One Particular Harbour
Thoughts about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from Dave Darby.
All posts in inspiration
-
Program on the Rise
Oct 14, 2006Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »A week or so ago, I shared my affinity and brief experience with the IU football program. I had just witnessed a shellacking courtesy of Wisconsin and was disappointed with not only the results of the game, but the lack of leadership, aggressiveness and inspiration on the Indiana side of the ball.
My gut says that this 2nd year coach, Terry Hoeppner, is the real deal. A guy who is going to bring long-term respect and pride to a great university with a historically weak football program. I still held to my gut, but from the looks of the Wisconsin home game, it looked like another year of recruiting and campus PR was needed.
Update: last week, IU beat a middle-of-the-road program in Illinois on the road with a last second field goal that was nearly rejected by the upper left goal post. But, in an up an coming program, a win is a win is a win – especially a conference game on the road.
Then, today – it happened. Another home game against a big-time conference program – Iowa who just happened to be ranked #15 in the country. Last week Coach Hep changed his QB strategy and decided to start redshirt freshman Kellen Lewis. Brilliant. This kid reminds me of Randall Cunningham, the great NFL QB who beat teams with his arm and his legs and had such a graceful, fluid motion. And – suddenly – the team that showed no inspiration 2 weeks ago, was inspired and walked with a swagger. Even on a long Iowa drive, IU was tackling and wrapping up guys immediately after the catch.
The result? IU wins by 3 on a DEFENSIVE play. Arughhh?? Great job to Coach Hep and those players. Their coaches put them in position to win and they executed. Their play was inspirational. They believed they could win and win they did. Maybe there’s still time this year for great things for this program.
Coach Hep also understands PR and the value of the 12th man and his non-existent fan base. I am sure he will keep this win on the front of the local papers and make the news rounds to ensure that, for the next home game, the seats are not 1/3 empty. Get on board Bloomington – this is the coach you’ve been looking for for the last, well, 38 years.
-
(Good Planning + Execution) x Inspiration = Great Things
Sep 30, 2006Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »Hang with me until the end if you’re not a football fan - there is a universal lesson here. So, I’m trying to get a little marketing research and planning done today – but it’s Saturday and I love football. Thanks to our new computer, I have a little tv piped into my screen – which is nice. Today, I can work and watch.
Just 2 miles up the Olentangy River from the old Horseshoe (the ‘shoe’ – where Ohio State University plays college football) sits the hospital where I was born. So, you could say I was born a Buckeye-fan. But, the Buckeyes don’t play until tonight, so I have to settle with 2nd choice – catch-up on the Indiana Hoosiers (where I wavered for 3 semesters) over on ESPN2.
I like IU. Beautiful campus. First-class university. They don’t garner much respect nationally – for football anyway – but as a reject and emotional wreck attempting to walk-on to their football team, I was fortunate to spend some time with the coaching and administrative staff one Winter. They certainly don’t have the history of the storied Buckeyes, but as a ‘nobody’ walking the halls beneath the stadium, I was in awe. I wanted to be part of it, but good workouts and a blue-collar work-ethic and passion couldn’t overcome eligibility issues as my horrific college record sealed my failed football fate.
When you hear me coaching about choices and see LifeMAPP’s tagline of ‘Better choices start here’, you may wonder why I am so passionate about what I speak about. I don’t coach/preach choices because I am the best example of a lifetime of great choices. I coach this because I learned from early adulthood that bad choices begat bad experiences and missed opportunities. I love football, but consistently trying to come from behind my peers and make up lost time meant I was dreaming about football much more than playing it (much the way I was handling life). What makes my story great and my lessons worth learning is this: I started off badly and continued badly until I started changing the underlying principles that guided me, I started playing with passion and I found inspiration. That’s when my life changed prophetically.
So, back to the story and the bottom line, the staff and coaches at IU treated me kindly and opened the doors when they didn’t need to. And for that, I always remain hopeful that IU will someday rise from the Big Ten football cellar and become a contender.
Well, not this year, the 2nd year of Coach Terry Hoeppner. In what was supposed to be an inspiring return to the sidelines for their coach from recent brain surgery, the Hoosiers were being shown the door in their home stadium. The score was quickly 7-0, 14-0, 21-0, 28-0, 35-0 – all before halftime. Ouch.
But I noticed something that bothered me. These guys are not playing inspired football. They’re not even playing football. Football is physical, aggressive. There is no single professional football player who could outrun 11 guys the length of a football field. Plays that gain yards happen, because a runner has 10 other teammates paving the way and opening up lanes. I am seeing IU players fluffing when they are not getting the ball. They are not hitting anyone. The result? Uninspired football playing against inspired football equals drubbing. EPSN2 switched to another game when the home-team massacre reached 52-0.
There is one thing that my family is missing by being on our great journey. Coaching Jonathan in football. Sounds stupid, but as we put our house for sale the only hesitation was being away from football this year. Last year when our undersized team started 0-2 things looked bleak. I had an assistant coach question my methods, plays, philosophies and probably even my choice of shoe. I had a progression for our first-year players. Learn alignments and assignments, learn a few plays, gain confidence, gain some conditioning and then inspire them to work together and fight as a team. My response to that assistant coach was simple. Nothing changes. We are on the right track and our boys will finish strong if we stay the course and inspire them.
See, when you are laying out a new course in life, you may have a scoreboard or two calling your efforts losing and defeating. But, if you have planned well, you only need to keep finding inspiration and continue along the course – with passion.
So, how did our season end last year? We won out for the remaining 3 games, then in the playoffs, man-handled the team that handed us our first, hard-fought loss and finished 3rd in a league of 12. That was all cool and a fun story to tell, but the greatest reward was the parents who stuck by us and at the end of the season told inspiring stories of their own about their child???s growth in personal confidence and in football. And our league commissioner commented on a couple of occasions that our team grew more than any team he had seen and was playing with inspiration. Oh, the fact that he was also the coach of our nemesis team made those comments just a little sweeter.
So, find inspiration. Inspire those around you. Maybe you are 0-2. Or maybe you started 0-2 and are now on a winning streak. Finish strong. Create a plan if you don’t have one. If you do have one and it is a carefully thought out plan, don’t change a thing. Keep plugging along. Wherever you are in life, find inspiration.
I miss coaching Jonathan this year and apparently, I have to wait another recruiting season to see if IU will ever rise. I still hope they do. We may be missing a few things that we cherished, but my family is inspired and working our new plan and, hey, the #1 ranked Buckeyes play tonight and could be on the path to their 2nd National Championship in 5 years. So, we have that going for us – which is nice…