Jeff Sargeant plays fullback for the Missouri State University Football Bears. The problem, however, is that the MSU Bears have gone to a spread offense -- which is a wide open passing attack that makes the fullback position all but non-existent. As offensive guard Seth Reichert says, "They took his position away." At 6 foot, 235 pounds, Jeff Sargeant is a prototypical fullback. He is a gifted athlete yet he could have some trouble transitioning to new positions: Too small to play on the line and too short to be a receiver. It would probably be easier on the coach and the team if Jeff went away. Except for a very important factor: Jeff Sargeant is a valued member of the MSU team. No one wants to get rid of Jeff. And so the coaching staff and the team is looking for ways to utilize Jeff. Regardless of their spread offense, they are developing plays that utilize a fullback, and they are also using him at tight end. Ordinarily a tight end might be 6'3" or taller. But if you really value someone you find ways to help them fit in. Jeff is a valued member of the MSU football bears so you can look forward to seeing him this year.
There is a temptation, isn't there, to write people out of the offense. We would win a lot more games if we could just get rid of so-and-so. We would be more successful is "you-know-who" wasn't around. If you cannot get rid of someone "officially" you can kind of "weed them out" with a little silent sabotage, a little aloofness, and a little coldness. After a while people can get the picture: "Am I mistaken, or has my name and number not been called for a while?" "Are you trying to get rid of me?" 
It excites me that the MSU Bears are finding room for Jeff. Even if MSU has changed their offense, they haven't change their opinion of Jeff: They want Jeff to fit in. That's what "team" is all about.
Let's take a page out of the MSU playbook. Here's a mountain man challenge: Rope up with the person on your right; and rope up with the person on your left. Help someone else to the top. Be the coach and find a way to help someone else fit in. Be a member of the team and welcome someone else to the huddle. You can teach your children this. You can teach others this. If you are going out to breakfast with a couple of guys invite someone else to join in. If you are going out for a beer, invite someone you have never invited before. If you are a member of a church, mill around in the foyer and find someone you have never greeted before. Make someone fit in and feel a part of the team.
I am rooting for you, Jeff! I am your biggest fan. And I am rooting for the rest of you, too. See you on the mountain! Jeff
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6 comments:
This blog reminds me of how the "Redeemed Team" USA basketball team played this Olympics to achieve the gold. Everyone stepped up and played as a team instead of a bunch of all stars that showed little passion. I am a big Lebron James fan because he has the Michael Jordan talent and the leadership to help make his team great! He plays for the love of the game. It was also cool to see him and Kobie cheer on Michael Phelps for the gold. Unfortunately, I've lost interest in many professional sports teams because of the lack of team spirit and love for the game. I think the large amounts of money have ruined a lot of professional sports teams. Just look at the New York Yankees. Perfect example of an organization that thinks money will buy a winning team.
The reason why I love college football so much is because they play for the love of the game and for their coaches and teammates. I don't think there is a better venue in sports than being at a college football game. Ok, maybe one of the majors on the PGA Tour=) but the excitement for the school and the pride of your team just makes it that much better.
Go Hawks!
I'm wondering if it's OK to tell a story on your blog that holds up what you are trying to say? For example, to tell the same story in a diffentent venue than sports? I have a great story that tells the same message but might appeal to people that aren't sports fans. Oh and by the way Mountain Man....I am a fan.
Thanks for your messages. What a great way to start the day, finish the day or get refreshed in the middle of the day.
Doc! Anyway we can say good, healthy, and encouraging things...from the most everyday to the deep and profound, I think is a good thing to say! Let me know how you would say it...and let's say it together...
You are a friend!
It's not a current story and I guess it is about sports. I guess it's about ropes tying one another together. I guess it's about children and helping them and affirming them. I'm also guessing it's a story you will like. It's about taking God's gifts and taking them and using them with passion. This story is about altimate love. And that is what life is all about. Loving one another.
This story is lone but I hope you enJOY it:
When Rick Hoyt was 15, he communicated something to his father that changed both their lives. "Dad," the mute quadriplegic wrote in his computer after his father pushed him in a wheelchair in a five-kilometer race, "I felt like I wasn't handicapped."
Rick, now 37, has had cerebral palsy since birth. But he has always been treated simply as one of the family, included by his now-divorced parents in almost everything brothers Rob and Russell did.
