Leadership

There are many different styles that successful leaders adopt. Some demand perfection from their teammates; others are more supportive and encouraging. Some effective leaders are cool-headed, never showing their emotions; others get fired up and try to spread the fire to those around them. Some lead quietly with their example, while others use inspiring speeches to motivate those around them.

Long John Silver and Captain Smollett had very different leadership styles. You could argue that Smollett had a better supporting cast; because of the other members of his 'team' Silver was doomed to be a great leader who never achieved the pinnacle of success, like Dan Marino of the Dolphins. Which leader would you most want to lead your team? If you were losing in the last moments of a game, whom do you think could turn things around and pull victory from the jaws of defeat?

Practicing for a Known Purpose

I love going to practice. I especially enjoy wrestling practice, because I actually get to practice against our guys. By wrestling around with our individual wrestlers, I can help each fine-tune a few moves and work on improving situations in which he's been giving up points. I also get some selfish rewards; it helps me stay in shape and it's a lot of fun to compete against such good athletes. This year Chris Gill (second from the left) made huge strides toward the end of the year. At both the State and Prep National tournaments, he beat somebody who had beaten him just seven days earlier, and in both cases the benefit to him and the team was enormous. At States he beat the Bishop O'Connell kid who beat him the week before at St. Alban's, finishing ahead of him to help the Saints narrowly beat the Knights for the state title. Later in States, Chris got worked over by the kid from Liberty Christian, a defending State Champ. The next weekend, Chris beat the Liberty Christian kid up at the Prep Nationals tournament in Lehigh. By winning this match, Chris qualified as a Prep National All American. He was one of five Saints All Americans, the most we've ever had in one year.
How was he able to beat the people to whom he had so recently lost? Losing to the O'Connell and Liberty Christian kids taught him what he needed to work on. Each week we worked on those specific strategies and skills, practicing them over and over until they were near perfect. While drilling the same moves again and again and again is not the most exciting thing in the world, Chris knew he had to do it. If he didn't get better, he would lose to people the team needed him to beat.
Some people run into difficulty and give up. They lose confidence in the face of a tough adversary and give less effort the next time around because they think they won't succeed. Others take a lesson from every loss, coming back stronger the next time around. Which type of person will you be? When you do poorly on a test or quiz, what is your reaction?

One good deed

A friend and I were recently talking, and she said she had a basketball signed by some retired 76er's players, including Maurice "Mo" Cheeks. Cheeks was a successful player and coach in the NBA for years, but for me his career was defined by the moment captured in this video. In a split second he made a decision to do something he'd never done before, something nobody had ever done before. In doing so he acted with love, empathy, and compassion for a stranger, helping her out in arguably the most difficult moment of her life.

Baseball Season is Here!

The Oakland A's are my favorite team (and I must admit I'm bummed that Kotsay isn't on the team anymore). I love the optimism that springs anew each season as young players are given a chance to shine and old favorites try to set new high marks. I also enjoy pulling for a low-budget team from a small market. There aren't many other A's fans around, and every A's fan right now is a true fan. The nice thing about being an average team is that nobody is trying to jump on the bandwagon. If the A's do pull off a great year, I'll be super stoked, and will feel rewarded for hanging in as a fan during the lean years.

Motivation

Into what circumstances are these pirates born? What are their options for providing for a family, as they see them? What do you do if you're not a "gentleman born", but you have aspirations for greatness?

Negotiating with Pirates

Anderson Cooper says that dealing with the pirates can be tricky because they can be unpredictable, unreliable, confrontational, and they generally are consuming a mind-altering substance. Has this changed much since the days of Long John Silver?

More Pirates!!

When we think of pirates attacking, we usually think of them looking for treasure that would easily be spent or traded; gold and silver coins and bars, precious stones, and so on. These pirates attacked a merchant ship carrying relief supplies. Why would they do something like this?

Pirates!!

Long John wasn't the last of the pirates. Although we think of pirates as sailing wooden ships and swinging swords, there are still those who are willing to risk life and limb to steal from lesser-armed nautical vehicles.

Inspiration and Dedication

In the Upper School chapel talk he gave on Tuesday, Mr. Schalles talked about 'failing to the top'. One example he gave concerned the invention of the lightbulb. We often think about Thomas Alva Edison as being a genius, and he was a truly intelligent individual.

Edison went through over a thousand failures before he finally invented a working lightbulb. Mr. Schalles used this point to emphasize that everybody fails. True failure is giving up before achieving that which you set out to accomplish.

Confidence, pt. 2

Learning to ride a bike can be challenging. The imagined danger of falling is sometimes worse than the actual danger that exists. It can be hard for parents to intentionally put children in harm's way, knowing that if a child falls a skinned knee or bloody elbow could bring a flood of tears.

Because of this, training wheels are a very popular option. They allow a child to ride on the bicycle without fear of falling. However, whenever the training wheels are in use, the child is mis-balanced. Relying on the training wheels reinforces bad habits. If you look closely at the above picture, you can see that the child isn't even on a bike; it's essentially a tricycle with an extra wheel in the middle of the back. Instead of helping this boy learn to balance and ride a bike, it instills a false sense of confidence. When he tries riding a real bike, he'll quickly find out that he hasn't gained the proper skills to ride.

When I learned to ride, my father took the pedals off of the bike and lowered the seat so that my feet could touch the ground. No training wheels were involved. I could push along with my feet, and lift them to coast along. With training wheels, you can keep riding for quite a while with a training wheel on the ground. This was not an option for me. I could go for a few feet without touching a foot down. The more I practiced, the longer I could go without touching down. Before long, I was ready for pedals, and I actually had learned to balance.

The most important part of the lesson has nothing to do with riding the bike; it has to do with the next batch of things I tried out. I knew that I had learned to ride a bike. That gave me the confidence to try new and seemingly risky things like climbing tree, catching a fast-moving baseball, and so on. I knew that I might be bad at first, but that by practicing doing the activity I wanted to learn, I would improve gradually until it was as natural as riding a bike.