Saving The Best For Last

Yesterday was the first day of the 2009 Special Olympics Michigan State Winter Games held here in Traverse City. Two of the events, figure skating and speed skating, are held at Howe Arena. With the figure skating competition set to begin at 8:00am several of the participants began to filter in to Howe Arena just as we (Traverse City Central High School) were finishing our hockey practice at 7:15am. By the time all of my guys had showered, changed, and seated themselves for breakfast in the Howe Arena lobby, the ice had been taken over by figure skaters.

I locked our lockerroom and weaved my way through skaters waiting to take the ice. Passing through a group of young ladies waiting to enter the ice surface from the visitor's bench I made eye contact with one of them. She smiled at me and asked, "Are you a hockey player?"
"No," I said. "I'm just a coach."
"For what team?" she asked.
"Traverse City Central High School," I answered.
"Is your team good?" she said, still smiling.
"Yeah, I think we're pretty good," I said.
"Better than the Red Wings?" she asked.
"Well, we're not THAT good. But I'd say we're pretty good." I answered.
"That's awesome!!" she yelled and offered a high five.
I high fived her and made my way to the lobby.

My boys were in the middle of breakfast so I stood down the hallway a little way and watched the figure skaters warming up on the ice. I noticed there was a huge variance in the level of skating ability from one skater to the next. It was obvious some had been skating for a long time while others appeared to be very new to the sport. The one thing they all had in common was they skated with confidence and sheer determination. If they weren't practicing their routines they were skating, smiling, and sharing laughs with fellow competitors. The look of determination during their practice routines said they really wanted to win, but you also knew it wasn't the most important thing to them. Every time someone would stumble and fall there was immediately a fellow competitor by their side to make sure they were okay and to help them up. I had read an article about these games in the local paper and remembered someone being quoting as saying, "these athletes are accepted and celebrated regardless of race, gender, or ability." After observing these athletes for a few minutes I knew this to be true.

I was just about to leave Howe Arena when a young woman approached and dropped a duffel bag on the floor next to me. She looked at me, smiled, and began to take items out of the bag. Her skates, gloves, and a sweat shirt. She put the skates on her feet and called for her dad. A gentleman approached from near the front doors and proceeded to tie her skates. "Good luck," he said and winked at his daughter. She stood up and walked through the front doors to the visitor's bench and stepped out onto the ice. A very slow first step, then a second small stride, and then a third. Obvious now was the fact that she hadn't been skating very long. I kept thinking about how hard it must be to try to perform a figure skating routine when it appeared she had all she could handle just to keep her balance. I said to myself, "Wow. I give her a lot of credit for being able to go out and try that."

Her dad was still standing next to me and watched his daughter take to the ice just as I had. He was smiling as he watched her take those slow, calculated strides. He saw me looking at him and he nodded toward his daughter.

"She's always the happiest when she's on the ice," he said.

I looked back toward his daughter and she was making her way across the ice and toward the visitor's bench with a wide smile.

"She sure does look happy," I said.

We watched her step off the ice and make her way back toward the lobby. She stopped briefly to talk to the person in charge of the event, then came back through the main doors and down the hallway to where we were standing. She sat down next to her duffel bag and looked up at her dad.

"They said I won't be skating for awhile yet, but they'll let me know when it's my turn. I guess they must be saving the best for last," she said quite matter of factly.

Confidence and determination. If we could all approach daily life with the confidence and determination of these young men and women imagine what would get accomplished.......