Cell Phone Policy: At School and Even in an NBA Locker Room

One of the more noticeable changes of the 2024-2025 school year is the cell phone policy. Like so many schools throughout the country, we took a proactive stance this year—requiring students to either place their phone in a caddy in the classroom or keep it in their backpack. Many teachers feared students would leave "burner" phones. Others worried that placing and picking up phones would diminish class time. However, I am happy to report students have readily complied with the new practice and expectations. Teenagers are still actively messaging on their iPads or laptops. Some abuse the policy by "going to the bathroom." This basic request is all too often a euphemism for "I need time to send and read text messages." Furthermore, the minute the bell rings, students either get out their phones or retrieve them from the caddy and log in and on. Too many are walking zombies. Who have we become? What have we become? I would like to suggest this is NOT just a question for teachers and students. In fact, it's worth considering as a nation and a society.

In Sports and Spirituality, I spend the first week establishing class norms, unpacking the syllabus, outlining expectations and listing the goals of the course. I do what I can to frame all of this as it relates to our classroom and the world at large. For example, the syllabus mentions that the classroom is a cell phone free zone. I explain why it is important that both phones and iPads are not out or open until instructed otherwise. If a student needs to use their phone, they should do so outside of the classroom and in the hallway. However, they need to be in their seat when the bell rings. Any student who is not in their seat when the bell rings is considered tardy. 

School bell or not—being on time is important. Athletics speaks to this principle all the time and as written in NFL players often forget Rule No. 1: Show up on time, athletes struggle with it too. It says, "Back before he won the Super Bowls and was known more for his rules than his rings, Tom Coughlin had one directive that sounded so extreme, it was borderline comical: If you weren't five minutes early for a team meeting, you were late." Furthermore, if you're late for a team meeting you can be fined. In jest, I ask if I should employ this policy in class, too. And to whom should I donate the money—St. Anthony's foundation? This rule in associated with many others which carry a financial consequence agreed to through the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement). Professional athletes are just that: professionals. They are paid handsomely to do their job, but they are fined heavily when they don't. 

For those students who find rules to be tedious or the school handbook too scrupulous, I mention that the late great John Wooden of UCLA basketball fame had but three rules.

1. Be on time.
2. Never criticize a teammate.
3. Not one word of profanity.
   

I wish I had but three, but I don't. Perhaps the Pyramid of Success was Wooden's way around three rules. Maybe less really is more. I see this work of genius as a different approach to establishing the necessary rules for his team—for any team! However, Coach Wooden never had to deal with cell phones. I have to wonder, were he coaching today, Which building blocks might address how to use technology properly? And given that college players are now paid quite handsomely, perhaps this report The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life by Sally Jenkins may speak to what has become a semi-similar audience.

In the chapter entitled, Discipline: The Framework
Jenkins writes,

Too many times to count, NBA coach Doc Rivers has seen cell phones get in the way of winning. Rivers tries to discourage players from checking statistics on their phones at halftime, because he doesn’t want them fixated on personal scoring. If a guy knows he shot 1-10 in the first half, it “might affect his play in the second half; make him overaggressive or, worse, hesitant, and either way ruin the team’s flow. Nevertheless, often when Rivers walks into the locker room to address his team at the break, what does he see? A lot of bent heads. Guys are staring down at the devices in their hands, checking their stats online. Not only that, they’re reading texts and tweets about their stats. 

What is Rivers supposed to do? Ban all cell phones? Bench the worst offenders? 

Rivers has an aura of authority. He’s six-foot-four, the son of a cop, with a voice like truck wheels on gravel. He’s spent forty years in the NBA, first as a player and then as a winning head coach of four different franchises across the league. He led the Boston Celtics to an NBA title in 2008, set a franchise record for victories with the LA Clippers in 2014, and in 2020–2021 he turned the Philadelphia 76ers into a contender for the first time in 20 years. 

