not to forget to make sure every member of the team participated and had a hand in how we did. 'Win, lose, or draw,' he used to say, 'let's make sure we do it together. Because we'll be stronger that way.' He was quite a guy. I learned a lot from him."
"I used to run the mile on my high school track team," Ron remembered, "There was a guy who was my fiercest competitor. He was state champ and I always came in second. I used to run the best three laps, the first three-quarters of a mile at every meet. But then on the fourth lap he would shoot right by me like I was standing still. It was very frustrating."
"I can only imagine," I said.
"But when we were both seniors, at the last meet of the year, after he beat me again, he took me aside and said to me--'Rod, you'll never get anywhere in life by being the best at three-quarters of the job. I think I'd still beat you, but if you paced yourself a little, had a long-term plan, you'd do much better. Maybe even once in a while you'd manage to hold me off and win a race.'
"Sounds like good advice to me," I said.
"It was. We met up once or twice when we competed for our college teams. At that level he was no longer the best, but by following his advice one time I did manage to hold him off and finished fourth while he finished fifth. That was very satisfying and I tried to live that way the rest of my life. I did pretty well with my work and it stood me in good stead at times with my wife and family. I concentrated on being there all along the way."
From what I know about him, I feel certain he succeeded at that to.
I then told him about my father who played high school soccer. His school didn't have a football team since a boy had died playing football a few years before my father enrolled so instead they had a soccer team. My father was a good athlete and excelled at it. When I was about 12 he took me to a soccer game. It was the first time I had seen it played and I found it boring. I knew baseball and football and especially basketball. I loved all the action, especially all the scoring. I think the soccer game he took me to wound up with a final score of 3-1, just like at last week's Champions League final."
"I watched some of that on TV," Rod said, "That Barcelona team was quite something. But I know what you mean about the lack of scoring."
"That was my father's point. The lesson he wanted to instill. In soccer you run around for 90 minutes trying to kick the ball in the net; but at the end, typically, only a handful of shots are successful. Some games end up 1-nil. He told me that was all right. Actually better than all right because in the rest of life it is often the persistent who wind up doing well."
"Which," Rod said, "is another way of stating the lesson I learned from running the mile. It's not only about trying and being persistent but also about having a good plan for the final lap. Things of course don't always work out; but if you follow these lessons that we both learned from sports at an early age, at least you're in the game--pun intended--and have a chance."
He's right, and it reminded me how much I love that Rod.
After the usual catch-up about family and health, our conversation turned to sports. He was telling me that back in the day some of the most effective educators he knew were his coaches. "You know, the coach of my district's high school track team had an almost perfect graduation rate. Sure he had his kids studying hard to stay eligible, but it was more than just that. He worked a lot of lessons into the mix about life and how team sports prepared people for it. He used to say, 'Make sure you stay in school so you can remain on the track team because from it you can learn how to be successful in life.'"
"I had a basketball coach like that," I said, "back in elementary school--Burt Ludwig was his name--and he was always drawing life lessons from ideas about how to play the game. I remember him teaching us to be competitive, to keep our eye on winning--though not at any price--and not to forget to make sure every member of the team participated and had a hand in how we did. 'Win, lose, or draw,' he used to say, 'let's make sure we do it together. Because we'll be stronger that way.' He was quite a guy. I learned a lot from him."
"I used to run the mile on my high school track team," Ron remembered, "There was a guy who was my fiercest competitor. He was state champ and I always came in second. I used to run the best three laps, the first three-quarters of a mile at every meet. But then on the fourth lap he would shoot right by me like I was standing still. It was very frustrating."
"I can only imagine," I said.
"But when we were both seniors, at the last meet of the year, after he beat me again, he took me aside and said to me--'Rod, you'll never get anywhere in life by being the best at three-quarters of the job. I think I'd still beat you, but if you paced yourself a little, had a long-term plan, you'd do much better. Maybe even once in a while you'd manage to hold me off and win a race.'
"Sounds like good advice to me," I said.
"It was. We met up once or twice when we competed for our college teams. At that level he was no longer the best, but by following his advice one time I did manage to hold him off and finished fourth while he finished fifth. That was very satisfying and I tried to live that way the rest of my life. I did pretty well with my work and it stood me in good stead at times with my wife and family. I concentrated on being there all along the way."
From what I know about him, I feel certain he succeeded at that to.
I then told him about my father who played high school soccer. His school didn't have a football team since a boy had died playing football a few years before my father enrolled so instead they had a soccer team. My father was a good athlete and excelled at it. When I was about 12 he took me to a soccer game. It was the first time I had seen it played and I found it boring. I knew baseball and football and especially basketball. I loved all the action, especially all the scoring. I think the soccer game he took me to wound up with a final score of 3-1, just like at last week's Champions League final."
"I watched some of that on TV," Rod said, "That Barcelona team was quite something. But I know what you mean about the lack of scoring."
"That was my father's point. The lesson he wanted to instill. In soccer you run around for 90 minutes trying to kick the ball in the net; but at the end, typically, only a handful of shots are successful. Some games end up 1-nil. He told me that was all right. Actually better than all right because in the rest of life it is often the persistent who wind up doing well."
"Which," Rod said, "is another way of stating the lesson I learned from running the mile. It's not only about trying and being persistent but also about having a good plan for the final lap. Things of course don't always work out; but if you follow these lessons that we both learned from sports at an early age, at least you're in the game--pun intended--and have a chance."
He's right, and it reminded me how much I love that Rod.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
4:55 AM
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