Preamble: First team
Some years back when we were in Secondary School, we formed a football team...after several search for a coach, we got one. The coach we got was a goal keeper with one of the professional teams in the town. He was really doing a wonderful job with us those days. After several months of training we registered for a competition in our area, as we were preparing for this competition this man was selecting those who will form his first team and those who will be on the reserve bench.
Coach’s Talk
One day after training before we leave for our respective homes the coach started addressing us, because the window for the competition is getting close, he wants individual players to know their weaknesses and strengths so that we will neither see him as being biased in his selection nor favoring anyone amongst us. He has talked to some players before getting to me.
As he turned to me to address me, other players yet to be talked to were all ears and all eyes to know what he has to say to me. This he said, “this I have against you, you lack the ability to play for 90 minutes, your strength does not exceed 60-65 minutes maximum, after this, law of diminishing returns sets in, you become fatigued, lose speed, due to this, I want you to know that, you will always be substituted except if the reserve bench is empty", he concluded.
As a good coach, what he said about me was correct and that was what he was doing with me during our matches, he will substitute me in the second half and in some instances I would not start the match depending on the plan he has for the match of the day. But irrespective of whatever, I would be introduced during the second half when the opponent team would have been weak, lacking speed and when I am being introduced thus, I will be expected to use my strength to wreck havoc to the team, the last straw that would eventually sent the team packing from perhaps the competition or league.
Initial Reaction
At the initial, I was not pleased with this that he was doing with me, substituting me, not allowing me to play for the entire duration that the match would last despite the fact that I know that he was saying the truth about my strength. There is an adage in Yoruba land that says, “it is the person that looks at the wife’s face that would know she is angry”. Since the coach did not look at my reaction neither the reaction of other players, he kept on doing what he thought was the best for us as well as the best for the entire team irrespective of whose ox is gored.
Second Thought
I had a reflection on this one day and I said to myself, “was what he said not true of me?” The reply is it is true. Now if this is true of me, why I am annoyed about his decision? Don’t I want the team to advance? Don’t I want our team to win laurels, medals? If I want the team to keep winning then I have to satisfy my personal ambition for the collective growth of the team. This is because it is when the team keeps growing that I would be relevant, immediately the team’s flag fails to fly among the committee of teams in the neighbourhood, the truth is, I won’t be relevant again and neither would any member of the ream, in other words, I will not even get a chance to be substituted again in any match. And if the team collapses, and I move to another team I would have to fight for shirt (or jersey) there too. If I am not on the good books of the coach of the new team I moved to, my name may not even be on the reserve list.
After talking to myself, I resolved that what I need to do is to keep working on myself, see to improve myself, see that I can move from 60 minutes play time to 70 and more minutes. This resolution seems the best for me, as such I started to secretly work on myself without letting anyone know. At least the coach who is monitoring us would know there is an improvement on me when the improvement happens.
It was quite appalling that this work did not materialized before the team folded up. There are many reasons for this fold up, part of which was that some of us secure admission into institutions of higher learning outside the state and on another note our coach too moves to another team with a better pay and good services. The new team he signed for was in the northern part of the country. I have not included that many of our parents then if not all did not want us to see future in Footballing nor any sport at that, because sports were not as this lucrative then in our country and those who go into sports then are often times if not all the times seen as rif-raffs, vagabonds. Nonetheless I never relented on working on myself.
Second Team, Second Coach
While waiting for admission, some groups of young guys gathered together to form a football team in my area (or neighborhood). As we continued with our daily training in the evening, one day an unknown man associated himself with us. We never knew he was a coach until he started to associate himself with us.
One day he told us that he has always been coming to watch our training and he started telling us some of our weaknesses and the need to improve on them if we would be a force to be reckoned with in the neighborhood. We resolved to make him our coach since the day he told us some areas that we need to look into as team and as individual players.
He was delighted to hear that from us and he became more committed to the work coaching us. This newly employed coach was however different from the former coach that I worked with because this man was greedy, his greediness eventually pissed us off which eventually led to the team’s collapse.
Applications
From the above, I will like us to take note of the followings:
1. Always remember that life requires individual person to work on him/herself;
2. When you are being corrected in love you should not take it as if the person does not like you, let us even assume the person hates you, but if what you are doing needs to be corrected of a truth, then make the correction,
3. Just as sports, some things in life requires recurrent training before one masters the thing, try and train yourself. E.g. train yourself on how to address people, respecting others and their views on some issues, living a Godly life etc
4. Prioritize the collective growth of the group, team,
5. On some issues set aside your personal ambition,
6. Some of the games we played were drawn, some were lost, while we won some... So is life, you will win some games, lose some and draw some…, but in all, always discover your mistakes and correct them, even in the games you won, you will notice some mistakes there... get them corrected,
7. Get for yourself a good coach, the coach you need in life is called mentor, someone who will be really, really opened to you, someone who will tender you like a shepherd tendering a sheep,
8. When your coach leaves the scene, learn to live your life before another coach comes in, keep on working on yourself,
9. Do not be self-centered and greedy like the second coach... do not embezzle because others are doing it, bible says, "thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil" (Ex 23:2)
10. Always know that life like a sport is in phases, training periods, competition periods, resting periods…. No one jumps training and started winning, as such do not envy those who are making it now, because you do not know for how long they have been training before they start manifesting, before they come out. Even if they did not undergo any training, always remember that your own time will come with your diligence, prayers, putting in your best, your time will come with patience because the writer says, "the hand of d diligent maketh rich" (Pro 10:4b),
11. As a team losses a game, so may it happen to you sometimes but you should and must not start brooding over such failures, instead, go on with your life, find alternative route, correct the correctable and move on..., everyone at a time or another losses
12. Etc.
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