Rivers’s no-stats philosophy was formed as a player, an All-Star for the Atlanta Hawks in the late 1980s. One night, Rivers went off for thirty-seven points. With two minutes left he had the team up by twenty, and he motioned to the sideline that he wanted to come out of the game and let a younger player clean up and get some experience. But his coach Bob Weiss wanted to leave him in. 

“You have a chance to get your career high,” Weiss said. Rivers thought about it for a moment, and replied, “So what?” 

Rivers fervently believes a player is better off not focusing on scoring, but on the elements that lead to teamwork, such as disciplined movement without the ball and sound defense. “If I had thirty-nine, I was going to be a better person?” Rivers asked rhetorically, telling the story years later. “To me, you do your job, and wherever you stop doing it, you stop doing it for the right reasons.”

Smartphones threaten to get in the way of those precepts. They are chock-full of distracting and mentally distorting material. Guys pick up their phones to check their numbers, and see a message from their agents telling them what they should do, as opposed to what their team needs them to do. Rivers calls the devices the Bad News Phones. He tells his assistant coaches, “Whatever news they’re getting on the phone, it’s not in our favor.” 

“No one on those phones is telling them, ‘You should pass more,’” Rivers has observed. 

“No one is telling them the reason they’re not playing more is they don’t play defense hard enough.” 

But what is Rivers supposed to do about it? How is Rivers supposed to make players who “are seven feet tall and 280 pounds do anything they don’t want to do?" Even if Rivers could find an effective way to enforce the rule, it would likely be self-defeating, breeding buried resentment or resistance in his players, most of whom are grown men, some of them with children, and whose strong self-will Rivers prizes. 

At the end of the 2020 season, Rivers compared notes on the issue with Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, during The Ringer network’s podcast series Flying Coach, in which bench leaders talk tradecraft. Kerr encountered the same cell phone–social media issue in his Golden State Warriors locker room. It was a daily challenge to secure the undivided concentration of young players for whom reaching for electronic devices had become a reflex. 

“It’s interesting because you have to decide as a coach in the modern era, am I going to be the coach that says no phones?” Kerr said. “Am”“I going to be that guy? Like, the old-school guy: Hey! No phones!” 

The answer to the question in the case of Rivers and Kerr was no—they weren’t going to be that guy. “It’s just not realistic,” Kerr said. “I don’t think it would work these days.” Both men believed any coach who tried strong-arm attempts at enforcement would wind up with a roomful of malcontents, or doormats. Instead, they searched for ways to handle the problem with light suggestion or sarcasm. On one occasion Rivers walked into a locker room, saw a player jabbing at his phone, and cracked to him, “Tell her I said, ‘Hi.’ ” The teasing remark made it clear the texting was an intrusion, but it left self-determination intact. A murmur of laughter ran around the room, and players put their phones down—for once. 

That even the most authoritative coaches in the NBA struggle over whether to forbid social “media in their locker rooms says something important about discipline: it’s a perplexing subject and instilling it is tremendously difficult. There may be no concept more misunderstood, misconstrued, or misapplied by poor leaders, some of whom interpret it as strictness, to be imposed on others with penalty, punishment, or spittle-flying harangue. Only to find out that they’ve lost the room. Disney chairman Bob Iger observes, “Using the word is very dangerous in terms of how you treat or manage people.” 

Discipline is of course essential to good decision-making. Without it, a leader is left to sift through unreliable factors and behaviors in making choices, and the result is haphazardness, the quickest way to sabotage any endeavor. With shared discipline, uniform standards are set.

There is much to consider in from this real life report. It prompts questions we have already been considering such as To what degree do cell phones get in the way of winning? of community building?! Do Smartphones get in the way of precepts like personal records and stats are antithetical to the game? And what are the messages we are getting from our cell phones? 

I enjoyed hearing my students weigh in on matters like, Do you think Coach Rivers and Kerr made the right decision? How can athletes exercise discipline in the locker room or during down time? What uniform standards net to be set in and around shared discipline for your team? in your school? 

