Not everything we try will be successful. I wasn’t necessarily used to failing in high school. The competition was stiff among many of my classmates, but hard work paid off. I graduated as the salutatorian of my class and won plenty of academic awards and scholarships.
Things change when the pool gets more substantial, and there is a significant chance that we will have to hear the word ‘no.’ I’m not exactly the world’s greatest athlete, not even close, but I enjoy sports. Like every good Hoosier, basketball is a great game, and involvement in athletics serves to teach many more lessons than how to dribble or shoot a basketball. Athletics provides lessons in loyalty and dedication and teaches us how to work as members of a team. There is something special about being a part of a team, and I enjoyed working with my high school basketball team as a manager. The work is hard and is not glamorous, but it’s worthwhile and necessary. No team can go without the folks who work behind the scenes.
I had a mentor in high school who had a connection with the IU basketball program. He introduced me to the IU basketball managers. The process is competitive and run by the senior-level managers. Each year, interested students show up for an introductory meeting to learn what it takes to be a manager, followed by an interview process. I went through two interviews and did not get the job during my freshman year. We had discussed my career plans after college, and the senior-level managers were concerned all the time required wouldn’t leave me enough time to study and get the necessary grades to get into medical school.
Failure doesn’t defeat me, however. I only became more resolved to be a member of that team. I worked hard in classes. I got a job – to help pay the bills – and show that I could do more than one thing and still be a successful student. I got all A’s my first year of school.
In my sophomore year, I came back and applied again. It took a great many conversations, but I was able to convince the senior level managers that I could do both, participate as a manager of the basketball program, and be a great member of their team, all while being a good student.
The moral of this story can be summed up by one of my favorite quotes—the words of Coach Jim Valvano as he accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 1993.
“Don’t Give Up. Don’t Ever Give Up.”