Adversity reveals character

From the Evansville Courier Press, November 7, 2010

Our University of Evansville Purple Aces soccer team has traveled a strange road this season, enduring adversity along the way.

After starting 4-1 and ranked nationally, we hit a bit of a downward spiral that sent us into a tailspin — a 1-8-1 skid before Oct. 29's 3-0 victory over Eastern Illinois on the Fox Soccer Channel National Game of the Week. Of the eight losses, six were by one goal. It was a losing streak that would have driven most players and coaches to walk around in traffic.

When I first got into coaching, I used to echo the saying "ABC — Adversity Builds Character." What I have learned years later is that adversity doesn't build character, but rather, it reveals character. In times of crisis, you tend to learn a lot about the people around you, as well as yourself.

When things aren't going your way — be it on the field, in the classroom, at home or at work — how do you get the ship back on course?

Here are some ways to get things back on track:

— Maintain your focus: Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden rarely discussed 'winning' with his players. Instead, he discussed 'the things you have to do to win'. Focusing on the process (how to win) opposed to the outcome (winning) keeps you on task. We spend a lot of time focusing on communication (on and off the field), commitment to how we are trying to play, and working hard. If you focus on those process goals more than on the outcome goals, you will win more often than you lose, anyway.

Competition during a season is a marathon and not a sprint. It's like reading a good book — you can't just flip to the last chapter to see what happens. You have to read all the way through and learn lessons along the way. The hope is that you will draw from your experiences that will help get you to the finish line.

— Lean on those around you: It is easy to feel sorry for yourself when things don't go your way, but it is important to realize that you are not alone and that your teammates and coaching staff are going through it with you. Talking with teammates and building a level of assurance that everyone believes in each other builds a level of self-belief, which in turn builds a team's competitive spirit.

— Look forward, not backward: There is a reason that your windshield is significantly bigger than your rearview mirror, and that's because the things that are behind you aren't nearly as important as what is in front of you. Draw from your experiences from previous games to build off of them, but don't dwell on them — you can't change what's happened in the past, but you can learn from them and build off of them.

— Live in the present: We always stress to our players that the only things that you can control yourself is your own attitude and your own effort. Building a positive culture will be determined by how well your players can perform today — be it in practice, in the classroom, or in team meetings. String several consistent days together and it is easier to build momentum.

With aspirations of performing deep into the postseason, we know that we control whether we can live to play another day. To accomplish the lofty goals that we placed on ourselves at the start of our season, we know that we control our own destiny. It is less about being lucky or unlucky, and more about the things that we can control. Golfer Gary Player once said "the harder you work, the luckier you get."

If we can continue to draw from the experiences we've faced, we're expecting to continue to build on our winning ways.