Last night I stayed up late (for me) to watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs. For some reason, hockey has really captured my imagination throughout this current hockey season. Maybe it's because my favorite team was good, the Chicago Blackhawks. It might also have been that I gained an appreciation for the tactics and the play as I watched a lot of the Olympics. I also think it has to do with the aggression and the intensity with which almost all hockey players play (a lesson we could learn for our matches).The Blackhawks were one game away from winning the championship, and had the game won with about 4:00 left. Then they became so defensive that Philadelphia just poured on the pressure and scored the game-tying goal, putting the game into overtime. In the sudden death overtime, one player, Patrick Kane, skated through the Flyer defense and tossed it at the net. It went in and a celebration broke loose.
As the Blackhawks held the Stanley Cup above their heads, screaming, kissing it, crying over it, etc., I listened to what those they were interviewing had to say about what it meant to win the Cup. Player after player said - "This made the hard work that we put in last summer worth it." It struck me, every player in the NHL is a great hockey player. There isn't THAT much difference from one team to another, they are all fantastic, top level talents. The amount of work that a team puts in during the offseason, however, is what separates them from the team's of similar ability.
That's even more true in high school tennis. The work that we put in is what will separate us from the other good teams on our schedule. There will be matches where we simply have more talent than the other team, and we'll win. There may be matches the talent of the opponent is just too much for us. But there will be evenly matched games (Fairfield, Concord, Wabash...) where the work we do NOW determines the edge we have in August, September, and October.
And here's what else is true. I think we'll hear the same phrases the Blackhawks used while Ben Mast, Kyle Miller, Seth Krabill, Russell Klassen and others are holding the Sectional trophy above their heads. That image, that vision, makes it all worth it. Keep that vision strong.