Years of effort, sacrifice, and planning come down to this game. The commitment of the coaches and players has brought them to this point, and the payoff is right in front of them. The time of growth and struggle is finally paying off. A one-win season has grown into a three-win and then into a five-win season. The program has reached a point of respectability. The goal that has been front and center for years is finally in reach—the conference championship.

Hockey Chat:  There is a technique play in hockey know as “cycling”.  It’s a matter of one guy skating with the puck then passing it off to another player, moving the puck in the same way while the first guy takes the second guy’s position.  Sounds confusing?  It’s much harder to defend than to understand.  The premise is to skate until you get in trouble and then pass the puck back.  When that guy skates and gets in trouble, you’ll have skated back to be open so he can pass it to you.  The constant helping out the guy in trouble becomes a “cycle” that draws the defense and helps keep control of the puck.

Alexis is a talented basketball player. As an eighth grader, she played on the varsity team at one school. Others quickly saw her ability and soon began mistreating her. Coaches and teammates beat her down mentally, and she began to grow a root of bitterness deep inside of her. She suffered several injuries and even transferred schools, but her situation did not improve. The root grew deeper and deeper.

Hockey Chat:  One of the greatest things about winning the Stanley Cup is that each member of the winning team gets to spend a day with the cup.  They get to have all their friends over to show it off personally.  They get to share the great reward they have with everyone.

Michael has the potential to be a good player, but he gets so frustrated with his game. He doesn’t understand why his coach always wants him to change his shot and other parts of his game. Finally, he had a talk with his coach. Suddenly things became clear to him, and his improvement took off. His coach simply told Michael what he needed to do in order to get better and how those changes would help him in years to come.

Do you have a favorite sport? Maybe, maybe not, but regardless of the type of game we enjoy, our favorite aspect of any sport ought to be respect. We owe respect to our opponent and to ourselves, as well as to the sport we are playing. The name for such respect is sportsmanship, and it also includes courtesy and fairness. I’ve discovered a sportsman-like attitude in golf and in track more than in other sports. Golf is typically played with honor. Winning first place in track isn’t crucial; a runner can earn points for finishing third, fourth, or even fifth place.

This weekend, the world’s greatest female distance runners took to the streets of Beijing to compete in the Olympic women’s marathon. U.S. representative and 2004 bronze medalist Deena Kastor was among the group and was expected to finish among the leaders of the race. However, just a few steps into mile 3, Kastor felt a “pop” in her foot, and she sank to the curb. She’d broken her foot, and her Olympic race was over.

Think for a minute about her situation. She’d trained hard for years, she had the expectations of her country on her shoulders, she had personal ambitions to do well, and she only had one shot. But injuries were out of her control, and she will now have to mentally deal with what happened.

Hockey Chat:  Coaches have the important job of figuring where to play his skaters.  All six players on the ice play an equally important role regardless of the position that they’ve been placed in.  They are all there with the common goal, “keep the puck out of our net and get it into theirs.”  Whatever they can do to play a part in getting to that goal, makes a winning team.

Hockey Chat:  We’ve seen it at every level.  From the pee-wee’s up through the professionals.  As much as skaters on the same team try to move fluently and work together, there is always some moment in some games where two guys on the same team cross paths and trip each other up.  The lack of proper communication or the way they communicated caused them to run into each other.  One misjudged the other and they both wound up in the same space and down on the ice.

Hockey Chat:  Goalies know that in any odd man situation they take the shooter.  The shooter on the other hand juggles his decision to take the shot or pass it.  If you have a clear pass, it’s always best to pass it to an open guy on the other side of the net.  That makes the goalie have to reposition himself to take the pass receiver as the shooter.  It’s tough for the initial guy with the puck to give up the glory to make the pass but it’s for the benefit of the team.  But often times we question who that guy is that is open.  Is he going to connect with the pass?  Will he make the quick move to put it in?  Just consider that he will.  In this situation, he better than you.  Maybe skill for skill, one-on-one he&r

I grew up in east Texas. Texarkana, to be precise. If I were to sum up my east Texas experience for someone unfamiliar with its culture and people, I would simply tell them about Gary Mills. He was a man who worked for my dad. Sort of. Gary worked when Gary wasn’t in jail.

Gary Mills owned a van that he’d bought at a pawn shop. Now, only in the piney woods of eastern Texas and portions of rural West Virginia can vehicles be acquired from pawnshops, for like two dollars. These are my people.

The 2005 St. Louis Cardinals were masters of the squeeze play, often winning games in their last at-bat with their precise and timely execution of baseball’s most fundamental plays. Each time, a batter gave up his opportunity to reach base to make sure his teammate on third crossed home plate. The batter sacrificed his own at-bat to benefit one teammate, which in turn benefited the team as a whole.