Parents
IN THIS ISSUE:
The hardest, mentally and emotionally grueling and most underrated position to play on any team is that of reserve. Whether you’re thought of as a role player, back-up, 3rd stringer, bench warmer, pine-time player, substitute or scrub, not being in the starting line-up takes tons more character, determination, guts and discipline than is needed when you’re fortunate enough to play all the time. It’s not the starters that are the real warriors on a given team. Anyone can handle being in the starting line-up. It takes no particular character strength, courage, resilience or mental toughness to be in the limelight day in and day out. How you manage the good times doesn’t ever determine what you’re really made of on the inside. Any Joe Schmo or Martha Marvela can look and act like a winner when the coach is smiling down upon them and giving them the nod for the start. The real test, the true test of what you’re really made of comes when things don’t go your way, when you don’t get the starting assignment, when you feel like you’ve been forgotten on the pine, when the coach looks down the bench and seems to look right through you. The mark of a true champion comes with how well you play this back-up role on your team. The strength of a championship character is determined by how you deal with the lack of glory and the invisibility that inevitably comes from sitting when you’d much rather be playing. In this issue we will address the unsung hero, the true warrior, the perennial role player.