I’m reminded of a story told to me by a friend of mine who is the athletic director of a Midwestern College. When he was in high school, he was one of the top basketball players in the state of Kansas. In fact, he was written up in a book that documented high school athletes in Kansas who scored 50 or more points in a game. My friend did it twice. Once he scored 50, another time he scored 54.
I asked him if he could recall the time he scored 54 if anything special happened in his life just before the game. He thought for a moment and then answered, “Yes, in fact something did happen.” I asked him if he could share that with me and he told me that the night before the game, his girlfriend called him and wanted to get back together.
I’m making this point because it’s important to remember that off-the-field issues affect athletic performance, both positive and negative. In my friend’s situation, it was positive because his life was suddenly in harmony. And by the way, in order for my fiend to have scored those 54 points he had to have the skill level to do it.