Effort, Accountability & The Precious Present - Ray Lewis & Patrick McHugh's Shared Vision

September 13, 2012

Patrick McHugh

Ray Lewis and Patrick McHugh share the same vision when discussing team dynamics. Most everybody who reads this blog will know of the great Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, but few will know the name Patrick McHugh.

Patrick McHugh is an athletic director and track and field coach at North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, IL. Patrick writes a great blog {North Shore Country Day Athletics} that I read on a regular basis. I've never met or talked with Patrick, but have corresponded with him a few times via twitter (North Shore Track). I consider Patrick to be one of the smartest and most thoughtful thinkers on youth and high school athletics in the country. If you're a high school coach or athletic director, I highly recommend you take the time to peruse his blog. His vision of long term athletic development for middle and high school students is a model that should be considered by all.

McHugh recently wrote a blog on Lance Armstrong, entitled "What's the Takeaway Lance." It's a good read and I hope you take the time to read his complete thoughts, but I wanted to highlight a paragraph from the blog that is about team dynamics.

"I was enjoying watching the sincerity of this Junior Varsity Girls Field Hockey team completely invest themselves in the task of learning to be a team, of giving one's best effort, of being accountable to each other, of learning that winning is an important outcome, but it is the result of doing a lot of other things right, and of learning to enjoy the success that comes from authentic and complete commitment to the play at hand."

Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis gave a pre-game speech to the Stanford basketball team on March 27, 2012 before their semi-final game in the National Invitational Tournament. The speech is an all-time classic. It echos the themes McHugh expressed in his essay, being accountable to one's teammates, giving your best effort & "being in the moment." Lewis' words are below, but nothing beats watching Ray on video, delivering the speech as only he can. Stanford beat U Mass 74-64 on that night and eventually won the NIT.

I can't thank you guys {enough} for the opportunity. Let me tell you something - If tomorrow wasn't promised, what would you give for today? Forget everything else. Forget everything else. Forget that there was any sunlight left. What would you spend today, thinking about. Yourself? Or the man that's beside you? Or the man that you know you'd give everything in your heart for?

We get one opportunity in life. One chance in life to do whatever you're gonna do. To lay your foundation and to make whatever mark you're gonna make. Whatever legacy you're gonna leave. Leave your legacy. And it's found through effort.

Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But effort? Nobody can judge effort. Cause effort is between you and you. Effort ain't got nothing to do with nobody else. So that team that think they ready to see you? They think what they seen on film. They ain't saw what film shows. Because every day is a new day. Every moment is a new moment. So now you got to go out and show them that I'm a different creature, NOW, than I was five minutes ago. Cause I'm pissed off for greatness. Because if you ain't pissed off for greatness, that mean you OK with being mediocre. Ain't no man in here OK with being just space. So let's do what we do. Tonight, we ain't gotta worry about taking no breaks.