Naturally, he was not paid to do that.
We had great teams, and the bigger schools would venture to grab him.
He was content to work with his boys, to see them come back as men.
We fret about the top 1 percent, but we shouldnt be worried about the LeBron Jameses.
We should be worried about the kids who wont turn pro and arent getting a college education.
The culture eats these kids up.
Dorothy Hamill
The Coach:Gustave Lussi
Best Advice:Never compromise your standards.
I met Gustave Lussi when I was 12.
He was old-school European, very manners oriented.
Details were important: He wanted my laces clean and skate boots polished.
With some skating positions, he would say to me, Imagine you are a lady.
He wanted me confident and deliberate, to do things with purpose and meaning.
He taught me about striving for the highest standards of achievement while maintaining class.
Gustave also wanted me to pursue perfection, even if attaining it was impossible.
When you start something, finish it, and finish it the best way possible, he said.
Jack Nicklaus
The Coach:Bob Kepler
Best Advice:Take advantage of every opportunity.
I was blessed to have three coaches, including my father Charlie Nicklaus and Jack Grout.
But it was Bob Kepler, my coach at Ohio State University, who taught me to seize opportunities.
Once I joined his team at Ohio State, Kep made sure it wasnt always about golf.
He might look at the weather and say, Hey, Nick, its too nice to play golf.
Why dont we get your teammates and go fishin?
But he helped me figure out what was important.
He took it right out of my hands.
Youre not going to school, he said.
Youre going to prepare for the Walker Cup.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
How many college golf coaches would say that today?
She was also a Hall of Fame golfer who understood that you better stay positive in life.
In sports, it means letting go of bad shots.
In life, it means letting go of mistakes.
She didnt know tennis, but she knew I was beating myself on the court at age 19.
I was getting upset a lot.
She would ask me why I lost.
I would say I had three bad line calls by refs.
She said, Its not like you get an asterisk next to the result that says that.
You are beating yourself.
You cannot linger.
When Sandra told me that, it was as if a light switch had flipped.
Coach Cementina pushed me hard when I played for him at James Lick High in San Jose, California.
During a championship game in high school, we struggled in the first half.
Coach jumped all over me at halftime: Jim, you cant let your teammates down!
It was even more harsh than that.
But I got ticked off in a good way.
My teammates many of them Hispanic, like me were feisty and hard-nosed.
We were a reflection of our coach.
We rebounded and won.
He made me go that extra mile off the field, too.
Summers, I worked construction.
Some days I was so tired, but Coach got me out there no matter what.
He taught me about sacrifice and compassion.
I was on scholarship at UCLA, this 17-year-old girl from East St. Louis, Illinois.
I became very homesick my freshman year.
But I didnt want my mother, Mary, who was my best friend, to know.
So I just kept it all to myself.
And then I unexpectedly received a call telling me to come home.
Mom had become extremely ill.
I raced home, and she quickly lapsed into a coma from a bacterial infection and passed away.
Those were some very dark days.
I started having some technical issues with my favorite event, the long jump.
Then I was diagnosed with asthma, a tough condition for a track and field athlete.
I feared that my athletic career was in jeopardy it seemed like the end of the world to me.
When I called and told all of this to Coach Fennoy, he did not say, Dont quit.
I was thinking one-dimensionally; he saw the bigger picture.
I quickly resolved the issues with my long jump.
I was on my way.
Coach gave me a profound lesson: that sometimes things are not going to go the way you want.
Had I given up at that point, I always wouldve taken the easy way out.
But when you’ve got obligated yourself to do something, see it through.
