March Madness - Seize the Day (Carpe Diem)

It's that time of the year again. March Madness! High School playoffs are happening across the country. Conference tournaments abound. In California, we get a double dose of fun. Both high school soccer and basketball playoffs are in full bloom. One thing that most, not all of these playoff or tournament games share, is that it will be the end of the season for one of the teams, the last time that these athletes and coaches will ever be together. That fact alone heightens the intensity of the majority of these contests and piques the curiosity and attention of so many.

     COACH STEVE FINAMORE

I was reminded of the down side of March when I heard that Coach Steve Finamore's East Lansing Spartans lost their first round district game on 3/7/11 to Okemos High School. This is Steve's first year coaching at ELHS. Previously, he has been a head coach at the Junior College level and an assistant in college. His team had a sensational year under his guidance. They were Co-Champions of their league and had beaten the team that tied them for the league title twice. Guess who they played in the first round of their district playoff? Okemos HS, the Co-Champion of their league.  Somebody in Michigan has a sense of humor doing that to both of these teams.  Teams in the same league shouldn't have to face each other so early in the HS playoff season. Well, the old axiom that it's hard to beat the same team three times held true and East Lansing lost the game 78-72.

I decided to send @CoachFinamore (twitter handle) the following message "Great Season. 17-4 is nothing to sneeze at. The suddenness of defeat is what makes playoffs so special.  I wrote this to the boys and parents of my BU12 soccer team when we got knocked out. I hope it strikes a chord (actually said "registers") with you."

          "THE SLIMY BOYS"

My season ending thoughts: The Slimes gave it their all yesterday. Met the toughness and physicality of Temple City and outplayed Arcadia, but couldn't come up with the victory. On a good day, with the breaks going our way, we beat Arcadia 5-1. On this day we lose 2-1 and to borrow remnants of a quote that I shared with the boys from my father earlier in the season: The opportunities were knocking, but we weren't picking (Original quote: “Opportunity does knock at every door, but it's never been known to pick a lock.”)

The one thing I hope the boys learn from our last game is "Carpe Diem," that you have to seize the day. We didn't "seize the day" and now we're sitting, and that's what makes the Area play-through playoffs so special. The suddenness of defeat is ever present in a playoff game and it leads to a quality of effort that you may not get in a normal game. Add to that fact, that every team in the 16 team tournament dominated their respective league, and it makes for a memorable experience. I enjoyed the competitive intensity of yesterday's game and was thrilled with the effort, intensity and play of our Slimy Boys. It's games like this that affirm my philosophy of not making winning "a god" in sports, especially youth sports. John Wooden's definition of success once again is my guiding light in evaluating our performance on this day and for the season: "SUCCESS IS PEACE OF MIND, WHICH IS A DIRECT RESULT OF SELF SATISFACTION IN KNOWING YOU DID YOUR BEST TO BECOME THE BEST THAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF BECOMING."

Our Slimy Boys are the team of my dreams. I waited ten years to coach an AYSO regular season team with their skill level and competitive character. They can look themselves in the mirror and be proud of their performance on Saturday and during the entire season.

It's been my pleasure to coach your boys and be associated with you families. Have a great year and hopefully I'll see you around "The Pitch" in 2011.

Your Coach,
Clarence Gaines