"Never Underestimate the Heart of a Champion"

7th and 8th grade teams together. My 8th grade team finished runners-up at the end of year tournament. It was a great result for us. We were ranked third and lost just days before to the second place team, St. John's. However, we beat St. John's in the first game. In the second game, momentum shifted. We went down 12-21. I had already called both timeouts. Ouch. Oh, no, I thought, how can I get them pumped up for the pivotal third game? I was about to fill out my third game line-up sheet.

It turns out I didn't have to.

My team wasn't thinking about game three. They wanted to win game two.

So down 12-21, they mounted a monstrous comeback, serving like clockwork and diving like Navy SEALS for every ball in sight. Nothing hit the ground. They came back from that huge deficit and won the game, 26-24. It was an improbable victory. "Never underestimate the heart of a champion"--their win reminded me of Rudy Tomjanovich's wonderful quote after his Rockets won the NBA championship as a sixth seed, one of my favorite moments in sports. Six seeds aren't suppose to do that in the NBA. And volleyball teams shouldn't come back from 12-21.


We lost in the finals. That was disappointing, and I gave a rock solid end of tournament speech. Didn't make them feel better. They wanted to win. Then they noticed I had a runner-up plaque in my hand, and they went nuts as only middle school boys can. I should have saved the speech for myself.

I hope the plaque finds its way into some middle school classroom, where one of my players can look up every once in a while in the middle of a test and find encouragement. I certainly would.