These are the very questions we must not only entertain but consider for ourselves to learn and love one another this school year. Putting the cell phone in the caddy or away in the backpack is just one small step in the right direction. While many thought it might not be possible, by and large it's been met with little resistance and hopefully more respect for how we interact and communicate with one another. Stay tuned... (do students know what that might mean?!)

Photo Credits
Cell phones
Steph on is phone and others too
Doc Rivers
Lions Team Meeting

— The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life by Sally Jenkins

https://a.co/fcDuxSK

Pope Francis' Culture of Encounter with the NBA

Pope Francis' Twitter handle— @Pontifex—is Latin for "bridge builder." As evidenced in a recent meeting with five NBA players, the Holy Father continues to exemplify what this name implies. Professional basketball captures the attention of millions of Americans—young and old, religious, spiritual and nowhere in between! His invitation is but another example of the “culture of encounter,” which I find to be a great model for spiritual leadership. That being said, I also wish the audience included five WNBA players. Here's more. 

According to The New York Times, "In June, Pope Francis said he had watched the social unrest enveloping the United States with 'great concern.' In his October encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” a reflection on fraternity and social friendship, the pope wrote that “a readiness to discard others finds expression in vicious attitudes that we thought long past, such as racism, which retreats underground only to keep re-emerging. Instances of racism continue to shame us, for they show that our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive as we think.” And in November, he extended an invitation to the NBA players' union to learn more about their efforts toward addressing social justice and economic inequality. Pope Francis spoke to the power of sport both on and off the court. They met for a half hour in Rome on the Monday of Thanksgiving week—November 22, 2020.

Pope Francis has preached, taught and written about the “culture of encounter” time and again. In short the "culture of encounter" means that I have something good to give to another person, and the other has something good to give me. Those gifts are simple—our presence, our smile, a willingness to listen, ask questions, and affirm one's talents, efforts and ministry are but a few examples of what we can give and receive. 

The five male players — Marco Belinelli, Sterling Brown, Jonathan Isaac, Kyle Korver and Anthony Tolliver — were joined in the delegation by NBA players' union executive director Michele Roberts and two other union executives, Sherrie Deans and Matteo Zuretti. The group "presented the pope with a commemorative basketball, a union-produced book highlighting efforts players have taken and an Orlando Magic jersey." 

Listening to what they brought prompted me to consider what I might give the Holy Father. And what would I receive? I have thought about a message I might like to share with the pope. I can only imagine what he might want to say to me....about Sports and Spirituality, teaching theology, hosting a podcast or writing a blog.

I love the word "encounter." To me, it implies invitation and openness. There is an element of surprise and wonder when this type of connection occurs. And yet, I have rarely had a meaningful encounter with another person that was totally sufficient. Quite often, I wish I had shared a certain story or asked a follow up question. I can't help but revisit something I said...or didn't say. I have often hoped that one encounter will lead to another!

As meaningful as this encounter is and was, I do wish the invitation had been extended to the WNBA as well. (I also think it's fair to wonder why he didn't wear a mask, nor did the players at an indoor event—NB: all were tested on site). I would like to know why Pope Francis and/or his staff didn't think of including these female athletes as well for they have long been doing what the NBA is lauded for doing. 

In Just a Reminder: The WNBA Has Been Leading the Social-Justice Charge For Years, Maggie Ryan writes

The NBA's voice is urgently needed in this fight, but with all due respect, it's the WNBA that has been at this for a long time. As early as 2017, as President Trump was castigating NFL players for kneeling during the anthem, entire WNBA teams were taking a knee or even walking off the court while "The Star-Spangled Banner" played. The year before, three teams were fined for wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, then fought those fines until they were dropped, raising public awareness in the process.

WNBA teams have hosted town halls on race and spoke with civil rights leaders like the late Rep. John Lewis. And all of that was before this season, which the league dedicated to racial justice and the #SayHerName movement following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police. Some players even opted to sit out the season altogether to further this work. And let's not forget that, according to WNBA Players' Association (WNBAPA) President Nneka Ogwumike, WNBA players stand to lose more financially, relative their NBA counterparts, by skipping these games.

