Refined By Fire

Last week, I posted the following regarding Coach Lannjng and our team:

Fire is an incredible refiner of gold. "Pressure and hardship do not define a man's worth; it reveals it. Fire, at the right temperature, burns away what is false, tests what is true, and leaves behind something much stronger and more valuable."

By now, many of you know that I admittedly can 'wax on' a bit too much. But what I posted above is absolute truth.

While I have no idea what the rest of the season is going to look like, regardless, what happened Saturday night, is almost the kind of stuff movie scripts are made of.

Some would argue that our season was on the line (as I did), at best we had questionable play from Oregon in our first few games, first USC packed house in quite some time, hostile environment, our team leader and starting quarterback gets cheap shotted and taken out, while many on the opposing team have an extensive cheap shot celebration, as Dante lays motionless on the turf.

The entire team, and our coach, is obviously highly shaken, emotional, and worried for Dante. Focus has totally shifted away from the game... but only momentarily, as in the course of a few minutes, Lanning immediately regroups himself and somehow pulls this team together in a way we haven't seen all year -- and frankly, I don't know if I've ever seen something quite like that happen.

These kids (and coaches) were thrown directly into the heat of a refining fire. And, at least, on this last Saturday night, what poured out was gold.

For a moment, I'm going to forget about the rest of the season -- because this is why the game is played... to help kids, and coaches, learn who they truly are, and what they are capable of. This the kind of stuff that these kids will remember and grow from for the rest of their lives.