Limits To Candor

2-11-91

Limits To Candor

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. Several wrestlers did pretty well at the MIAC Meet. The men's basketball team won a game in overtime. The hockey team continued its great rise from the dead, getting their 8th straight win. And the Lady Cobbers went to 15-1 in the conference, putting themselves in position to win their fifth MIAC title in six years.

There are a lot of "big games" coming up in the next two weeks for Cobber winter sports teams. And, as the winter seasons come to a close, careers of the seniors are being played out on all the teams, albeit with widely divergent emotions and perspectives.

Each senior athlete, be they successful or not, holds a treasure-trove of experiences. The good, the bad and the ugly. And each has clung to their private dream of being interviewed by someone who really cared about their unique story. They all have tales to tell, feelings to express, wisdom to share.

But no one comes to ask. Not really ask.

It's not anyone's fault. People are busy.

Everyone holds a legitimate claim to a unique perspective. Athletes are no different in that respect.

But, like non-athletes, athletes know that when someone asks how things are going, the questioner usually doesn't want the truth, just some canned phrase, like, "Pretty good."

Nearly all the senior Cobber athletes have been interviewed at one time or another by the press.

Concordia gets a generous share of coverage from the local media, all of whom are talented professionals who have shown Cobber athletes and Cobber teams the utmost respect.

And Cobber seniors, like most athletes, know what is acceptable "interview talk."

"We're really looking forward to this game. We've worked hard and had a good week of practice and we think we're ready."

"Coach had a great game plan and we just didn't execute very well."

"We know it's a big game and it's going to be tough but we'll give it all we've got."

"It's been wonderful here and I'm really sad it's almost over with. The coaches have been great and everyone's been so supportive."

Blah, blah, blah.

Athletes joke about what a candid interview would sound like. Coaches joke about what they would say if the constraints of "interview talk" were somehow abolished.

And reporters long for that insight, that speck of obvious truth, that is so elusive in an interview.

No one expects the elaborate armor of caution that athletes have learned over the years to suddenly vanish in the next few weeks. But it's sometimes fun to imagine the results if it did.

"We should win by fifty tonight if we play well. Our opponent is terrible "

"Frankly, I'm more worried about finding a job than tonight's game."

"This season has turned into a nightmare and I'll be glad when it's finally over."

"Who are we playing tonight? Oh, ya, them. They're jerks and so is their coach."

"I'm looking forward to having more than one day in a row without having to listen to our idiot coach screaming at us."

"I'm tired of having the pressure to win all the time.

It'll be nice after graduation to get back to just playing the game for fun."

"Why they keep this coach is beyond me. We all think he's lost his grip on reality."

"Maybe we weren't as good as everyone said we were supposed to be. Or we didn't work hard. Or maybe the coach just didn't bring out the best in us. I'll always wonder about that."

"We've played 16 games in the last 36 days. Of course it's hard to get fired up for this one."

"If I could've just gotten more playing time I could have shown how good I really am."

"I feel so old. The freshmen on the team seem like little kids. I hate their music too."

"I'm really looking forward to the end of the season so I can eat like a pig and go out whenever I want."

"I feel like I've been tired forever."

But it won't happen. And it's perhaps well that it doesn't.

College sports, at least at this level, is still a bit of a fairy-tale world, where harsh words have a way of breaking the spell. The games never quite seem worth the long-term hurt that unbridled candor can sometimes produce.

For the seniors who leave with a measure of success in their athletic endeavors, there will be many cherished memories that words can never fully describe. For the rest, there will be the countless, unspoken lessons in how to cope honorably with defeat without being defeated.

And those of us who deal in words will never tell the whole story, even if we could.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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