At every turn of someone’s athletic journey, goals and dreams evolve, expand and broaden the horizons of effort and performance. Young athletes have forever dreamed of hitting the winning shot, making the big save, raising the championship trophy. It’s a natural state of affairs to set individual goals of playing on a championship team, of being an All-American or an All-Conference selection or, maybe, simply elevating your status to being a key member of your team. I certainly have all those personal memories from earlier in my playing and coaching career.
What I would suggest to you is that these personal goals may actually be somewhat limiting when considering your true potential. The descriptive terms I have used to describe outstanding individual leadership include fearlessness, selflessness, honesty, toughness, self-discipline, hard work and a resilient, joyous spirit. They are likely not the only ones that would apply in this characterization. When I think of those young men who have been uniquely effective team leaders, all of these qualities apply in some effective mixture. Some may have been better public speakers. Some dominated in the weight room. Some were first in the running, and some brought an infectious enthusiasm to every practice. But, they all demonstrated each of these qualities in some elevated supply.
John Keogh took a chance on a new, young coach at a time when High School All-American (when that meant something) attackmen from Manhasset (N.Y.) were not going to Brown. Tim Whiteley was willing to play primarily on his off-stick side in order to accommodate future Hall of Famers Mike Watson and Doug Knight to form one of the best attack units in our sport’s history. Tucker Radebaugh stood up in front of his teammates and told them, in no uncertain terms, what he was willing to do and what “they were going to do” in order for Virginia to capture its first national championship in 27 years.
In the days when we used to run 4-5 miles on the road a couple of times a week in the offseason, from Sept. 2002 until the national championship game in May 2003, Chris Rotelli won every run at every distance. No one realized that Matt Ward had a broken hand and Kyle Dixon a torn ligament in his thumb as we went in to the 2006 NCAA playoffs. Bray Malphrus willingly moved in to the mayhem in the middle of the zone defense that was so effective for us in 2011, and Steele Stanwick was one of the great decoys of all time while recording one assist in that championship game.
Great leadership does not manifest itself solely in championship results … Steve Heffernan, Walt Cataldo, Reed Overby, Drew McKnight, Joe Thompson, Ryan Tucker and so many others have filled those roles over many years.
At the same time, each of those players was willing to put the welfare of their teammates and of the team ahead of personal goals. I am not sure I had completed the sentence of asking Bray to play inside the zone when he jumped to that position. Chris was a first-team All-American and perhaps the finest offensive player in the country at the end of his junior year. He may not have initially understood why I kept telling him he had more to offer, but he finally bought in and the welfare of the team became more important than scoring goals. He scored fewer goals as a senior than the previous two years, had more assists that year than the previous three combined and won the Tewaaraton Award. The team won the national championship, and he was selected the first lacrosse player ever to win the ACC Male Athlete of the Year.
Tucker won our team’s Leadership Award as both a sophomore and junior. He had the tools. He just needed the right environment to fully exercise his influence. Chris’ transformation took place going in to his senior year in college. Bray was a stubborn young player who grew in to the leader he became at Virginia. Wherever you are on life’s journey, it is not too late to make some of those changes.
What I am now telling players is, “Go ahead and dream your dreams.” Picture yourself with the gold trophy, an All-American certificate or having moved up to the travel team. However, the blueprint to reach those goals, in fact to get some place you hardly could imagine, is to make your life’s mission statement, “Aspire to Lead.” If you strive to exhibit the qualities that are required of outstanding leaders, if you can commit to the seemingly incongruous formula of putting others' welfare in front of your own, you cannot help but travel to places of extraordinary individual achievement.
Especially at this moment, our country needs more true leaders … please help.