Congratulations to Coach Ralph Friedgen of the Maryland Terrapins for completing one of the biggest turnarounds in all of college football this season. He took his team from a 2-10 record last year to an 8-4 record this year, earning the team a berth in the Military Bowl and Coach Friedgen the ACC Coach of the Year award.
In a recent Washington Post article Ralph talked about the importance of perseverance. “Kids today…the hardest thing for them to learn is perseverance,” Friedgen [said]. “And I think it’s the most important thing to learn in life. If you can persevere, if you can take blows, get back up, go back to work, you know, wait for your opportunity, it will come around when you’re ready.”[i]
Later in the article, Ralph mentioned that his father went “old school” on him when Ralph considered transferring away from Maryland during his years as a student athlete. When Ralph called his father to tell him about his plans, his father’s response was, “Great. But your key’s not going to fit in the door when you come home.” Ralph asked what his father was talking about. His father responded, “I don’t have quitters who live in my house.”
We’ve talked a lot lately about the glory of undefeated seasons. These undefeated seasons are fantastic, but the truth is we find out more about ourselves during the losing seasons, when we can see how we handle adversity. Our society glorifies winning so much that we seem to have lost respect for the values of hard work and perseverance. I believe that we should encourage our young people to take more chances, knowing that taking more chances means risking failure more often, but also knowing the potential value of that failure.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
– Confucius
Many of you have children or grandchildren. The below quote is a great one to share with them about the power of persistence. I got it from the front page of Marv Levy’s Buffalo Bills playbook. Marv coached the Bills to 4 consecutive Super Bowl appearances, the only coach in history to have accomplished this feat. Despite his team’s tremendous efforts to get to the big game, they didn’t win a single one of those four Super Bowls. Imagine the type of fortitude, poise and courage it took to come back after each of those huge losses to continue his quest for the biggest prize in football. For his perseverance and dedication I consider Marv a big winner even though his team never won the Super Bowl. His peers obviously considered him a winner too, electing him to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
“Nothing the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
– Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
Have a great weekend,
Ro
[i] Wise, Mike. “Maryland Should Be Ashamed for Trying to Get Rid of Friedgen.” The Washington Post 20 Nov 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111905877.html?sid=ST2010111907304
Hi Ro,
I wanted you to know that when Elise experienced her diapointment we talked a lot about this. Life is not how you handlke success, but how you handle defeat. Her spring back from not making the field hockey team reminded me of a song in a movie called can't hardly wait. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiD7C9OiEiQded parid
you may have to copy the link