By DEXTER IRVIN
By DEXTER IRVIN
UHH athletic director
I have an infatuation with tools. I believe many men do.
It is awesome to go to building supply stores and see men walking aimlessly, in a trance, gazing at tools. More recently it has been great to see women doing the same thing. I really don’t believe it has anything to do with gender and more with having the right equipment to accomplish the task at hand.
I was with a friend a few years ago picking up some lumber, when he said he needed to get a saw for “Sam.” As we purchased the saw I inquired about “Sam” as we were good friends and I didn’t know “Sam.”
“Oh, sorry,” he said. “Sam is what I call my wife Roxanne when she is working on the house. It is her birthday and she asked for a new skill saw.”
There you go. Having the right tools for the job is critical in more areas than just construction.
Mechanics come to mind as well as plumbers, electricians and other hard working people that must utilize tools for jobs that we cannot accomplish without the right tools.
Recently, I have been successful in convincing my wife that I did not have the correct “tools” for my golf game and by upgrading my tools for golf, i.e. clubs, I was all but certain to improve my performance. While I think I look better with my new clubs and have more confidence, the reality is my scores have not improved much. I think I must face the reality that in my case, it is not the equipment that is the problem … but the operator.
Perhaps for many of us the quandary of tools versus operator is an ongoing and constant battle. As a young man, I was always looking for an easier way to clean the mile long irrigation ditch that watered our fields, other than using the tried and tested tool of all ditch diggers, the shovel. What I didn’t recognize was the value of hard work, persistence, accomplishment and blisters that a shovel operator knows. I see many young people today that could use the lessons that a simple tool like a shovel could teach them. I think once my father had my brothers and I spread a pile of gravel just to enforce the concepts of determination and achievement that are reinforced when you finally get to the last shovel full of gravel; which as I recall, was on the same day as I had an important baseball game.
My father loved baseball, but he believed that playing sports was a privilege, an opportunity you earned. So required work was seldom, if ever, cut back for sporting opportunities. At a very young age we were taught to utilize all available tools and if the right tools were not available, to think, problem solve, improvise so that we could accomplish the task. We learned to fix many things with bailing wire and duct tape, and we learned about being responsible and accountable for our actions. Not finishing a project that was difficult or not finding a solution to a problem so we could go play ball was not an option. We were expected to find a solution before we bolted for the field or court; and subsequent consequences for actions or poor decisions could result in missed games.
When faced with a personal dilemma before high school football two-a-day practices, our youngest son found a way to honor his family. While driving home in July he had a heat exhaustion episode. He took out two of the neighbors’ cars, the neighbors’ wall, one of mom and dad’s cars and the family garage but fortunately sustained no bodily damage to himself. The insurance covered most costs but it contained a deductible for each car and home damaged.
The hard-core dad informed the young man he would have to get a job to cover the damages and would not be allowed to start fall practice until the cost were covered. While missing the first 10 days of practice the young man got a tough job, met his obligations, and then a wise coach allowed him to join the team. He went on to lead the state in rushing, total carries and helped his team reach the state semifinals. He learned that while you may have all the physical and athletic tools on the planet, without a sense of responsibility, consequences and hard work, even the best tools are of little value.
Editor’s note: Dexter Irvin is the UH-Hilo athletic director and occasionally writes a column on life and sports.