The WNBA was one of, if not the first, league to show this kind of collective, meaningful action for racial justice, and these players have paved the way for the movement we're seeing today in men's pro sports. All of these voices are needed in this fight, but credit where credit is due: WNBA players have been leaders for years. As WNBA All-Star and WNBAPA Vice President Chiney Ogwumike has said, "it's in our DNA."

The WNBA is certainly a group that is building bridges. And, I'm pleased to report they aren't going unnoticed on or off the court. In fact, their post-season ratings were up by 14%. This is an impressive stat when sports fans realize the viewing of the NBA, NHL and MLB post-season games were down, significantly. 

I don't want that point to overshadow the greater good that this encounter brought for the players, their fans and the Church.  For some people, it might. I have wondered if some would like the Holy Father to step down from his leadership position for not wearing a mask in an indoor setting. I do want to know—if we are to build bridges...if we are to promote a culture of encounter, how much must we "get right?" Thoughts? 

My Prayer: God and gracious God. Let us continue to build bridges with one another—near and far. Help us to promote and engage in a culture of encounter. There is so much good to give...and receive.

Photo Credits

But One Chapter in the Narrative of Sports: Thank you Serena Williams

Days after Serena Williams lost the French Open, a sportswriter raised an unfortunate question: Will Williams ever win another Grand Slam title? As many tennis fans know, Serena, who had already completed the Serena Slam (winning the Grand Slam in a non-calendar year) was going for history as she sought the 2015 US Open title. This victory would not only give her the distinction of becoming the fourth woman in the history of the sport to win a Grand Slam, it would be her 22nd—tying her with Steffi Graf for the most major wins in the modern game. She lost in the semis. 

In 2016, Serena went on to appear in the Finals of the Australian and the French Open, she lost in both. When I read that probing question, I put my magazine down with disgust. It's one that's not uncommon in sports. Golf fans are reading it on a regular basis this year as Jordan Spieth has yet to win a Major in 2016. And rather than answer the question, I thought instead about a larger one: What are the narratives that characterize professional sports today? I invite you to answer this question. Please share your response. For today, here is but one thought, among hundreds.

So...it looks like we have an answer to that question.

Default Language
Lying on the floor while stretching at the conclusion of a group exercise class at my gym, I looked up to read, actually read what the banners hanging from the ceiling had to say. They listed different championship titles that various teams within the club won and what year they did so. It was obvious to me that certain eras created a dynasty. But there was something on one banner that wasn't on all of the others; an interesting descriptor. It said "Women's Championship." I quickly realized that the default language in sports speaks of men and their accomplishments. You might make the argument that the club was originally for men only, so the history of the narrative stems from what was, rather than what it is today.

For example,  SportsCenter reported this morning that the US Women's Open champion in golf is Brittany Lang. When Dustin Johnson won the same title, sports media does note him as the "Men's Open championship," It could. My question is, Should it?

The same is true in professional basketball. The NBA is the National Basketball Association of male athletes. Though David Stern could have changed the name to the MNBA when the WNBA was created in 1996, he did not. Were a woman the commissioner, I'm not sure she would either. Norms in society are hard to change, but it doesn't mean they're not worth examining, considering, and questioning For example, I wonder: What are the implications of a language that suggests that athletes are male and when they are not—then and only then—do we let it be known otherwise?!

I'm okay with making distinctions. I have a favorite female athlete and I have a favorite male athlete. Evidence provided: here. You should say to me that Andy Murray was crowned the men's champion and Serena Williams is the women's champion of Wimbledon (although in this case, their names help me figure that one out. Not always true!). Though some would prefer to do away with these descriptors, they point to a truth. There are divisions by gender for a reason (which I'm not really interested in qualifying here. I'll leave that to some physiologist). In some arenas these divisions might not be necessary, but in others they are needed. For example, if Serena were to play on the men's tour, as much as I would want her to win, she wouldn't have the 22 titles that she does today. Men hit harder, their serve is faster and they play longer. Serena's serve is pretty close though! 

