THE QATSPY® Your Inside the Leather Sport Page
By: Charles W. Boatright
Sportsmanship and Perseverance in Life- The Direct Benefits and Important Role that Sports Has on Reaching Your Highest Potential in Life
DeVonta Smith’s acceptance speech at the Heisman presentation reminded me of a presentation that I gave to a conference on perception. This is the main reason I enjoy sports because it is more about heart and mind than appearance.
Before I retired, every January we had a safety kickoff conference where we brought in all the line and substation crews and office personnel for a safety conference to cover new rules and procedures for the up coming year. I was asked to make a presentation at the conference, since I was the grid engineer to 325 gathered at the conference center. I was given the topic of Our perception and its impact on how we react. That is a huge subject to tackle within the 20- minutes that they gave me to make my presentation.
The key to any presentation is to have a great icebreaker that can provide your listeners with a point of reference to allow them to better relate to and build on your presentation. An Icebreaker is essential to a great presentation.
In December, I always have my eye exam with my ophthalmologist. That gave me a great theme for my presentation on perception. The title of my presentation was The Importance of the Eye Exam. As soon as I mentioned the icebreaker, I saw that I set the desired reaction by the look on the faces of my audience. You could see people wondering what’s an eye exam had to do with safety.
Of course, the first PowerPoint slide was an Eye Exam Chart. I asked my audience if everyone had their eye exam in the past 12- months? To my surprise, everyone raised their hand. I just got my audience’s attention and now got them engaged. Now the only thing I needed to do was to make my presentation.
The three of the six slides sides that I showed was what appeared to be just common, everyday people. As I proceeded through each slide, I asked my audience a simple rhetorical questions:
Individual No. 1
- The first Slide showed a thin man walking across a college campus. I asked my audience that if they were a coach putting together a football team, would they recruit this gentleman to be on their team? I didn’t ask for a show of hands, because I wanted them to honestly consider their answer. I waited for 30- seconds before I revealed the young man’s identity.
- Second Slide- The young man that was walking across the campus of Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, Mississippi, was none other than Jerry Rice, who was raised in Starkville, Mississippi. He wasn’t recruited by either Ole Miss or Mississippi State. He was among one of the all-time receivers in the NFL.
- Jerry Rice’s story chronicles the experience of another young gentleman that just won the Heisman Trophy.
Individual No. 2
- The third slide showed an average young lady sitting on a railing. I rhetorically asked the same question, Would you recruit this young lady to be on your college track team?
- The fourth slide revealed this was Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who was the greatest female golfer, and won an Olympic medal in the hurdles, javelin, and high jump. She even tried to qualify for the Men’s U.S. Open. She was one of the founders of the LPGA.
Individual No. 3
- The fifth slide and final slide showed a young man with glasses at a school desk that you would not consider too ambitious, but very reserved. I asked the same rhetorical question again, if you were looking for personnel for your IT Department, would you consider hiring him?
- The sixth slide was Bill Gates.
After I made my presentation, I was followed by the president of our company, Haley Fisackerly, whose dad owned an Insurance Company that had Jerry Rice’s dad as a client covering his dad’s mason business. Haley personally knew Jerry Rice and how he caught brick from up on the scaffold for his dad’s bricklayers. When you are giving a presentation, you hope for such a follow-up to your presentation to give it relevance.
All but one slide had to do with sports and the life lessons that sports teaches us. But there’s one slide that I wish I had in January of 2014, and that was one of DeVonta Smith from Amite, Louisiana. I worked with Entergy Transmission for 33 years and Amite, Louisiana, was a tie point with our sister company, Entergy Louisiana, I worked with Entergy Mississippi.
Amite Louisiana is a small town with a population of approximately 4,438. DeVonta Smith story prove that a persona’s ability, ambitions, and determination to achieve success isn’t tied to the size of a high school program or their facilities both academics or athletes. The ability of one’s success is directly tied to their determination. This was proven by Herschel Walker achieving his success with the help of his coach following a simple workout program.
A success Story of Perseverance for the Record Books
DeVonta is a success story for the record books. Less than a 160-pounds at 6′-1″, he, like a lot of us, was constantly told what we couldn’t do. During his Heisman Trophy presentation from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, DeVonta underscored the one factor of his success- and that is one of determination and perseverance, of never giving up on one’s dreams. DeVonta weighed under 160- pounds, and no college gave him a consideration, much like Jerry Rice’s case, except for Nick Saban and the University of Alabama.
