Today I'm going to talk about focus. On Monday, I met with you guys after practice and I talked about this rivalry. I won't go into detail because they're going to post this publicly, and we don't need to give them any billboard stuff to motivate them any further. But the last seven times we have played this team, the margin of victory—which has always been in our favor—the last seven games and even beyond that, is 7.1 points.

And why is that?

Again, I'm left grasping at straws. I'm trying to figure out why that is. Because I would argue we've been the better team, which again, our wins would tell us that, but why has the win not been by more, all right? And I asked you to be very surgical this week, okay? The term "surgical," again, not as in literally operating on people.

Being Surgical in Our Approach

We want to be surgical in what we do. When you walk into an operating room, there is a set of tools that are on the table. There is a person responsible to hand those tools out and to make sure every one of those tools is checked back in. There is a person to make sure that every gauze or pad or whatever they use to take care of blood is accounted for and that it all comes back in. There is a group that is responsible for knocking the patient out. There is a group for bringing that person back. There is a group who does the surgery itself, but every person in that operating room could go ahead at any moment and mess up, and it could be catastrophic for that patient.

The True Meaning of Focus: Eliminating Distractions

Okay, when I say surgical, I mean focus. And a lot of times when you look at that word "focus," most times this is how you hear it: "Hey! Focus up!" That's how you hear it. They're not telling you to add something. Please understand that. That's the misconception about telling somebody to focus is, "Hey, focus," as if you need to add something to the equation. But truthfully, here's what you need to do to focus: you have to eliminate distractions. That's the only way you focus.

Sharing a Common Goal

All of you have the same goal. Every single one of you right now have that same goal: tomorrow night, victory. Again, I know you have goals above and beyond that, but we'll talk more about how this plays into your life and everything out in just a minute. But just think about tomorrow. If you do your job, if you focus on your job for a maximum—looking at all the plays that we've run, offensively, defensively, special team—for a maximum on offense or a maximum on defense, if you can eliminate distractions 60 to 75 times in a game, and everybody on that side of the ball can do that—not worry about what they said to me, not worry about where's mom or dad in the stands, not worry about anything else other than, "Here's my play call, here's my alignment, here's my assignment, and here's when the ball is snapped and doing my job"—that's what focus is.

The Impact of Distractions in Sports

But how many times in sports have you seen it? You've seen it in the numerous penalties that some of us have received because of mental mistakes. How many times have you seen it? We talk about it, or you hear sports analysts talk like, "Man, that's just a really disciplined team," right? Are they disciplined? Sure they are, but every team has discipline. But do they minimize the distractions? Do they minimize the things that are going to cause them not to be able to focus?

Navigating Distractions in Modern Life

That, in playing it forward now for the rest of your life, is your parents, myself, grew up in a different generation. And no, this isn't an old man's story, okay? This is a story about when we were growing up, our distraction was playing sports. That was our distraction. Alright, now it was a good distraction. A lot of times parents put us in it to keep us out of trouble because they know what sports offer: team bonding, camaraderie, etc. But again, we didn't have everything else literally at our fingertips.

So, for you, the thing that I see—and I'm a health teacher, okay? I see it more so maybe than others. I know we hear about it and some educators talk about it—is you have more distractions than any generation has ever had, ever had, because you can be entertained by all various ways. Now, we call it entertainment. I call it distractions.

The Consequences of Constant Distractions

How many people do you sit with in class? How many people have you sat with at lunch that have a hard time carrying on a conversation? Truthfully, because their head's buried right in their phone. How many people have great ideas, great goals, great ambitions, but you've ultimately seen them come up short?

In life, you have to determine obviously, A, what your priorities are. But I could sit here and say, "This is my priority and this is what I do or what I want to do," but at the end of the day, it won't mean anything if I can't minimize those distractions. When you see people that have had large amounts of success, when you see people who have excelled in their job, in their business, in their lives, in their families, or in sport, it hasn't been because they're more disciplined—maybe a little bit because they're a better athlete—but at those times when everybody else is distracted, they're in putting in the work and keeping that focus.

Example of Unwavering Focus

I go back to watching the story about when  Kobe was on the Dream Team, the USA Olympic team. He was on a team with LeBron and some of the other guys. Those guys went out for a night of drinking. They're in—I can't remember which country it was—but they went out for a night of drinking. They knew that they weren't playing the next day, etc., etc. They went out, and they had fun.

When they got back, they rolled in at like 2:30, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the morning. Kobe had what was called Breakfast Club. He was in putting in the work. The guys came in, some of them I'm sure a little tipsy, all right, and they walked past the gym and they saw him in there on a day off grinding. And so even after consuming probably, all right, a little bit of alcohol and who knows what the heck else, they were like, "Listen, this guy's got it figured out." Some of them thought he's got problems, but little by little by little, that USA team trickled into that gymnasium because they saw what he had and what he brought to it.

He eliminated distractions. Kobe was there to win Olympic gold, and there was nothing that was going to stand in his way. A night out, spending time, hanging out with the guys, crushing some beers together—there wasn't anything that was going to stand in his way of doing that. That's what focus is. That is just one example. Again, I'm sure you have people in your lives, people you know about, famous people, etc., that are able to set aside those distractions.

Reflecting on Our Own Distractions

How many times have you, in school, in class, in homework, even in our sport—because I can go back and tell you the attendance—have you put off those times and those moments when you could work hard and stay focused because of a distraction?

The Challenge Ahead

Right? So what I'm asking tomorrow night is this: with everything else that is going on, with the school day and everything that you have going on ahead of you—this weekend, college visits, maybe getting in the pool on Saturday for our varsity guys to do a little aqua therapy—all I'm asking you to do is to just focus, eliminate distractions from the moment you walk in that cleat house until the last time you walk in that cleat house at the end of the game. And I will tell you, you will be shocked at the outcome if the whole collective can actually do that.

Unlocking Our Full Potential

That means the guys on the sideline who know they're not getting in the game. That means the guys who are injured that wish they could be out there. That is the guy who is lining up every snap on offense or defense or special teams. Because if you take all the distractions away of 98 men and their only focal point is one goal—look out is all I have to say, because that's what you have the potential to do.

Beat Chesterton!