So Coach Marshall asked me to speak on Sunday and I said, yes, and I thought what is a topic that maybe can hit with you. And maybe we can find a way to use it to our advantage. We all know last week was a bad week. Things didn't go our way at the freshman level on Thursday night. They didn't go our way Friday night at the varsity level, and they didn't go our way Saturday morning at the JV level. So, what I'm going to talk to you about today is something that you're not going to be able to measure on a scoreboard.
Something that's not going to show up on a stat sheet. Okay, it's something that your coach may not even recognize when you're out practicing. And it's definitely something you can't buy. And that is what is known as heart, Especially when we're talking about the heart, when things are hard and things aren't going your way.
When horses race and they eventually die, only the champion horses get a burial ceremony. And the only part of their body that gets buried; is their heart.
And you may have heard that horses, when they race, sometimes they race so hard that their heart bursts while they're racing. And the reason for that is this: a champion horse has no let up, no matter how tired, no matter how much pain that that horse may be going through. And eventually it may end up taking their own life.
Champion athletes are like racehorses.
They compete with their heart. They are able under most circumstances to be able to handle anything that comes their way.
How tall are you?
How much do you weigh?
What's your speed like?
What's your strength?
What's your discipline?
What's your execution?
What are the schemes?
And yes, those things matter. But here's what you need to understand.
When talent runs out, when your legs are tired, when you're losing, when you're getting beat up, when no one believes in you, it's your heart that matters the most.
Anybody can play hard when everything is going great. Anybody can get excited when the crowd is loud. You're up 21 points. When you make a great play, you can celebrate. But what happens when you're down 14? What happens when you get beat on a play? What happens when the coach gets on you? What happens when you're on the sideline and you think you should be getting more reps than what you deserve or that you deserve more reps? What happens when you're exhausted and the person right next to you is just as tired as you are? That's when we need to see heart. Your teammates are going to remember your heart a lot longer than they're going to remember your statistics.
When your days here at VHS are done on the playing field, and you're back at a reunion or you come back from college, and you're talking about your football career, they're not going to remember how many tackles you had. They're not going to remember every touchdown that was scored. More than likely they're not going to remember the score of the games. What they're going to remember is who showed up, who was the person that helped him. When they were struggling, who was the person that said this team is not going to quit? Who was the person that lined up beside me when things got tough? We don't get to choose when adversity shows up. We do get to choose how we are going to respond to it. And I am going to tell you one thing, and you guys all know this. Moms and dads know this.
Okay, so I want you to think about something before you leave here today. At some point, your football career is going to be over. For most of you, that's going to be when you're done playing here at the high school. The Friday night lights are going to be a memory. Some of you, if you're fortunate enough, you're going to go on to college and play there. But eventually, you're going to take your last snap. The shoulder pads are going to come off. The helmet's going to get put up on the shelf. And I don't want you to sit there and ask yourself the question, well, how many yards did I get? What I want you to be able to ask yourself is, I gave everything that I had. Because that's what's important, okay? I want you to be that guy that can say, "I gave everything I had."
Not because you're the biggest, not because you're the fastest, not because you're the most talented. But when it mattered most, you had heart. That's what I want you to remember. So compete with heart, practice with heart, lift your teammates up with heart. And when your football days are over, remember that heart. Because football doesn't just teach you how to hit. It doesn't just teach you how to win. What football does is it challenges you when things aren't going your way. That's what it teaches you. And you guys are all building that right now. And we've been challenged. We got challenged last week.
And let's play with heart tomorrow night. Thank you.