"They told us to put Rick away, in an institution, (because) he's going to be nothing but a vegetable for the rest of his life," his father remembers.
"We said, 'No, we're not going to do that. We're going to bring Rick home and bring him up like any other child,'" says Dick Hoyt, 59, a retired lieutenant colonel with the Air National Guard. "And this is what we have done."
And how.
Dick Hoyt says his son is the true competitor
72K/06 sec. AIFF or WAV sound
'Every Boston Marathon since 1981'
For more than 20 years, Dick has either towed, pushed or carried Rick in a string of athletic challenges including every Boston Marathon since 1981 and, most recently, last month's Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Hawaii.
For that event, competitors have to swim 2 1/2 miles through the ocean and then peddle a bicycle 112 miles before running a hilly, 26.2-mile marathon.
In the triathlon swim, Rick lies on his back in a rubber raft attached by rope to a wetsuit vest worn by his father. In the bike portion, Rick sits in a chair attached to the front of Dick's bike, and on the run, Dick pushes Rick in the race chair.
This year, it took them 16 hours and 14 minutes to finish the 140-mile day of reckoning -- about two hours slower than their first try, in 1989. But time isn't the point. Teamwork is. The Hoyts are the only tandem ever to complete the Ironman Triathlon World Championships together.
'The biggest smile you ever saw in your life'
The spark for this lifetime of patience and devotion was ignited in 1977.
The teen-age Rick asked his father if he could participate in a five-kilometer (3.1 mile) race to benefit an athlete paralyzed in an accident. Dick agreed and pushed his son the entire distance in a jerry-rigged chair that now resides in the Massachusetts Sports Hall of Fame.
As they crossed the finish line that day, Rick flashed "the biggest smile you ever saw in your life," his father told CNN. When they got home, Rick went to a specially built computer that allowed him to communicate using a head switch to select letters and spell out words.
The message Rick typed, expressing his joy of feeling "like I wasn't handicapped," began an odyssey of love that continues to this day, taking father and son to competitions around the world. It even inspired Dick to learn how to swim.
"He's the one who has motivated me because if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be out there competing," says Dick. "What I'm doing is loaning Rick my arms and legs so he can be out there competing like everybody else."
Dick Hoyt says he is most proud of Rick's graduation from Boston University
The competitor completes college
And yet, for all of their athletic achievement, the Hoyt family's greatest pride came in 1993 when Rick, a young man with no use of his legs or arms or of his tongue got his Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University.
"It just gives me a great feeling that he's been able to accomplish all of these things (when) they said he was going to be nothing but a vegetable," his proud father says.
While Rick made the grades, much of the credit for making that possible goes to his mother. It was Judy Hoyt who battled to have a state law changed so that her son could attend public school.
'The only place where truly I feel as an equal'
Rick now lives in his own apartment near the B.U. campus with the assistance of personal care attendants, and works at the university developing computers to aid disabled people. He and Dick travel the country giving motivational speeches and, of course, they battle the road, as a unit -- participating in upwards of 50 races a year, touching everyone with whom they come in contact.
Rick: "When I am running, my disability seems to disappear"
After coming this far against the odds, it's understandable to hear Dick say, "There is nothing in the world that the both of us can't conquer together."
But mental determination and physical stamina tell only part of the Hoyt story. A message of independence and acceptance typed by Rick typed on his computer complete the picture:
"When I am running, my disability seems to disappear. It is the only place where truly I feel as an equal. Due to all the positive feedback, I do not feel handicapped at all. Rather, I feel that I am the intelligent person that I am with no limits. I have a message for the world which is this: To take time to get to know people with disabilities for the individuals they are."
Doc, you have humbled me. You have honored me. You have blessed me. You have allowed me to walk, even crawl, besides those who run more nobly, yet you have allowed me to be part of the team. When I walk next to you I do not feel disabled. Thank you. I will title you, "Running Strong," and you are now entered on the "front page." This quiet, late night, with a Chateau St. Michele in hand (you know I only sip wine from Washington, don't you? A taste of home?), I hoist this with thoughts of you...Thanks for the "short rope." Jeff
A video clip of that triathelon was shown at our church about a year ago. After we saw it, there really wasn't anything to say. It is such an inspirational story of love. We speak of giving someone in need a hand. But this man gave his arms and legs to someone who needed to compete. I wonder if they know what a blessing they are to other people who are struggling.
Thank you Doc for bringing this to our attention. What a gift!
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