I played softball in high school and our team was pretty talented. We had been playing well all season and we hadn’t lost a game yet. We had a really tough game coming up against our biggest rival, and they were also undefeated. Everyone on the team knew how important this game was and so we all committed to working hard and training specifically for this game. We gave 100% at every practice, we stayed after the coach left to work on our weaknesses, and we encouraged our teammates to push themselves. Things were going great at practice: we looked better than we ever had before and yet everyone was still having fun. We felt pretty good about the upcoming game,
When game day finally approached, we were all a little nervous but we felt confident with what we had done to prepare. And we looked great during the game: our pitcher was dead on, our outfielders didn’t miss a ball, and our infielders and catcher were making some great plays. We were doing a great job of preventing the other team from scoring, but they were holding us back as well. By the end of the eighth inning, neither team had scored a single run and everyone was getting restless. We were up to bat first: no dice. A ground ball, a strikeout, and a fly ball. We knew we would have to hold them to have any chance of winning and preserving our perfect record. First batter up, and a strikeout. One down. Second batter up and she nails it out of the park on the first swing. We were heartbroken: we had been so close to a victory here, but not close enough. We were all devastated, but our coach helped us realize that we had done everything we could have to prepare, and that we all played an amazing game. She told us it wasn’t any one person’s fault that we had lost: we win as a team and we lose as a team. This experience really helped me understand how important it is to play for your team, rather than just for yourself.
Kate Riley
Social Foundations of Coaching
ND 2012
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