A Cinderella Story (or two)

When I was in high school playing soccer my senior year, our team was only in its second year of existence. Our coach had never coached soccer, so we were all in with only one year of experience at the start of our second. We had no expectation that year but to have fun playing soccer for our high school, the TL Hanna Yellow Jackets — a 4A school.

By the time the state playoffs started, we were four wins and four losses so we were amazed when we played a team we had lost to earlier in the season and won to move on to the next round. That just kept happening for us until we found ourselves in the South Carolina State Championship against Irmo High School (also the Yellow Jackets), who had won the previous five State Championships.

We got there through sheer will and determination with no expectation of the outcome. I remember one of the games where our goalie was unable to play due to an injury, so as the second-string goalie, I had to move from my first position as the right fullback to “keep” the ball. I had drilled and even played a couple of halves as goalie during the year, but certainly not at the level needed for a state playoff game. We just did what we had to do. While the forwards were doing their job of making goals, I ended up stopping 17 shots-on-goal, which was unprecedented for a second-string, second-year goalie in the playoffs.

In the Championship game, the Irmo team was impressive. They had beautiful matching warmups, we didn't; they came out on the field in unison and in real-time chanting their fight song, we didn't; they were used to having a full crowd in the stands, we weren't! But our first-string defense was strong and keeping the ball from the goal, but so was Irmo’s. In the game's last five minutes, we were still scoreless, zero-zero, when our Yellow Jacket forwards scored on their Yellow Jacket defense.

We then engaged in a strategy called "sandbagging," where for the last five minutes of play, we brought all players downfield in our half to keep Irmo from scoring. of course, they even brought their goalie into play because they needed to score, not keep a goal from happening. When the whistle blew, we had won the State 4A Soccer Championship against the historically dominating team in the state.

The other cool thing was our win just happened to have coincided with the US win over the USSR for Winter Olympic Gold in Ice Hockey — both beautiful Cinderella stories!

So, how did this story help us to create ourselves, not because all the seniors received full soccer scholarships to the colleges of our choice; none of us did! Not because any of us went on to play professional soccer; none of us did. Not because our coach was now known as the best soccer coach in the state; he would be adamant in saying he wasn’t. Not because from that point on, the TL Hanna Yellow Jackets became the dominating soccer program in the state; no, Irmo kept that claim. So what then?

Well, it’s the confidence that the experience built up within each of us that we could accomplish anything through pure determination, diligence, and luck, even achieving those things not previously envisioned, planned, or expected. I don't know what ended up happening to most of my teammates, but I am sure they reflect on this episode in their lives when they are down in the doldrums and realize that if they could do that then, they can overcome anything today.

My wife harangues me when I tell that story, "oh, here he goes again, living that old high school story"... yes even at the age of 60, I do!

If you ever want to speak with me directly, just reach out via LinkedIn or through our mobile community app, Createyourself.com

Have a great week, Gordon

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