Everyone has certain dates in the year that they mark down. It could be birthdays for loved ones, special days to remember because of the joy that was experienced or tragedy befallen, or even days that are outside of our normal routine, like national holidays. We mark them down because of their special significance to us, because they hold a little more space in our consciousness and a lot more space in our hearts. In sport, coaches and athletes do the same, all the time, though not for the same reasons. For coaches and players, we mark the days we are preparing for. We feel if we can keep them in the forefront of our mind, stay focused on them, and see them coming, we will be better prepared to realize success when those days finally arrive. Those days, invariably, mark certain games that hold more importance or weight than the rest. While every practice, and each game, is important for putting one foot in front of the other as you march towards the ultimate destination, certain games stand out from the rest because of the degree of preparation needed to end up on the right side of them. It’s next to impossible to be the best version of yourself day in and day out. If it were easier, we wouldn’t need to play the games and would just give the top teams their flowers each year based on who was donning their jerseys and directing from the sidelines. But we do have to play those games. And on certain days you can get away with not being your best. But not on the days that matter most. Those days that we mark down on our calendars, we do so because we understand their importance. They stand out, and are different than the rest. They’re sort of something else entirely. When those days that are marked down on your calendar finally arrive, you will need to be as close to the best version of yourself as you can be. Success stands nimbly on the edge of a knife. Ill preparation, or a couple of unfocused errors and you risk a new date on your calendar to mark as tragedy. As a program of storied success, we know both sides of that all too well.
Given our school’s success from the mid 1990s until today, we know we are one of those dates that teams and coaches are marking down on their calendars. No conversation needs to be had to confirm it because there are a number of indicators to demonstrate it. It’s obvious in the way teams walk into the gym, not quite relaxed, looking for a confident face to rally behind. It’s clear in how teams warm up, watching and reacting to our warm ups. It’s plain to see in the player nobody suspected who heeded their coaches message of the importance of that game, and had the game of their life. It’s self-evident in the way teams celebrate on the odd occasion that they pull out a win. Just as it was this past week when, despite playing on the road to a host of home court fans, we, the always favoured team, were upset one game away from our provincial championships qualifier. And conversely, as we looked down at our roster with time expired, it was clear we had not marked the game down as we needed to, and now stood, eyes to the ground, trying to place the misstep that landed us here.
When you’re the team that every other teams mark down on their calendar, it can be a hard reality to understand. It takes being unsuspectingly knocked down a few times to accept the gravity that you must approach each game with; that same gravity that teams take with you. As part of the journey of our program, that’s an important lesson to learn. It will be telling in the days that follow how it affected the players. Will they brush it off, move on with smiles and laughter? Will they move onto their club teams because at least they still have that left, forgetting the value of what they just experienced? Or, will they respond the way teams have in our program over the decades that have past to make it the kind of program that is the anomaly that it is, to be the program that is “something else”, to have the legacy that it does, that every team marks us down on their calendars as they do each year? Given our history and collective character, I’m betting on the latter.
We may be down, breathing heavily, on one knee from the blow we just took to the chin, but the program, and all that players that have and do make it up, hold steadfast faith that the players will respond. They will be in the weight room to come back bigger, faster, stronger. They will get in the gym, looking for direction, to get better, be better prepared, broadening their skills. They will use this experience to strengthen their character so they know how to approach success, regardless of the expression of it. While teams can mark us as down for the moment, rest assured, they will, as they should, circle their calendars and mark us down.