Three Points From A Lay-Up
Lessons From A Basketball Tournament Game
After trailing the entire game the Lady Golden Eagles had managed to pull even. As soon as the tying basket went through the net our girls jumped into a press...which our rivals quickly broke! Our hearts dropped as we saw them complete a long pass and one of their best players was going in for a lay-up on the other end of the court before our girls could reach her..and then she missed it!
The ball rolled off the other side of the rim and almost before you could blink it was in the hands of our senior all-state player, the player we most wanted to have the ball. Approaching mid-court, the clock was already dangerously under :10. Would she make it to the rim in time?
Looking ahead she spotted a teammate who had done her job and hustled down the floor on the fast break. The clock ticked down...5...4... Our senior leader had led the comeback from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter, scoring most of the points herself. Ahead was a girl whose primary role on the team was rebounding and defense. She had not scored once during the game.
Before the clock hit :03 Becky Blesch's pass was already in the air to fellow senior Susie Robinson. At this point I noticed the newspaper photographer standing out of bounds right under the basket . I remember thinking two things; "She's about to get the winning shot..." and "I hope the camera flash doesn't affect the shooter!" With a clean catch Suzy closed her body position to the rest of the floor, shielding the ball as she took a slide-step toward the basket...and banked in a perfect lay-up!
Because Susie's play was directly in line between our bench and the photographer, I saw both things happen simultaneously. The shot, the flash of the camera...and I knew immediately what the photographer had done - and she had not captured the winning shot!
Amid all the noise I thought to myself, "How could you not capture the winning shot? That was your chance to tell the whole story with a single picture!" Almost immediately, however, I realized what she had done. Rather than capture the winning lay-up, she shot the joyous celebration breaking out on our bench. She was not telling the story through the act, but through the impact!
Three points come to mind when I remember that sequence of events: first, it takes contributions of every size for a group to succeed. Whether a player scored 2 points or 20, all were ultimately and absolutely necessary to insure victory.
Second, sometimes a seemingly routine act can have a huge impact. There were many lay-ups made during that championship game. All were important at the time they were made; all were celebrated by teammates and fans. Although all the lay-ups counted the same number of points, one made the biggest difference...the last one.
Finally, at the end of the story it is always about the impact. Whether it is how contributions on the court lead to a state tournament berth or how gifts in a campaign will affect students, families and our ability to develop and expand programs for them...it is always about the impact!
From high school basketball tournaments to the NCAA's March Madness, many great plays will be made. The ones most remembered and celebrated are the 'game-winners', those final successful efforts that put a team into the 'win' column.
In terms of our progress on the Gym A.C. Project, we are still behind our goal of $50,000. Many people have contributed various sized gifts to bring us closer to successfully meeting our goal, but we are still $4,800 short.
Perhaps you have considered a gift but thought that it wouldn't be significant. Just remember that two points may not seem like a lot, but at the right time it is everything. Truth be told, it is the accumulation of those very gifts that could turn out to be the ultimate difference makers. Somebody, or several somebodies, will be the ones to take the final shots at our goal of $50,000. They will be the 'game-winners'. Could it be you?