A Coach's Words

There are many different types of lines in sports: court lines, field lines, headlines, red and blue lines, box score lines, and finish lines. There are lines that people feed you, sometimes encouraging, sometimes degrading. Then there is the line that I implore them to “get on” and there is never a question of what line I mean. For the athlete, there is something universal, scary, invigorating, and nostalgic about getting on the line, because though the line invites pain, from it, everything is possible. I tell them the line is the beginning of a journey ~ to potential greatness. I understand the athletes’ hunger, and my duty is to feed them. I refuse to press start on my stopwatch until all feet are on the line, and as one, they eventually learn how to embrace it. They will reach every line in pain, faces taut, thighs burning, emotions giving way to fatigue, then hardening into will; inevitable contempt transformed into drive channeled into a goal. And though they feel the anxious stomach pains every time they ponder the physical anguish associated with the line, I know that someday they will recognize the fine line between fear and commitment. They will come together in emotion associated with a common struggle for excellence that they wish would come easily but that I know does not. They will endure now in athletics and succeed later in the game of life because they willingly challenged themselves each time they stepped up to the line. Today, my players run because I tell them to, but tomorrow they will understand it was all for them, and will never forget A Coach’s Words: “Get on the line!”