October 6, 2011
In the course of a career as an English teacher that began in 1980, I assigned F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby many times. It was even part of the curriculum for students in my New Zealand days. As someone who was very involved in athletics, as player and coach, I was always struck by Fitzgerald's line about the brutish and vulgar Tom Buchanan. Tom had been a famous college football player in his day but is cut down to size by the assessment of narrator Nick Carraway: "One of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax." In more than 30 years in education, I have seen some extraordinary high school athletes. For some of those students, I have wondered whether the fleeting excellence experienced in the glory days on the court, the field, the track was going to be about as good as it was going to get.
Fortunately, more often than not, I have seen that the excellence attained in the athletic arena goes hand in hand with talents that can be sustained long after the physical strength and flexibility starts to fade. Catholic schools everywhere do an unusually good job of developing individual athletic talents and combining them to outstanding effect in team sports. Looking at the ESPN National Top 10 Rankings in Football as I write this, six of the top ten are Catholic schools (and our Falcons are on the rise at #8).
Here at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, we are blessed to be able to compete in multiple sports at a level that earns national recognition. I am proud of our fall athletes – Football, Soccer, Volleyball, Cross Country, and Field Hockey – for the humble way they handle the plaudits reflected in regional and national rankings. Their excellence is not limited. I have seen many of our sports stars involved in hosting 8th graders as Student Ambassadors. Some I have seen at induction ceremonies for various campus ministry groups at one of our morning Masses. I have seen still others in some of our most demanding AP and IB classes.
Many people have commented on the recent positive TV coverage of the seniors on our Football team on Washington's NBC4 station (http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/sports/Good_Counsel_Loaded_With_Talent_Washington_DC-130465153.html). The Girls' Soccer team has also received kudos for their modest view of their success, as they recently rose to No. 2 in the ESPN Rise Powerade FAB 50 national rankings (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/girls-soccer-no-1-good-counsel-tops-no-2-oconnell-4-1/2011/09/21/gIQA1xcujK_video.html). In talking about a remarkable season, our young men and women spoke unselfishly of teamwork, character, and a sense of community in a way that reflects the Xaverian values we talk about and try to live every day.
The student-athletes in the Football and Soccer programs are not alone in modeling the values upon which our school rests. Last Saturday, our Cross Country squad ran in the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, North Carolina. They ran with distinction. The Boys' squad won the Seeded Invitational, besting teams from nine states. However, we are even more proud of what 14 of the runners did the next day. After a long drive home, members of our cross country teams sacrificed most of their Sunday to host a CYO cross country meet here at school. Braving the cool and wet conditions, our crew helped administer the meet for a few hundred young runners. This excellence did not go unnoticed. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail sent by CYO parents on Tuesday morning:
Your staff and students were by far the most gracious, helpful, encouraging, and welcoming. Your student-runners paced every race, which meant they ran in front to help guide the CYO runners through the course; the pacers were constantly looking back and encouraging the lead runners to run their best, which was cool. But even cooler than that was the fact that your student runners also had pacers in the back, guiding and encouraging the CYO runners who were struggling to finish. No other host high school did that. While the other high schools did have some of their student runners helping out, your students were by far the best hosts. The CYO runners and their parents (including me) absolutely ate it up, including my daughter who's in 8th grade. I think her fondest moments of the meet on Sunday were finishing her own race and interacting with your students. You should be proud of your cross country program.They are impressive representatives of OLGC.
In a national culture that celebrates athletes who are not always so great outside the lines, ours make us proud for all the right reasons. With the guidance of our hardworking coaches, our student athletes are encouraged to strive hard every day to hone abilities and attitudes that may or may not win today's contest but will surely develop excellence that is not limited to high school.