Ridger Sports — What is the will to win?

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

— Sports writers and coaches sometimes talk a lot about a persons’ or a teams’ “will to win.” Statements like “yeah they lost, they just didn’t have that desire to win today,” or maybe something like “well, they just didn’t bring their best game today.”

Just what is this will to win anyhow? How does a team or a player come to have what folks call “the will to win.”

Recently, a story came out in the Democrat-Gazette about Mansfield’s girls track team. The story unfolded about one of the Mansfield girls being killed in a car wreck with the funeral set for the same day as the district track meet. The entire track team elected to attend the funeral and forego competition in the district meet.

Mansfield wasn’t just some average ordinary girls team.

They were the four time defending state champion in the sport and had a string of district titles to defend as well. Rather than just not attend the meet, Mansfields’ girls coach decided to move up the ninth graders to compete, eight girls in total.

After all the events at district were completed, the Mansfield freshwomen had won the district meet again, by a whopping 100 points over the second place team Paris.

Now these girls were no slouches as they were dominating junior high meets for the past three years and were destined to maintain Mansfield’s strong reputation. However, they were expecting to start fulfilling their promise in 2012, not in 2011. They were placed in events they had never done before, practicing for a few days before the district.

The Mansfield coach stated the girls inexperience and youth was overcome by a team attitude that he described as “girls on a mission.” Though district champions again, they could not overcome the mountain they had to climb to win a fifth state title in a row for their school. The eight ninth graders finished fifth amongst the 48 Class 3A schools and look like favorites to regain state supremacy soon.

Michael Jordan was famous for imposing his will on opposing teams even when the odds were stacked against him. He even led the Chicago Bulls to a NBA championship with an allstar performance while suffering from a high fever and cramps.

There are two parts to this will to win formula that often determine the difference between so-so performances and memorable ones. First of all is the great importance of preparing to win. The will to win without the will to prepare will sink any athletes hopes for success worse than suffering an injury.

When I was coaching in Missouri in the 1980s, I had a shot-put/discus/javelin thrower who worked like no one I had ever seen before or since. John Richardson (who stills holds national AAU track records to this day) started track late, going out his sophomore year with virtually no experience.

He went from a novice to a getting interviewed on national television in about four months due to his throwing ability. His most amazing attribute was that he never ever lost a meet, be it a local or a national meet, when he had the last throw. He won lots of gold medals nationally but was second on occasion.

But when it came down to a last throw and he knew what he had to do, he just went out and did it.

He had a tremendous will to win but an even greater will to prepare.

Athletics is a great thing as participants pretty much get out of it what they put into it. For exceptional performances, it takes exceptional preparation. Whether its playing football, running track, playing baseball or basketball, doing the minimum to succeed in the sport will lead to minimum results.

I know we have all seen those Disney movies where some kid just shows up, gets all determined and becomes an instant champion. It doesn’t happen. Ever.

I was at a track meet in Oklahoma back in the late 90s and there was a ninth grade girl who had never run track but had recorded a 5:10mile in her first ever attempt. Shockingly fast, I asked around and found out what she did athletically before going out for track. Turns out that she was a nationally ranked swimmer, swimming 400-meter races and had a heart and lung capacity that would not quit. She was well prepared to compete successfully in a sport like track, which places a premium on fitness and lung capacity.

Sometimes a person’s will to win can lead that person to achieve perhaps unprecedented athletic success.

However, if the will to win hasn’t been backed up by the will to prepare “it ain’t gonna happen.”

To sum it all up, I would like to quote ex-Razorback coach Nolan Richardson who once said, “You have to be lucky to win, and the harder you work, the luckier you get.”◊◊◊

Editor’s note: John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Sports, Pages 8 on 05/11/2011