TRUE GRIT
“People can see the size of your body but no one can see the size of your heart.”
March madness is the time for basketball. My real joy in watching over 100 games this season comes from analyzing the coaches’ ability to make adjustments throughout the game.
The most common question I am asked, “Can this player play college ball?”
Fact is, only about 1% of all the players at the high school level will play college basketball. Fact is, most can’t play college ball.
The physical analysis is the easy analysis. 7-foot players don’t have to be great to get a college basketball scholarship. 6-foot players must be sensational.
Physical size matters. Height, weight, speed, jumps, can all be measured, but the size of the heart can’t be measured.
True Grit is found in the heart. True grit is forged on the anvil in the woodshed of hard knocks and painful experiences in the game of life.
True grit doesn’t just happen. A true grit learning experience for me took place as a you11-year-oldold. My job was to deliver 100 papers before 5 AM. Dad worked nights on the plywood mill. I was very sick with the flu, but the only way those papers were going to get delivered was by yours truly. I recall using my bike as a crutch. I was able to get those papers out to the customer in the midst of vomiting.
Without being dramatic, I can tell you it was experiences like these that gave me true grit. Today as I fight Mr.C, there is true grit in me, cancer cannot rob me of joy or passion for life.
I tell high school players, “You can play college ball if you have true grit! No one can stop you from being the best person you can be, if you have a never, never, never quit mind set.”
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. – 1 Corinthians 9:24