Michelle Wie comes to mind as a female athlete who attempted to play on the American men's tour, but did not make the cut. She is however the second woman to have made it on the Asian men's tour; Se Ri Pak of South Korea is the first. Unfortunately, Wie finished the year with disappointing performances on both the men's and the woman's tour. 

This too was not met without controversy. Female golf legend Annika Sorenstam criticized Wie for her decision to compete on the PGA tour. If you let the narrative of sports rest with those words, you would miss her larger claim. Wie wasn't even winning on the women's tour. Were she looking for the next level of competition, playing against men might make sense. Sorenstam was holding the claim at the LPGA has tremendous competition already. Why miss out on it? 

Without a doubt, Serena Williams has elevated the sport of tennis. And I say that with all due respect for the boys and girls, men and women, seniors, paraplegics and any fan of this great game. I love her for hundreds of reasons I have written about on this blog and as mentioned in this outstanding piece "The Singular Serena." She contributes much more than a singular chapter to the narrative of tennis and to that of all of sports. Today, I thank her for her contributions past and those to come....especially #23!

Photo Credits
Serena
B Lang
M Wie

Generosity and David Lee

The "Back to School Night" poster for the Religious Studies department at St. Ignatius College Prep, where I teach features a head shot of every teacher and his or her favorite line from prayer. When we were asked to submit ours to the designer, I said mine without hesitation: "Lord, teach me to be generous."

I say this prayer—the opening line of the St. Ignatius' Prayer for Generosity—more often than you might think. At times, it is a near mantra. I utter those words when I need patience, when I am frustrated and when it's difficult to see the good in a student. This prayer opens my heart. The grace of this spirit  prompts me to give when I might want to take. The rest of the prayer is equally beautiful, but those six words speak to me, deeply.

I want to be generous. I have been given so much—I ought to be. My father once told me, "Anne, no one will ever think worse of you for being generous. They'll never say she's a horrible person for giving like that." I have never forgotten those words; they're true (but remember, a virtue works best as a mean. Excessive generosity is foolish and deficient generosity is miserliness). 

And yet I also know that true generosity develops when it's difficult to give...when I do feel like sharing, when no one is looking, or when I won't get any credit. This is where I need guidance from the Lord. Anyone can give from their excess, but true generosity comes when we are running on empty. When it would seem as though we have little materially or spiritually to give. I have found this prayer helps.

You would be surprised to learn what else helps me be generous: David Lee.

David Lee played with the Golden State Warriors for the past five seasons. The power forward made generosity look both easy and attractive. I want to be a more generous person because of what I saw in him.

When Lee was named to the 2013 All Star team, he was the first Warrior to earn that distinction in over 17 years! He was a critical reason that team made it to the second round of the playoffs—losing to the Finals Champions, the San Antonio Spurs. And yet this year, Lee suffered a strained left hamstring in the final game of the preseason, which sidelined him for 24 out of the first 25 games of the season. Lee was replaced in the Warriors' starting lineup by Draymond Green, who continued to start even after Lee recovered. The highest-paid player on the Warriors roster at $15 million, Lee became a reserve for the first time since early in his career.

It's hard to argue that Lee's misfortune didn't make way for an opportunity that might not have otherwise happened. Green was a force to be reckoned with throughout the regular and post-season. But what's striking to me is that amidst the struggle of frustration from injury Lee never once complained. He never went to the press to defend himself or call into question Coach Kerr's decision to keep him seated...on the bench...most nights...fully dressed. At one point in February, I wondered if Kerr forgot who about him. I didn't know if his injury lingered. It didn't. 

D-Lee had a new role on the team. It was strange; I scratched my head often. Whereas he once helped on the baseline, David Lee became his teammates' biggest supporter from the sidelines. That's generous.

