the lines are still good...: October 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Deja vu...

My all-time favorite Concordia Tennis picture (top) with Rodrigo and Kirill represents the rise of the program to the national level. These two major players in our history led the program to its first "Sweet 16". Also significant is the advent of a culture of players playing for each other rather than only for themselves. I have so many fond memories of the 2004-2005 season.

Of course, the baton has been passed time and time again to where we now stand. As most of you know by now, Dani and Benas (bottom) captured the ITA National Small College Championship (NCAA D2) in doubles a few weeks ago and were involved is some great matches along the way.

I hope that this sense of togetherness is contagious and we grow together as a team and to a level higher than just the sum of the parts.

I really like my team.

Nuff said...

Quotes:

"I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters, and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others he has placed in my path." - Ben Stein

"You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy." - Arthur Ashe

“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it.” - Knute Rockne

“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today.” - Lou Holtz

"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender." - Vince Lombardi

"The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break." - John Madden

"Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

"Success is a journey, not a destination." - Arthur Ashe

"Champions keep playing until they get it right." - Billie Jean King

"Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play." - Mike Singletary

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." - John Wooden

"The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that's the day you start to the top." - O.J. Simpson

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." - John Wooden

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

"If you want to be good, focus on making yourself better. If you want to be great, focus on making yourself and your team better." - Jon Gordon