Is Your Elevator Going Up or Down

I was very fortunate in High School. I escaped without suffering from many of the poor choices my classmates then, and many of my athletes do today. Sports helped a lot. It kept me busy during the school year, and my Coaches expectations gave me some good boundaries. But there were a lot of hours in the day, and a lot of days in the year, when I was outside of their influence. I would like to say that I was just an exceptional person with great character, strong convictions, and a highly motivated achiever with a vision, but not even Michael Jackson could pull off that story. I was a ordinary teen. The reason I dodged many of those bullets: smoking, drinking, doing drugs, skipping school, etc. was because my best friend, Keith Costner, a person I grew up with and hung out with almost daily wasn't into those things. Pretty simple, huh. Thousands of books have been written on how to be successful, and I had not read one of them. So you might think that it was pure luck that I wound up with a friend that just wasn't interested in those things. I have no doubt that it was divine intervention. One of my favorite quotes is, "Friends are like Elevators, they are going to take you up or take you down." My parents, teachers, and coaches had probably told me to be careful about hanging out with "The Wrong Crowd!", but I don't think I would have realized if they were the wrong crowd.
Why do most people never achieve their goals?
Because they take advice from losers!
I tell my wrestlers this all the time. By "losers" I mean someone who has not done anything or at least they have not done what your wanting to do, themselves. Many of my elite athletes train year round. They make sacrifices in order to be great wrestlers, several have missed the prom to go to a tournament, or they pass on other events in order to train. But their non wrestling friends often say things like, "You work too hard. You are too focused on wrestling." They don't understand the price required to succeed at the top level, so why would someone wanting to be good, listen to their advice? I don't know but they do, which is about as useful as a blind mans description of the sun. Under this negative influence the wrestlers start thinking about the things that they are sacrificing instead of what they are trying to achieve.
To be successful you should surround yourself with positive people. Ones who will encourage you, support you, and help to remind you of your goals when you start to wonder off track. Get around winners, people who are heading in the direction you want to go. Spend some time thinking about whether the people you choose to spend time with are helping you toward your goal or away from it. Ask yourself are they taking me up, or down, and change the relationships that aren't helping you. Choose your friends wisely and maybe you won't need to be lucky.

Wrestler Theme Music

The Select team had practice last night. It was a good practice, we put in some nice top stuff, but as we were waiting around to start we were talking. Most of you have seen that starbucks commercial where the guy named hank is going down the street, and there is a group of people sitting there singing his name, "Hank!" "Hank!" That made me think about music for different people. I said if we ever needed to introduce Dusty, we would play SandStorm by DaRude as we gave his introduction. Well it didn't take long and that was the topic of conversation. What song or music would you use as your intro music. The choices took a little more thought than you might first guess. What song or music sums you up, or sets the tone you want. The wrestlers came up with some surprising answers, and we came up with some promo photo ideas also, but I'll have to save those concepts for the Warrior Wrestler Calendar, coming out later this year. ;-) Here are some of the ideas they came up with:
Justin tossed around a few, but then settled on Charlie Daniels, "Simple Man" Don't be confused by the Lynard Sknyard version, this is not the same song, and I have to agree it fits him like a glove.
Zack rattled off several choices also, but then started narrowing the field to Classic Rock choices "No Quarter" or "The immigrant Song" by Led Zepplin.
Of course we voted SandStorm for Dusty, but I can only imagine what he would choose for himself.
We decided that "GARY's" theme music would be a techo version of Spong Bob's theme music. "Gary! Now bring it around town." but I think tequila may be appropriate also.
Some of the others are still thinking about theirs.
So what do you think your theme song would be? Leave me a comment and let me know.

A modern GBU

Over the years, I have formed many relationships with the young men that have wrestled for me. My boys as I think of them have given me many great memories, and plenty of not so great ones also. For a couple of seasons, I wrote a Good Bad & Ugly summary when I returned from a trip to capture some of those memories. Today was a good one. I attended Eddie M. and Dawn's wedding. It was exactly what you would have expected from two such great people. They make a great couple, both of them have big hearts so I know there will never be any lack of love in their household. From the time they started dating in my yearbook class it was obvious that they were soul mates. It was good to see many other members of the wrestling family there, and as always a lot of story telling went on. The past year has been difficult. We lost Boo. That is one of the most difficult times I've had in my life, and definitely the most difficult that I've had as a coach. We came just short of our goal of a state title, TWICE. Some of the wrestlers made poor choices, and it cost them some of their dreams. Just this weekend I was disappointed by one of the wrestlers I put a tremendous amount of trust in. With me there is really only one thing that is automatic deal breaker, and that is dishonesty. BUT... as I watched Eddie and Dawn say their vowels, I was reminded again of why I love what I do so much. I have seen so many succeed when others thought they would fail. I have seen the joy of someone grasping that brass ring they thought they would Never get. I have felt the deepest sorrow, when the season is over and they were just a little short. That is life. Joy and pain, the ups and the downs. Not a week goes by that I don't walk among the clouds, and trod through the valleys. Most of the time the path seems to wind along a hilly trail somewhere in between. I've spoke to a couple of my wrestlers about keeping a blog for the season. A chance to vent some thoughts, give some insight into what goes on in their head, that brings about what we see on the mat, so I've decided to keep one myself. I'll share some of the moments from my warrior family, as I see them. These will be my thoughts, so as usual sometimes they will make you laugh, like when Eddie paused to think about what he was doing when the Preacher said, "And to use all your Worldly goods..." during the ceremony, sometimes they may make you sad, like when I have to talk about problems or setbacks, like jarred dislocating his knee in practice this week, But hopefully they all will make you think, and give you a little insight into what a great gift it is to be part of the Warrior family. So I'll keep this blog as a modern G.B.U. and I'll sign off with this reminder, If you don't understand or get something in the GBU, it's probably because you weren't there.