LEAVE THE JERSEY IN A BETTER PLACE

August 11th, 2019

Leadership

Legacy

Purposeful work

Voorhees girls' basketball history

As we’re starting our fall workouts the class of 2019 will start heading off to college or giving up summer jobs and looking for “meaningful” work. By Labor Day they will all be officially on to the next life step. We wish them well. They left their legacy and are now moving on to new challenges – hopefully exciting new challenges. If we all did our jobs they are taking something from their basketball experience with them. It may be the value of working through tough times. It may be the value of working hard so others can succeed, the memories and lessons of working together towards something, sharing the excitement of seeing it come together and working through the frustration when it doesn’t. Learning it is not always about you – and that it’s OK. Learning that, like personal growth, team growth is a process – and it takes time. Learning that when it looks like it can’t possibly get better sometimes it does if you stick with it. Maybe learning that no matter how hard you try sometimes your contribution is not recognized like you hoped. That’s when you learn a really important lesson – in the end you do it all because it helps you become the best person you can be – not for the recognition. You do it for your teammates, not because you want them to recognize you, but because you care about them and want the best for them. You do it because you love it and you won’t let anybody take that from you.

Hopefully we’ll see them again. For those remaining we need to build on what they accomplished. That means continuing to compete and improve. Creating your own legacy. Showing the younger kids the good things that can happen when you work hard and work together. In the end that’s what we hope to have – a continuum, year after year of competitive girls’ basketball, carrying on the history for the alumni who return on breaks to watch you play; and for the young ones who dream of wearing that jersey one day. They dream of playing well for those alumni. And they dream of the next generation of young ones who will watch them play and cheer for them.

A prominent New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, has a saying that is part of their culture –“leave the jersey in a better place”. The message to us is that as players for the Voorhees program you have a responsibility to honor those who played before you and those who will play after. That’s the difference between a group, a team and a program. A program generates teams year after year and performs to a high standard, year after year.

The bar has been set. In four of the past five years Voorhees teams have competed at a level that resulted in 20 or more wins per year. That’s consistent with the teams that competed during the run of 16 consecutive years with a winning record. Those girls left the jersey in a better place. Though it may seem counterintuitive, it’s not the wins that matter. It is setting a standard of quality play and committing to that standard. When you play to the standard the wins will come. It doesn’t just happen. It takes work, and as you know, that work has to be purposeful and focused. The work resumes this week for the high school players and in September for the middle school players. Make the most of it.

Bob Peterman