The Day Of...The Choice After

Many people have asked me how we handled the situation we faced last season with the Central Michigan Volleyball Team.  They've asked with enough frequency that I sort of assumed I would write something to sum up our immediate reaction.  While this is not an comprehensive answer to the question, here's a small glimpse into the day of...

I don't know if what we did was perfect, but I would like to think we responded to our head coach being suspended, unexpectedly in the middle of the season, as well as could be expected.

The remaining staff found out 20 minutes before we were going to head down to practice.  We heard the information, returned to our office, had a group hug and made a decision.  We decided that from that point forward we had to work as hard as we could to make sure the season wasn't a complete loss.  The players had worked too hard to let it just go by the wayside.  In short - everything is a choice and we chose to remain as positive as possible in that circumstance.  We tried to lead our team in that direction as well.  In fact, here is a verbatim copy of the first email I sent to the team that evening, roughly 7 hours from hearing the news of the suspension:

On 10/6/15, 9:09 PM, "Theresa M. Beeckman" <tbeeckman@gmail.com> wrote:

>Just wanted to reach out and remind you all of one thing.....
>
>"The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
>Attitude; to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than
>the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures,
>than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more
>important than appearance, talent or skill. It will make or break a
>company....a home....a team. The remarkable thing is we have a choice
>every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot
>change our past...we cannot change the fact that other people will act in
>their own way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can
>do is play on the one string we have, and that is attitude.....I am
>convinced that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to
>it." -By Charles Swindoll
>
>Let's choose greatness! Game set up tomorrow.
>
>Please reach out if you need to talk, vent, ask a question,
>whatever....Shields up!
>
>Tree

Obstacles would continue to come up through the course of the season and ultimately we fell short of the greatness we sought.  I do, however, feel satisfied in the knowledge that we at least sought it.

And just as I wrote in a note to an administrator at that time, I still remain "unconditionally grateful regardless of my circumstances".  A line I borrowed from the book Burn your Goals by Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert.

You always have a choice. ALWAYS.