Opportunity Knocks

The Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes will battle Monday night in the first-ever College Football Playoffs Championship Game. Both teams have glaring examples of people who took advantage of opportunities presented to them and didn’t quit or become disruptive to their teams. I will come back to these Bucks and Ducks in a moment.

As a long-time coach and now an athletic director, it pains me every time that I see a student-athlete get disgruntled over playing time or their role on the team. In nearly every case, the player quits. Oh, they might not quit the team and they might not even make a visible show but slowly and surely they cash out mentally. Instead of seeing the opportunity in every challenge, as Winston Churchill used to say, they see the difficulty in every opportunity. Unfortunately instead of persevering, they make excuses and take on a victim-mentality.

I had a player once that complained constantly that she was not getting the chance to play that she deserved. This went on for weeks. She stopped watching film and doing individual workouts, while choosing to have a negative attitude. Unexpectedly, the starter got hurt and we turned to this young lady as the replacement. The game that she was inserted into the lineup, she missed all 7 of her shots and had 5 turnovers. Time and again, players complain about a lack of opportunity without preparing for desired opportunity. Abraham Lincoln once eloquently stated, “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”

This year, a parent told me “if the coach doesn’t start my kid, how will they ever have a chance to get a college scholarship?” The kid was an underclassmen. This was a few months ago. In the future, my response will be to ask them if they’ve heard of the Heisman Trophy? It’s only the biggest award a college football player can receive. This year’s recipient is Oregon’s Marcus Mariota. He is the best college football player in the nation but he didn’t start for his high school team until his senior year. Stop and think about that for a moment. I believe Sir Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln would be proud of the way he didn’t give up or fester a bad attitude. He waited patiently, prepared and then took advantage of his opportunity.

On the other sideline is Ohio State and they have some interesting stories from their quarterback position as well. Full disclosure, I am a die-hard University of Michigan fan so it pains me to say anything good about Ohio State. Early in the season when the Big 10’s two-time offensive player of the year (quarterback Braxton Miller) was lost for the season with an injury, I thought that’d be the end of the Buckeyes season. But it wasn’t. Backup J.T. Barrett was more than ready. All he did was dominate during the year and finish 5th in the Heisman voting.

During the Michigan-Ohio State game Thanksgiving Weekend, we are giving the Buckeyes all they can handle. We have them on the ropes. A major upset is possible. J.T. Barrett gets hurt to start the fourth quarter. We have them! Barrett is the backup. There is no way the backup to the backup can hurt us. Wrong. Cardale Jones, Ohio State’s third string quarterback at the start of the year, comes in and orchestrates a convincing fourth quarter offensive display. In the two games that he has started since, he has dominated Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championship Game and Alabama in the National Semi-Final Game. This was his third year at Ohio State and he came into the season as the third string. I bet Buckeye fans are glad that he didn’t quit and stop preparing. There is no way a third-string quarterback would ever be counted on to win a National Championship, right?!?

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” This famous Thomas Edison is just as appropriate today as when he was inventing the light bulb. When preparation meets opportunity, the possibility of success is enormous. We constantly choose our actions and attitudes. When you watch the National Championship game Monday night, think of how it would be different if a couple of quarterbacks had chosen to take the all too-familiar approach  of complaining about their current situation instead of preparing for their future situation.  They were ready to answer the door when opportunity knocked.  Will you be?

Jamy Bechler is the executive director of U-Leadership and a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Speaker and Coach.  Contact him at CoachBechler@CoachBechler.com to find out how you or your team can be more successful.  Click here to signup for THE ENCOURAGING NEWSLETTER