Life and sports have, it seems, forever been regarded as go-togethers for coaches, players and even fans, looking to make connections in the games we play and the existence we have away from them. ADVERTISING Life and sports have, it
Life and sports have, it seems, forever been regarded as go-togethers for coaches, players and even fans, looking to make connections in the games we play and the existence we have away from them.
No doubt there are insights to take from a certain work ethic, or the diligence required to get better at what you do and work together with others on the job, but let’s not get too carried away with this stuff.
Consider tangibles and intangibles in real life. Tangibles like a well-paying job, a decent house to live in, a good environment for your family and reliable transportation are huge in real life. Another tangible — money — will often overwhelm all of the intangibles you may have. Your parents gave you a million dollars when you were in college? Who needs intangibles?
If you have enough money to “win” in the real world, you may lead a soul-crushing existence, but the world doesn’t care. Expensive houses, cars, and all the rest declare you a winner in our culture.
In sports, enough intangibles can defeat all that. How many times have we watched talented teams lose to more motivated, less talented teams that know the secret of playing well together?
We saw it throughout the college basketball season for both the men’s and women’s teams at UH-Hilo.
They found ways to get the job done with coaching staffs that were often composed of less than half the financial commitment of teams they managed to beat, with players brought in on recruiting budgets that consumed fragments of what other schools were working on.
At the end, it’s the stuff below the skin and bones that will identify and energize these two programs. Men’s coach GE Coleman considered that Saturday night at Hilo Civic after his undersized roster staged a frenetic comeback against Azusa Pacific, one of the Pacific West Conference’s most well-financed programs.
The Vulcans, drawing energy from four seniors in their last game were huge underdogs as the Cougars rotated 10 players in and out to attack and defend the seven-man rotation of UH-Hilo, which came up a couple baskets short at the end, missing the conference tournament by one game.
“Things like resiliency, unselfishness, intensity, these guys showed that all season,” Coleman said. “Anyone who watched us saw we were at a disadvantage in size and numbers, but this group supported each other and they never quit, they just dug deeper and deeper.
“We hope that’s the identity of our program,” he said. “In the future, we won’t have so many injuries and crazy things that happened, but if we retain that fighting spirit, that’s got to be our trademark, that’s who we are.”
It was not much different for coach David Kaneshiro’s women’s team, which also finished one game away from the playoffs with a younger squad that started out shakily, as did the men’s team, but rallied in often improbable fashion to find a way to create a postseason opportunity that seemed out of the question with a month to go in the season.
“We have some good pieces coming back,” Kaneshiro said, looking ahead to next season, “and I think the experiences we went through this year are only going to help. It took a long time to get everyone on the same page, but we should be better positioned to get a good start (in 2016-17).”
The end comes with a suddenness that can stop you in your tracks, after all the physical energy and mental preparation that goes into being a team.
“I was aware of (it being her last game), every second out there,” said senior Felicia Kolb. “I really feel kind of speechless, numb in a way; I expect to get up tomorrow and get ready for practice, but there’s no more practice.”
That psychological pain will go away over time, but the experience tends to embolden players as they move into lives beyond basketball.
For the ones remaining, this season left a mark, in a good way.
Darius Johnson-Wilson, a 6-foot-6 junior who surely could have made the difference in a game or two here or there during the season — probably enough to get the Vulcans into the conference tournament — missed the whole season with meniscus surgery on his knee, but he sounded more motivated than ever after Saturday’s last game.
“This hurts me as much as them,” Johnson-Wilson said. “The fight, the will, the persistence they showed, the ability to keep getting back up and climbing that mountain really made me proud of them and proud to be a part of this.
“I will definitely be back next year and I’ll use what I saw to be a leader on this team.”
Yeah, it would be nice to have a team with five coaches and four assistants who each get paid more than the Vulcans’ head coach — it happened this season — but that’s not a reality, not an issue in VulcanLand.
Intangibles, working together, fighting together, believing in each other are the qualities that will help these basketball teams win and at the end of the day, you can’t buy that stuff.
