Guest Post: Adversity and Bouncing Back

OFC 97/97 E1 vs Waza FC East 98 Black
Photo by Mike Thiem

I thought I would share something that a fellow coach wrote recently.  He is the assistant coach of the Omaha Football Club 97/98 Elite 1 girls soccer team.  The team has struggled recently with their form in the Midwest Regional League, falling from a second place finish in the spring league to now being last in the league.  His words are inspirational and need to be shared with all of us who sometimes experience adversity.

Neil Hope's words begin ...

Everything ends. Wins become more and more difficult goals hard to come by, success comes and it goes. Trophies and status that take so much effort to acquire can be given up half as easily. Entire games of domination washed away in what seems like the blinking of an eye. So why bother? Why work so hard for something that isn't guaranteed to last? The chance – and seeming inevitability – of failure is too large, surely? For some people, simply trying is too big a gamble. Willing to have massive failure on your hands rather than hoping for very little, because in the end neither are good enough.

The few bold enough to take those risks are the ones that rise above. Those that do can under the right circumstances build something that lasts, however long. Triumph exists in the mind. A place where time stands still, and a single memory can last forever. Moments of brilliance and living in that moment practice after practice game after game

Those that are truly ambitious never get comfortable. Comfort implies a level of acceptance that the quest for perfection will never allow. Believing in your own ability to achieve something is one thing, it’s another to do so with a massive weight on your shoulders. What kind of a person lives in a state of mind something in which she worked hard for this past 12 months. Now on the dawn of a new challenge who is ready to be accountable for their own play character and performance when pulling on that OFC uniform. The application and attitude to turn things around. This player who chooses to place the burden of getting this team back to where they want to be. she relishes the prospect of it. She is YOU!!!!!

Enjoy your time off, and I hope reading this inspires everyone to refresh the mind and the body, coming back FOREVER STRONG.