Weekend Words: Hokie Nation, Read This and Gobble Proudly

Many of the Virginia Tech faithful are feeling down after our close overtime loss to Michigan in the BCS Sugar Bowl. To help cheer them up, I am recommending the article below by another Va Tech offensive-center-turned-author, Collin Carroll. Carroll is a close friend of the kicker who played a huge role in the Sugar Bowl game. Kicker Justin Myer was the third-string kicker at Tech until a week before the Sugar Bowl, when Tech’s first-string kicker was accused of armed robbery and the second-string kicker was sent home after breaking curfew. Myer made four kicks during regulation, including the kick that sent the game into overtime. But he missed his only attempt in overtime. Here’s an excerpt:

“Earlier that day, Coach Beamer had told Myer he had confidence in him, would never yell at him, and simply asked that Myer try his best. From the mouth of a coach, no words more empowering can be spoken to a kicker.

After that, Myer didn’t miss another field goal the rest of the week. That is, until overtime.

In the locker room after the game, I was amazed at the overwhelming compassion shown to Myer by members of the media. They were encouraging, delicate and gracious. But more impressive than their empathy was the patience and poise with which Myer responded to their panoply of questions.

I saw our players and coaches embolden him with hugs and affirmations, but what could we possibly say to heal his dejection? It got to the point where I was more devastated over my dearth of encouraging words than the outcome of the game. In that moment, I witnessed the embodiment of what it means to be a team, and was overcome with pride.

While [Tuesday] night may not have gone the way we had hoped, we bonded more through sharing one another’s pain than we ever could have in celebrating a victory.”[1]

Read the full article here: http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7424999/virginia-tech-player-says-justin-myer-kicker-missed-ot-attempt-carried-team

Have a great weekend,

Ro

Special thanks to my mom, Betty Waldron, for finding this great article and insisting I read it. Thanks also to the author, Colin Carroll, a long-snapper for Virginia Tech who apparently has quite a few skills off the field as well as on.