Lee finally got some minutes in Game 4 of the Finals. Warriors fans saw the chemistry that Stephen Curry and he built together—the building block of teamwork that made this a group of champions. And when the Warriors captured the title, I couldn't help but notice D-Lee in his warm-ups, smiling, hugging and celebrating with his teammates—many of who were sweaty, tired and sore. I have no doubt Lee would have preferred to win in this way. But, a generous spirit is joyful and grateful, regardless.

Warriors faithful know that the team traveled to Las Vegas to celebrate the victory. David Lee picked up the tab.

Tickets went on sale for the 2015-2016 regular season games late last week. I got a call from a representative at the Warriors encouraging me to place my deposit for group seating. The Notre Dame Club of San Francisco attends one game each year. That day, I had but one question for Brian our rep: How was your lunch yesterday? 

Brian started laughing. Sports fans throughout the Bay Area were aware that before he left for Boston, David Lee had treated the entire staff to a lunch by Chipotle.

Lee signed a contract with the Boston Celtics and left us fans on the best of terms....and the people inside of Warriors operations—support staff, ticket agents, ushers—the people we never see, with full bellies and smiles of gratitude...if not a tear or two for fare thee well.

Whether or not it comes easily or with haste, generosity is a wonderful virtue. Generosity can take the edge off of a bad day. It can be tough to exercise, but it makes life just a little sweeter, doesn't it?  Next time you find it tough to be generous, offer a prayer and look to the example of an athlete like David Lee. He made generosity both fun and fulfilling. Thanks for a great five years. 

Photo Credits
Prayer of Generosity
Thank you D-Lee
Sidelines

Collegial Observation by Coach Steve Kerr: A Path to Victory

Even though he was not named NBA Coach of the Year, Steve Kerr could (and should?) have been. Kerr, a first year head coach for the Golden State Warriors led this team to a regular season record of 67-15. They had all of two losses at home. The Dubs (as we call them) are now in the NBA Finals, hoping to take their first victory title in 40 years. The question that former head coach Mark Jackson, Warriors fans and NBA enthusiasts have asked is: How has he done it? He doesn't' have experience. He has the same players. What's the secret to their success?

Kerr, who played for 15 years in the NBA was a TV analyst, broadcaster and served in the front office of the Phoenix Suns before he was named a head coach. He has studied the game  for most of his life, but he's also studied other things: human nature. Kerr went out of his way to meet with every player before the season began. He flew to the Black Falcon's nest in Miami to meet Harrison Barnes. He took this team bowling—yes bowling. I'm sure he wasn't as concerned with throwing strikes but rather than they spend time together in a way that fuels their competitive natures. He also did something that every coach and teacher ought to consider. He visited and shadowed another coach. (With all due respect, it's hard for me to get super excited about his visiting Pete Carroll).

Every faculty member at the school where I teach is required to observe a colleague once a year. Too often it feels like another requirement to complete. Of the twelve years I have taught at St. Ignatius, I think I have checked that box and hastily completed the official "Collegial Observation Form" two days before it's due...or errr......after.

Logistics aside, I have never regretted the time I spent in a co-worker's classroom. You get ideas of how to run things differently—for better or for worse. You gain insight into how personality can motivate and accentuate a lesson plan.In addition to a new lesson plan, you get a sense of pace and space, timing, when to ask questions and how to ask them. Sounds a lot like basketball doesn't it?

I love that he visited another coach, but did it have to be this one!?

But what's so beneficial about a collegial observation is that one party doesn't reap all of the benefits. It helps to know what someone else sees. They can draw attention to our strengths and what to tweak to make something better. This past year, I welcomed one of our librarians into Sports and Spirituality. She shared several articles related to the topic of my lesson plan after our time together. It was also fun to hear what she thought of the class and what it's all about.

I was talking to our head football coach yesterday. He was telling me that he wants to observe the varsity boys' golf coach. You might wonder why or how anything from a sport like golf might transpire to a contact, team sport like football. But what he understands is that the head boys golf coach is a great coach. He had led both girls and boys cross country teams and now golf teams to championship upon championship. Anyone should be asking the question that we are asking of Steve Kerr: How?

