Whose Best?
For thirty-four years I had the good fortune of working with talented and motivated young people at two very good independent schools, one in Pennsylvania and the other in Texas. Both provided their students with life-enhancing opportunities to test their abilities in academic, artistic and athletic competitions. A few years back, delivering a chapel to the entire school during what turned out to be an undefeated field hockey season, I dared ask the question, "Is this the best team we've ever had?" Of course the girls who had worked so hard to develop their skills to this high level were quite certain of the answer. Who can argue with an 18-0 record and a state championship?
I'm sure they were a bit taken aback when I confessed to them that I didn't think they were the best. Risking a fusillade of catcalls and nasty looks, I went on to tell them that I didn’t believe they could be, simply because no one person or team could ever reach perfection. They were cynical of course, knowing I had never played the game and couldn’t really understand what they had accomplished. To be sure these girls were supremely talented athletes, dedicated to becoming the best in their sport and tireless in their efforts to reach that magic goal of a season without a loss.
In athletics, success can be quantified in victories, all-star selections and championships. This is as true in high school as it is college and among professional franchises. Individual athletes and their teams aspire to be included in the conversation as to who really is the GOAT (greatest of all time) in their sport. Our girls had climbed the highest summit and were now enjoying the view from field hockey’s most vaunted peak in our state. But did that make them the best team in school history, or the best team ever, anywhere?
Can there ever really be a GOAT? Athletes and coaches know that the line between winning and losing can be a very narrow one. Weather conditions, the vagaries of officiating, injuries, uneven playing surfaces, intimidating home field crowds, even crazy bounces of the ball—all of these can have decisive effects on the outcome of a contest. From game to game players may perform below their normal excellence and others may play way over their heads. The levels of competition vary from week to week, let alone from year to year. I’m sure that teams with perfect records sometimes get lucky in catching a “better” team on an off day, or are equally fortunate in “winning ugly” when they probably should have gone down to defeat.
The Greatest of All Time? Tom Brady notwithstanding, it is probably a short-sighted claim to make, given the ever-changing nature of competition and the impossibility of fairly comparing performances of one era with another. Nonetheless should you step onto the field of battle to debate who is the GOAT in sport, at any level, you will be guaranteed an argument that no one can win. Were the Bucs the best team this year? Brady’s squad bested Mahomes’ reigning champions in a near rout. Would Tom Terrific had done as well if he were calling signals behind the Chief’s porous offensive line, facing his own suffocating defense? Would his team have similarly dominated the great 49ers, Patriots, Cowboys, Packers or Steelers, all super bowl dynasties from the past. Would they have prevailed against the ’72 Dolphins who never once tasted defeat during one remarkable season, shutting out four opponents along the way?
After bursting the collective bubble that my students had created around their season, I went on to say something I believe is far more realistic and important than any claims they could make about being the best. I asked them, “are you satisfied that you did your best this season?” Now that is a question we can and, I believe, must ask ourselves, one that is essential if we are to come to terms with what we, or anyone else, should expect of our efforts.
While being the GOAT is unreachable, we can and must hold ourselves to a higher yet more relevant standard—doing our very best. I have no doubts that our field hockey team, in raising the bar to reach a fleeting measure of excellence, ended up motivating themselves to reach higher and work harder than they thought was humanly possible. Was it their best? Only they and their coaches could say. But did it transform them from being satisfied with mediocrity, with playing only for themselves rather than excelling in a remarkable team effort? I think so.
As a father, chaplain, teacher, coach and school headmaster I asked but one thing of my children and my students: that they do their very best in everything they set out to do. I’m not sure I ever knew what their best would look like, and I suspect they and their parents had different estimations of what they were capable of accomplishing. But of one thing I was certain: all of us have been given unique talents to develop and apply to the challenges of each moment. While no one deserves scorn or humiliation when failing to be the best in any endeavor, all of us are accountable for giving our best—our best thoughts and preparations, our best efforts and spirit—to the important work that is ours to accomplish in life.
Every day students drag themselves, heads hung low, from arenas and fields of competition, certain they are losers in the judgment of their fans and opponents. Every week or so boys and girls try to avoid the comments of their parents when they receive grades lower than desired or anticipated. Every semester aspiring young actors tearfully face the fact that the part they so coveted in the school play has been given to another. The only pertinent question these young people should be asked is not “Why didn’t you win?” or “What’s wrong with you?”, but, “Did you give it your best?” If they can look themselves in the mirror, say “Yes” and really mean it, then they’ve done all that any of us could expect of them. For they will, in that admission, open the door to self-acceptance and possibly self-criticism, both so necessary for them to learn, grow and adjust if they are to be ready for the competitions and challenges they will face the rest of their lives.
Who is the GOAT? The arguments and speculations will continue to take up hours of ESPN programming and kill lots of time for internet surfers and for barroom and tailgate party jousters. My hope would be that our fantasies about GOATS will never preclude nor preempt the daily reality checks each of us needs when we dare ask ourselves if we have done our best. For no matter what contest or trial we have endured, it is in answering that question, sincerely and honestly, that we may know the real worth of this life we’ve been given.
PS: This BLOG was first inspired by the undefeated campaign of the 2008 Wyoming Seminary field hockey team, coached by Karen Klassner who, since 1972, has led her teams to more than 600 victories, including 17 undefeated seasons and an impressive number of Pennsylvania state championships. It goes without saying that her players accept the challenge she puts to them to give their best in practice and in competition.
