Originally Posted: April 26, 2018
If you are into sports at all, you know that the Villanova University’s men’s basketball team just won the national NCAA title for the second year in a row.
Based on a personal experience, which I’ll explain in a moment … I have a pretty good understanding of what is required to get there. However, first, let me provide some insight for you regarding the Villanova team, as shared recently by my longtime friend, former radio program director and now media consultant, Jerry Del Colliano … as part of a daily series which he calls Day Starters:
“The Villanova basketball team that has won two national titles in three years has done it without cell phones. Coach Jay Wright takes his players’ phones away the night before a game to help them stay focused on their job. The players don’t like it – of course, they want their phones back – but you can’t argue with the results.
Wright: “They’re kids … They don’t know how to focus.” Phones produce anxiety and resistance to tactics. Every night after 10 pm for each road game, a Villanova official goes room to room to collect players’ cell phones. Phones are the enemy of sleep and sleep is important for everyone and in particular athletes.
Some other teams ban phones from team meetings but Jay Wright sticks to his hard and fast rule. Phones are tools that make our lives better. When they become an addiction and affect our sleep, cause anxiety or make us lose focus, it requires taking control of the problem.”
Reading this reminded me of my own experience, dating to the later 1990’s, when I realized how much help young athletes needed in the area of focusing, of concentrating solely on their role in the game that lay just ahead.
This was when we were still living in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, prior to our moving to Washington for me to join XM Satellite Radio in late 2000.
On a couple of occasions, I had the opportunity to ride the lead bus in the Central Bucks West High School football team caravan heading to an away game … which included at least four vehicles, including the cheerleaders, who always were transported in a separate bus … and as many as eight vehicles if the band and team traveled together.
Sitting in the front seat of the lead bus and always the last to board for the trip was the head coach, Mike Pettine, Senior (pronounced PET-tin).
First of all … as a player, once you boarded the bus, you did not say a word, especially when you saw Coach Pettine headed to the bus!
On one occasion, he came on board, looked to the back of the bus and saw in the last row, his star quarterback wearing a pair of headphones. Demonstrating there were no exceptions to his rules … he marched to the rear, the headphones were removed in one thrust, and the coach’s other hand grabbed the Walkman. After the game, the quarterback was inquiring as to its’ whereabouts … I had not seen it, I’m not sure he ever saw it again.
In the annals of high school football, especially in the state of Pennsylvania, the name Pettine is legendary. He was the school’s head football coach for 33 years. During that time, his teams racked up a 53-game winning streak during the 1980’s and a 55-game winning run leading up to his retirement at the end of the 1999 playing season. Add to this record, the team won the state championship in each of his final three years as coach.
If you are from outside the area and the name Pettine sounds familiar … it’s likely because his son, Mike Pettine, Jr., followed in his father’s footsteps and became a football coach, first like his father in high school football, and then moving directly into NFL coaching positions … and recently was appointed Defensive Coordinator by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers.
These are just two examples from the world of sports on what is required for winning! Regardless of what your role in life is and your goal is to be first over the goal line … it’s all about focus, focus, focus on the road ahead, bringing clarity to your mind for the mission at hand … and where you are aiming to arrive!