I have always believed it's best to study the behaviors and choices of the people we admire most. That is exactly why I sought a spiritual director twelve years ago. The holiest people I know have them. Teachers and coaches, make time this season or in the new school year to shadow and observe someone you admire...someone who is committed to excellence...see what they do and make it your own. And have fun doing it.

Photo Credits
Coach and athlete

The High-Low Ritual: My Top 5

A great friend & colleague to share "high/low" with!

I have always believed that Commencement is a time to look back, before moving into the future. Even though I am not graduating, every year I make a point of reflecting upon the graces of the year. This exercise became a ritual with a former colleague over a pint after Baccalaureate Mass. He had us share our highs and lows for the year. In recognizing the joys and the challenges with a friend, I was able to see each year affords unique gifts. Even some burdens became blessings. Not all....but many did. This year was no exception. And I would like this posting to be a Top 5 list of the 2014-2015 school year's highs. 

We start with the lows—graduation is also a time for celebration, so we aim to get the hard stuff out of the way. The details of these will be sparse, as this might not be the appropriate venue for such sharing and each would require more and necessary context. They are in no particular order. 

They are: the death of a cross-country parent, at one point in the year seriously questioning if I was still able to reach students anymore, accepting that my ability to run has become compromised to the point that I should not run with the cross country team, and disillusionment with some folks I trust.

The lows are tough. Tragedy still hurts. But many of these challenges have served as a pathway to a new opportunity or understanding. For the grace in that, I am grateful. And the fact that my Top 5 moments of the year are all rooted in Sports and Spirituality affirms the grace in this discipline. Here goes!

5. The Great Pink Out.
Sometimes in life, things just come together in a way that screams: serendipity. On October 1, 2014, the Giants played the Pittsburgh Pirates in the single-game for the National League Wildcard spot. The Pirates had the winningest record at home in NL. This do-or-die game took place on the eve of WCAL I: a practice day that the SI girls cross country team designates as our spirit day.

Per tradition, the captains chose a theme. Orange and Black for our Giants was an easy choice, but October is also breast cancer awareness month. The girls called for a great "Pink Out" to be highlighted by Giants hats or gear. However, I just read of a great cause that combines awareness, education and charitable efforts for single mothers with breast cancer. I read about it in the San Francisco GIANTS magazine. The rest of the story is here.

4. My Golf Boys
Coming this Fall, I will have 10 "golf girls." I am really looking forward to serving as the head coach of the St. Ignatius girls junior varsity golf team. I have finally accepted that the way I run—which is now a very slow jog—and the pace our girls cross country team runs are not compatible. Ten years wit SI XC; It was a great run (pun intended!)

3 of the 6

This spring, the JV boys golf coach encouraged me to accompany him to practice. I played a few rounds with the guys, talked trash on the driving range and handed out a lot of encouragement (they did too!). In May, I had the opportunity to join the varsity boys coach for the California Central Coast Sectional Championship. I drove the van, we shared a practice round, broke bread together and I followed their final match of the year. We had a total blast; a former golf coach referred to a high school boys golf team as a bunch of "squids." Nothing could be further from the truth...and they became MY golf boys. You can read about them here.

3. Klay Thompson's 37 Points
I would like to thank this Splash Brother for his perfect timing. The shooting guard out of Washington State dropped 37 points in the third quarter in a game against the Sacramento Kings. In doing so, Mr. Thompson secured an NBA record: the most points by a player in a single quarter and he electrified my course, Sports and Spirituality. 

In this Religious Studies elective, I teach about a "flow," a concept coined by a psychologist and author Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. As written in an outstanding article "Experiencing Life's Flow" by Patrick Kelly, 

Csíkszentmihályi criticized the discipline of psychology for attending too exclusively to the negative or dysfunctional aspects of human experience. His goal was to understand the phenomenology of human development and well-being in general. In the course of his research, he discovered a “common experiential state” that people described during their participation in sports and other activities. He refers to this as “flow” because the respondents themselves often used the word when asked about their experience. Flow, as he uses that word, “denotes the wholistic sensation present when we act with total involvement. It is the kind of feeling after which one nostalgically says: ‘That was fun,’ or ‘That was enjoyable.’”

