Thanksgiving Notes

11-19-90

Thanksgiving Notes

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. In fact, it's been a pretty good fall for Cobber sports. Our teams have blessed us with their talent, effort, and character. They have performed well under pressure. Or something like pressure.

This week, as we complete the transition from fall to winter sports, the hockey and Lady Cobber basketball teams are prepping for "pressure packed" weekend tournaments. But this week is also a time for Thanksgiving.

Around here there is much to be thankful for. Most of the people here would have to be considered wealthy by any objective world standard. And there are family, friends and a generally-caring atmosphere to be thankful for as well. One could call them the "usual" things to give thanks for if it didn't sound so glib, particularly to those who are without.

For coaches and athletes around here, there is another, less-considered aspect of our life that is in need of recognition. We are blessed with a freedom to pretend that what we do is crucial, while retaining the luxury of knowing these are only games.

Coaches are forever debating over what is the optimum amount of pressure their teams should feel to perform at their best. Once they have made up their minds, they proceed with trying to establish that level of pressure.

Some coaches think a relaxed, almost care-free team performs best. Others are convinced that the best can be brought out only when the team senses that this game, this day, this moment in history, will seal their fate for eternity.

When a team is relaxed going into a game and wins, the coach often takes credit for creating the "we've got nothing to lose" mood. When a team is relaxed going into a game and loses, the coach will criticize the team's mental preparation, intensity and dedication.

When a team is so wired for a game that testing for amphetamines seems in order, and the team wins, the coach will take pride in having gotten the team properly motivated. Focused. When a team is severely cranked up for a game but loses, the coach is prone to talk about how the team let their emotions hinder their ability to think clearly and execute. The team choked under the pressure.

The presumption on the part of the coach that he or she can create an optimum or, at least, desired sense of urgency about the upcoming game might seem silly. But it is often true.

The context for our games allows us that luxury. Here in Division III, where sports are supposed to be games, not minor leagues or even part-time jobs, there is the option to create a level of seriousness on a team that will get the best results. Coaches here have to decide how far to push the seriousness level. Unlike those places where a 6-4 record can get people fired and a 2-8 record is grounds for a nervous breakdown, the context here does not suggest the answer. It's not an easy decision.

Here are three little items that might serve as clues to the answer.

1. Joel Paschka was a fine offensive lineman this past season for the Cobber football team. That football team won an MIAC title with a thrilling win over a good St.

John's team in the season finale. That win also kept the Cobbers from losing a third-straight game and, presumably, suffering a fair measure of embarrassment for having "choked" when the pressure was on late in the season.

But Joel Paschka might have a hard time understanding that view of that game. You see, Joel has battled a real disease known as depression for a good portion of his college career and now has it licked about as well as anyone can. After having belatedly gotten the right medication, he is nearing graduation with dean's list honors. He is in line for academic all-American honors for having combined his football and classroom talents so skillfully. And, given what he has seen, what he has gone through and how he has handled it, he might be one of the wisest people on campus.

Playing the Johnnies in the Metrodome for the MIAC title had to seem like a walk in the park. Joel knows the difference between games and real struggle.

2. Last Saturday night the Lady Cobbers were down by five with seventy seconds left in a basketball game against a very good UM-Duluth team. The Lady Cobbers' No. 1 ranking was on the line, along with a long history of winning at home and just plain winning. When, given the pressure, a lot of players may not have been particularly happy to have even been in the game, Melissa Plante was fearless.

The sophomore guard scored three times on tough shots in those last seventy seconds to pull out the win. She never flinched.

You see, Melissa's dad was in an accident a few years ago and is now in a wheel chair. And Melissa's proud mom was in the stands Saturday night only because of a fairly recent kidney transplant. Melissa has stared into a couple of life's versions of hell and lived through it. Being down a few points late in a basketball game is hardly one of life's versions of hell.

3. In 1969 my college basketball team took time out from practice one day to watch a television show in which a government official drew dates out of a drum to determine which people would be drafted to Vietnam, where about 300 U.S. servicemen were dying each week.

If one of the first 120 dates they drew out of that drum was the same as your birthday, your chances of going to war were very high.

During that time, our coaches often tried to get us to think of our games as being as important as war, even like war. But we knew there was no comparison. War was a real thing where real people, friends of ours, were dying. Our games were not war. The context of our games would not let us think of them as war. We knew that every day we played our games was a day we were not at war.

With the rumblings of real war again darkening our horizon, let's be thankful for our chances to play games, not war.

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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