Dear Editor:

Most people look at losing records and immediately call it an unsuccessful season, or say "Get rid of that coach!" There is more to life and a game than wins or losses. Do you realize that our Athletic Director has more jobs and tasks to perform than just win a dang football game?!?

Our Athletic Director not only spends more time with our kids than we do, but he also puts together a staff that he feels will help him make those kids better students, athletes, and well rounded human beings. Our Athletic Director also correlates (sic) basketball, tennis, track, cross country, golf, power lifting and baseball.

Since Coach Johnson has been our Athletic Director, our school has clinched many titles and championships in all these other sports. Football is just one of those. Yes, we all want our team to win. But that is what it takes - a TEAM. We need to stand strong in the face of a challenge and not give up and quit. I have three boys of my own, and my husband and I have taught them since they started playing t-ball that if they start something, they will finish. Quitting is not an option.

As a community we need to stand strong and support our leaders. What good is it to win every game if our kids didn't learn to work as a team, improve their skills of the game, are poor students or have poor attitudes about life in general? My boys once attended a baseball camp and I was totally impressed by what the instructor told the kids on their first day. He told them, "Anyone can be a winner. You can be the star player with all the state titles and rings you want, but you've got to be a good citizen first!" This is what all of us should teach our kids. They listen more to what we as parents say. We are their first teachers!

In general, less than 1% of high school senior athletes will receive a scholarship and less than that will even be professional athletes. The academics and citizenship will ultimately come from the skills and values the athletes take with them into whatever profession they choose.

I want to applaud Coach Johnson and his staff for caring about our kids. People need to open their eyes and see what they do everyday that goes unnoticed.

In closing, I leave you with a handout reference that Tony Dungy, NFL coach for the Colts, gave his team in 1996 after a 1-8 season:

"The first step toward creating an improved future is developing the ability to envision it. Vision will ignite the fire of passion that fuels our commitment to do whatever it takes to achieve excellence. Only vision allows us to transform dreams of greatness into the reality of achievement through human action. Vision has no boundaries and knows no limits. Our vision is what we become in life."

Sincerely,

Pilar Rosales

San Saba

Dear Editor:

This poem is submitted in memory of Coach Charles Chrane.

Dare Greatly

It is not the critic who counts;

Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled,

Or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena;

Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

Who strives valiantly;

Who errs and comes short again and again;

Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions,

And spends himself in a worthy cause;

Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement;

And who at the worst, if he fails,

At least fails while daring greatly;

So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid soulds

Who know neither victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt

Thanks -

Phil Chrane