And the beauty of the Flow channel is that age, race, creed, financial status is irrelevant. Anyone can enter into the flow when the appropriate challenge meets one's skill set. If you're interested, you can read more in Csíkszentmihályi's  book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience or you can simply watch highlights of Thompson's performance and see what it looks like. It's more than "fun." It's incredible.

2. The Day After the World Series
I don't think I ever realized just how special a 7-game World Series can be. I suppose those on the winning side of them know exactly what I am talking about. 

Travis Ishikawa's clutch hit in NLCS!

I don't think many San Francisco Giants fans ever would have thought that team would pull off their third World Series title in five years (see point #5 for more evidence). Although it may have felt as though the 2014 Sportsman of the Year singlehandedly brought home that beautiful trophy, it was the managing and coaching, it was the clutch hits by unlikely and likely heroes. 

The Giants beat the Royals in Kansas City on a Wednesday night. I will never forget the energy that filled the hallways at school the next morning. Everyone was smiling. The joy was palpable. The celebration that took place on the field at Kaufmann Stadium continued in our hallways that special day. Makes me smile thinking about it now.

1. A Boy Named Liam: Something Beautiful for God.
This story merits its own posting. The highest high. Read it here.

Photo Credits
Klay
Ishikawa

Kevin Durant Helps Us to Recognize What Mother's Day is Really About

In his first NBA Most Valuable Player Award acceptance speech, Oklahoma City Thunder Forward Kevin Durant individually thanked every one of his teammates for helping him get there. I would personally like to thank KDTrey5 for handing me a perfect Mother's Day Sports & Spirituality posting.

People have asked me if I have seen his speech every day since it was awarded on Tuesday, May 13. 2014 (I've always thought its interesting that the NBA gives the award during the playoffs...long before the championship game). If you have seen it, you know why they ask. If you haven't, stop reading now and check it out.

The full speech, which is nearly 30 minutes features an emotional Durant who fights back tears as he shares a powerful message (that resonate with the words of Ryan Vogelsong and the movie Field of Dreams in the previous posting). Durant said 

I had so much help, so many people believe in me when I didn’t believe in myself. So many people doubted me and motivated me every single day to be who I am. I failed so many times and got back up. I been through the toughest times with my family, but I’m still standing.

And the person that believed in him from the start is the same person he said is the "read MVP"—his mother—Wanda Pratt. The 7-footer said to her,

I don’t think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old. Three years later, I came out. The odds were stacked against us, single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old. Everybody told us we weren’t supposed to be here.

Pratt who received a standing ovation from the crowd said in an interview with the Washington Post "I would not allow him to quit. There were times when he wanted to quit, but he couldn’t quit in the middle of a season. You had to finish what you started. And I told him he would have to do something — a different sport, whatever he was interested in. There had to be an activity outside of home. But, once you become dedicated to something, there’s a process you have to follow through." 

Her son said she did much more than that. 

You made us believe. Kept us off the street. Put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You sacrificed for us. 

When something good happens to you, I don't know about your guys, but I tend to look back to what brought me here.

My goal wasn’t to get my son to the NBA; my goal was to push my son toward his dream.

Although what brought Kevin Durant to where he is today is much, much different and frankly a lot harder than the road many of us travel, the person who gets us there isn't. For many of us, that person is our mom.  

My mom made sacrifices for my brother, sister and for me. She continues to do so today. She believed in us; she has never made me question that belief. She wouldn't allow me to quit the important stuff (oh and she never let us stay home from school *sick* either). She is my MVP. I celebrate her today and the other mothers living and those with the Lord, birth, adopted, formal and informal. Thank you for your undying love and support on the journey to get us to achieving our dreams.

Credits
Excerpt from the speech, New York Post
Photo Credits. 

Emotional KDTrey5

Wanda Pratt