[From Season of Life by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jeffrey Marx, Simon & Schuster, 2003]
Gilman High School in Maryland has an unusual and highly successful football team. And its coaches have a few unusual rules — such as an ironclad rule that no Gilman football player should ever let another Gilman boy — teammate or not — eat lunch by himself. And the requirement that players constantly base their thoughts and actions on one simple question: What can I do for others?
“What happened that first day at Gilman [High School] was entirely unlike anything normally associated with high school football. It started with the signature exchange of the Gilman football program — this time between [head coach] Biff [Poggi] and the gathered throng of eighty boys, freshmen through seniors, who would spend the next week practicing together before being split into varsity and junior varsity teams.
” ‘What is our job?’ Biff asked on behalf of himself, Joe, and the eight other assistant coaches.
” ‘To love us,’ most of the boys yelled back. The older boys had already been through this routine more than enough times to know the proper answer. The younger boys, new to Gilman football, would soon catch on.
” ‘And what is your job?’ Biff shot back.
‘To love each other,’ the boys responded.
“I would quickly come to realize that this standard exchange — always initiated by Biff or [defensive coach] Joe [Ehrmann] — was just as much a part of Gilman football as running or tackling.
” ‘I don’t care if you’re big or small, huge muscles or no muscles, never even played football or star of the team — I don’t care about any of that stuff,’ Biff went on to tell the boys, who sat in the grass while he spoke. ‘If you’re here, then you’re one of us, and we love you. Simple as that.’ …
” ‘I expect greatness out of you,’ Biff once told the boys. ‘And the way we measure greatness is the impact you make on other people’s lives.’
Point to Ponder
We can attempt to rise to greatness by fighting each other off
or by pulling each other up.
Pulling together not only works better,
It has enormous, positive ripple effects,
And is much more sustainable.
Quartermaster
“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”
Boys’ Town Motto