UPDATE: DeVonta Smith was the 10th overall Draft Pick going to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Seeing talent is one thing, but realizing a person’s determination and perseverance is the indeterminate factor, the great coaches have this ability. But aren’t we all glad that Coach Nick Saban gave DeVonta Smith his opportunity; and that DeVonta never gave up on his dreams. DeVonta Smith will be compared with such greats as Lynn Swann and Jerry Rice, just to name a few.
DeVonta Smith allowed us to enjoy one of the most impressive years with 44- receptions, leading up to the 2021 Championship Game. But that wasn’t all that we witnessed from the post-season of Alabama Football Team. Who could ever imagine that Najee Harris (winner of the Doak Walker Award), running back for Alabama, would hurdle over the six-foot-one Nick McCloud, corner-back for Notre Dame, and then run for 53- yards after his gravity defying jump. I would never even consider jumping over a defensive player.
I was a high school running back and our quarterback was a national hero, Donovan (BULL) Briley. If you’ve read or watched the movie Blackhawk Down, you have a reference to his military record, as he was a Blackhawk pilot that was killed in action (KIA). We both signed up with the U.S. Army in our senior year of high school in 1978. I blew my knee out and received a medical discharge two years into my service with the 101st. He served in the Rangers.
We used to skip out for lunch after our high school physics class and go to McDonald’s on John F. Kennedy Boulevard, in North Little Rock, Arkansas in my 1975 Renegade Jeep. There was one thing we both shared, and that was perseverance of never giving up on our objective, regardless of the odds, opposition, or obstacles. If I had a dollar for every time I was told I was too small, I didn’t have the ability to become an engineer, or just overlooked, I would have a nice 401(k) plan.
There is one thing that trumps talent or education, and that is a person’s determination and perseverance, or what others refer to as our faith. There’s is nothing that can take the place of determination and perseverance through our successes and failures. A great way to use failure is to use failure to gain experience and a great way to handle success is to use it to develop one’s confidence, THAT’S THE IT FACTOR in life.
Use failure and success as just tools to achieve one’s objective. One mistake that we can’t afford to make is to equate education with experience, determination, and perseverance. There is nothing more dangerous than a person who thinks education is the same as experience, determination, and perseverance; or what I refer to as True Grit. I realized this during my last three years of work; management made this mistake.
The Heisman Trophy acceptance speech that DeVonta Smith gave echoes the quote by Marcus Aurelius- The implement to action. What stands in the way becomes the way. Determination and perseverance is the way to achieve one’s goals, despite what others might think or say that we can or can’t achieve. The only thing you need is to seize is the opportunity when it presents itself. Coach Nick Saban and his staff gave DeVonta Smith his golden opportunity to achieve his aspirations. If you read Hebrews 11, the Biblical Hall of Fame, you will read about common people that achieve uncommon achievements based on their faith. I mention faith for a key reason in my closing below:
In closing, faith is an abstract concept for some people to understand and apply to one’s life, but take the word faith with works and replace it with perseverance. You will achieve things in life that you and others would never think to be possible.
The Apostle Paul and the Apostle James, Jesus’ brother, probably had the two most important principles on an important characteristic of sportsmanship and life:
The Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:13
Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
My Commentary on Philippians 3:13– Coach Saban the day after the staff and team were back in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Coach Nick Saban held a staff meeting with his coaches and didn’t even mentioned the NCAA College Football Championship that they just won. His staff and reporters found this to be odd. But in reality it isn’t- Both success and failures can become stumbling blocks to obtaining your next objective. Maybe more so in the case of success than failures.
One reason, because failures develops experience while success develops confidence. Anyone can have a false sense of confidence, but experience is irreplaceable.
The Apostle James in James 2:18
But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
My Commentary on James 2:18– You might posses all the talent, education, and intelligence preparing for life and in your career, but if you don’t posses perseverance these are all meaninglessness. Work is a never ending of perseverance. Probably the best quote about perseverance came from a former President, President Calvin Coolidge:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
I still can’t get over Najee Harris hurdling over the six-foot-one Nick McCloud corner back of Notre Dame.
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Sports & Fitness of Mind, Body, and Soul
If I could give anyone a piece of advice, it is to stay active, follow a fitness regimen, and follow a healthy diet. This advice can provide a 600% return on your time, money, and effort. Than when you do retire you can enjoy what you want to do rather than doing what you have to do to put food on the table and a roof over your head. Because of my ASCOT- health & Fitness, I can enjoy what I want to do at age 63 retired:
Making a Difference in Other People’s LIVES
If you like to see how you can positively Impact someone’s life by giving them an opportunity to open a door to a better life. I have a suggestion. I have a dear friend, Brother Paul Holderfield, that operates Friendly Chapel Church that provides scholarships to kids to attend college or Vocational College and food for people trying to get back on their feet. I have included their link below, please consider giving to help others: