We all have seen others in situations that make us wonder how we would respond. Could we show the same strength that they showed? This one athlete that I know had an extraordinary ability to stay dedicated to the sport of trying times.
You enter the NCAA as a student-athlete as a freshman with big dreams. Only to get a few years in and realize how much harder it is than you ever thought. All freshmen have that day where they take in that they are no longer in high school.
One of my training partners at Iowa State got hit with this reality harder than ever. It was not that he lacked talent at all. He lacked the will to do what you have to do in the classroom.
He had a decent freshman year on the track, and things looked bright for his future. By year-end his grades were horrible, and he had to go to summer school to boost his GPA so that he would not be ineligible. He ended up failing the summer school class so instead of helping, he became unavailable for the next semester.
It Only Gets Worse
Because he was a walk-on on the track team and he was ineligible the rule at ISU is that you can no longer be on the side. This meant that he was no longer able to train with us until after having a good semester in the classroom and becoming eligible again. This said that he had to either quit the sport or do every single workout on his own until he got his grades up.
The Persistence Shines Bright
He could have just quit because the task ahead of him would be too hard. He could have given up on school altogether. I know people who ended up in similar situations and quit sports and education altogether.
He got the workouts from the coach at the beginning of every week and did them all alone. He spent the entire semester working as hard as he could in the classroom to ensure that his grades would put him in a position to be eligible.
Some days I would go to weights in the morning and see him at the track grinding. People always felt terrible for him, but he was man enough to know that he put himself in that position. He was also man enough not to quit and get himself out of a job.
He made it back on the team now, and he went on to do very well in the following seasons. He has managed to have some of the best seasons of his life after his lowest moment, and he can credit most of it to his dedication and persistence.
The point is to never give up on things because they do not go to plan. Sometimes we are put in awful positions so we can grow as people. Fight until you are 100% sure that the fight is over, and even then you can still throw a few last jabs.
