Strong thoughts ...

It is always good to be strong in your thoughts, to have the courage of your convictions. Tonight I had the privilege of witnessing a great picture of mental toughness and great strength of thought. The Junior Varsity volleyball team that I coach had an exciting night of volleyball. This was our first match since getting beat in doubleheader at home last Thursday night. We lost the first game of the match 24-26, but we trailed in the game 10-17 and came back to tie it before finally losing. The second game we fell behind 10-17 again and this time we came back again and won the game 25-23. That sent it to a deciding 3rd game which was another exciting one, in the best 2 out of 3 format that Junior Varsity teams play the deciding 3rd game only goes to 15. We pulled it out 15-13. There were a lot of exciting rallies and we really chased down a lot difficult balls. I had girls running and diving all over the floor.

The "strong thoughts" and "mental toughness"? My girls were behind in each game tonight and each time they came back. After losing the first game and falling behind in the second game it would have been easy to just think it wasn't our night. Instead the girls kept playing hard and just kept coming back. One of the most exciting moments was near the end of the 3rd game. We were leading 14-13 and the other coach called a timeout to mess with our server's mind and make her nervous. During the timeout we talked about positioning and finishing the game. I told my girl to make it a good serve and let's finish this thing. As I sat down our varsity coach said that this is tough position for my girl to be in, I turned and said that she was 1 of 3 girls I would choose to be in this spot. She promptly made a good serve, the other team made an error and we won the match. The team was really fired up. In our post match huddle I told them how proud I was of them for their mental toughness and how they kept coming back. I also told them that my heart would appreciate a match that was not quite so exciting.

How is your mental strength? Do you keep fighting for what you believe in? Do stick with it when you know it is what is right? Take a lesson from girls and don't give up no matter what you are facing.

Now to see if I can fall asleep after all that excitement.