Every year Coach Jones has a Theme for the Touchdown Club to work with. We have been under construction, working for 48 mins, and taking one more rep one more step. This year his theme is the best one yet and the following story explains it the best. I do not know who wrote this unfortunately, but Coach told the story with his ususal firey emotion. I hope everyone who reads this will commit to tie a knot and hold on…don’t let go, no matter what….HOLD THE ROPE!!!
Hold the Rope!
Every year a professional football team wins the championship. Every
year a college football team wins the NCAA title. Every year the best
high school team in Division A on down wins the state crown. All these
teams have one thing in common. No matter how tough it became throughout
their season, they did one thing — they held the rope!
What is “holding the rope?” Imagine that you are hanging from the edge of a cliff with a drop of twenty thousand feet. The only thing between you and an fall to your death is a rope, with the person of your choice on the other end. Who do you know that has the guts to pull you to safety? Who will hold the rope? Who do you know that is going to let that rope burn their hand and not let go? How many people that you know are going to withstand the burning pain and watch the blood drip from their hands for you?
If you can name two people, that’s not good enough, because those two
people might not be around. The next time your team is together, look
around and ask yourself, “Who could I trust to hold the rope? Who is
going to let their hands bleed for me?” When you can look at every
member on your team and say to yourself that they all would hold the
rope, you are destined to win a lot of ball games. You see, the team
that holds the rope when the going gets tough are winners. When you are down by four points with thirty seconds to go, don’t give up. Yell at
your teammates to “hold the rope — let it burn but don’t let go!”
Every year there are winners and losers in all sports. Every year the
winners hold the rope. You don’t have to have the best team on the field
to win the game. If you play with poise and do what your coaches ask of
you, and most of all — hold the rope — you will be successful.
No matter what sport you play, in order to win, you have to have a
commitment to your team. If you are supposed to run three times per
week, do it. If you have to lift weights three times per week, don’t
miss. Once you start letting up at practice or start missing your
workouts, you’ve killed the team because you didn’t hold the rope!
Don’t let your team down! You’ve got to hold the rope!