Building a champion

DYERSVILLE - The thought of winning state is something every team dreams of doing.

There is only one problem, it is not as easy as it sounds. There is a difference between a group of people playing a sport and a team achieving greatness. There are many factors that determine the success of a team.

Attitude is where it all starts.

The players need to portray a positive attitude in order to move on and accomplish the next step. The number one skill of successful athletes, according to sportpsych.org, is to 'choose and maintain a positive attitude.” When one is positive, it is encouraging to the other players. If someone makes a mistake, giving him or her a negative remark will only make it worse. A negative remark may cause tension between players or more mistakes to follow.

The point of a team is to work together and when one person is down, it is the team's job to get them back up. Having a positive throughout the whole game will keep the team moving the right way.

Great athletes need to remain focused in several areas. They need to concentrate on school in order to learn and keep their grades up, but when it comes to practice they need to forget what is happening in their life and just be an athlete.

Usually practices run anywhere from two to four hours a day and during those hours an athlete has to give it their all. They need to leave any conflicts that would affect their playing outside the playing area. It is important they find that determination and be a part of the team. Staying focused on the right things at the right times can be challenging, but totally worth it.

Coming together as a team also plays a big factor in making a team successful. A team that gets along outside the practice area is what every coach dreams of. If this is the case, it's usually pretty easy for the team to gel and make great things happen.

It often happens that there are lots of jokes and laughs shared within a team like this. These are the kinds of teams that are the easiest and most fun to coach. As Babe Ruth once said, 'The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.”

The success of a team comes from many factors. Attitude, focus and coming together as one are big parts of making a team accomplish great things.

The road to be successful can be hard at times, but people always have said it was totally worth it in the end.