LIFE
MORE THAN A GAME
04.22.09
I wanted to create a place where we can write to the players and parents about various aspects of lacrosse that we don’t get the time to talk about on the field. I also want players and parents to comment back on this page (constructively and positively please) and ask any questions that you may have or want us to discuss.
I figured the best way for me to start this blog was to talk about what lacrosse meant to me growing up. For those of you that don’t know me, my father Bill Tierney is the head lacrosse coach for Princeton University. My father is considered to be one of the best coaches of all time, and there is no one that loves the game more than he does. Hence, I was born with a stick in my hand!
I started playing competitive lacrosse when I was five years old and I retired from professional lacrosse when I was 28, so I played for a good amount of time! My goals as a child were to win a National Championship with my father, which I did at Princeton and play for Team USA, which I was lucky enough to do twice. I can honestly tell you though that these accomplishments mean little to me now. They are in the past and I have moved on with my life. So, what does lacrosse mean to me now and why do I want to share that with younger players?
The greatest thing that lacrosse taught me was that life is a process, not an end result. To be honest with you, I don’t really remember the “big” days - the days that we won championships or I was given an individual award. I can barely recall those days. The days that I do recall are the days when I was younger throwing against a wall every day for hours on end against a wall. I remember the days of running in the rain or snow in high school. I remember training so hard in the weight room when I was 15 that I used to puke! These memories teach me that all those things that I worked so hard at were the building blocks. I decided that I wanted to build towards a goal in my life, and everything that I poured my energy into added to that goal. In the end, I knew that I had done everything that I could to achieve the end result, and fortunately it worked out for me. But, even if it had not, I would still look back at those memories and be proud of how I had done my best at something that I loved. This is a lesson that I carry in my daily life now. It allows me to see that I should enjoy each and every day that I have now, while I am in the process of creating my next “big” days.
The second thing lacrosse taught me goes along the same lines. There are a lot of times when things happen in lacrosse that our beyond our control. Sometimes the ref makes a terrible call, or the field is slippery, or our stick sucks, or we get hurt. At those times, trying our absolute best is all that we can do. There are a lot of times when people say, “Well, I tried my best, but it didn’t work out...oh well!”. But many times, those people are fooling themselves. If you can honestly look at yourself in the mirror after a game and say that you did everything you possibly could have done to help your team win, then that is enough. You don’t have to worry about the score or what your stats were. All you need to know is that you did your best. The reason that this is such an important lesson to learn is that life brings us many challenges that we have absolutely no control over. In those moments, that is when we are being asked to be the best people that we can possibly be, whatever that looks like for each individual.
One more lesson that lacrosse taught me was the lesson of humility. Our culture is fueled by wanting to be rich and famous. We worship celebrities like they are Gods. This is simply foolish. We are all capable of doing extraordinary things with our lives. It is a crime to take the life that we are given and waste even a second of our time and energy studying the lives of “stars” or trying to model ours after theirs. The funny part about all this is that the better you get at a specific thing in life, the more you notice others who are great at what they do! Athletes tend to get overblown egos all the time. We strive for attention and applause. Many times, you will notice that athletes feel that simply because they play a sport well, then they are somehow “better” than other people. Here’s something that should always be remembered : no matter how good you get at something, 99.99% of the rest of the world could care less because they are living their own lives. So, if you love lacrosse and you want to be the best that you can be at it...then great! But, if you are looking for the world to acknowledge you in some way because of it, you are going down the wrong path. Instead of looking for acknowledgement, start to appreciate those who are around you. Go talk to the shy kid who everyone else at school makes fun of and find out what his interests or hobbies are. Find out more about your teachers lives or what your parents love to do in their free time. What you will start to notice is that everyone around you has something that they are quite talented at, and they are people that you can learn more about life from.
Obviously, there is much more to be learned from sports, including lacrosse, but I felt that this was a good place for us to start our discussion. I hope this finds you all well.
Best,
Trevor Tierney
I figured the best way for me to start this blog was to talk about what lacrosse meant to me growing up. For those of you that don’t know me, my father Bill Tierney is the head lacrosse coach for Princeton University. My father is considered to be one of the best coaches of all time, and there is no one that loves the game more than he does. Hence, I was born with a stick in my hand!
I started playing competitive lacrosse when I was five years old and I retired from professional lacrosse when I was 28, so I played for a good amount of time! My goals as a child were to win a National Championship with my father, which I did at Princeton and play for Team USA, which I was lucky enough to do twice. I can honestly tell you though that these accomplishments mean little to me now. They are in the past and I have moved on with my life. So, what does lacrosse mean to me now and why do I want to share that with younger players?
The greatest thing that lacrosse taught me was that life is a process, not an end result. To be honest with you, I don’t really remember the “big” days - the days that we won championships or I was given an individual award. I can barely recall those days. The days that I do recall are the days when I was younger throwing against a wall every day for hours on end against a wall. I remember the days of running in the rain or snow in high school. I remember training so hard in the weight room when I was 15 that I used to puke! These memories teach me that all those things that I worked so hard at were the building blocks. I decided that I wanted to build towards a goal in my life, and everything that I poured my energy into added to that goal. In the end, I knew that I had done everything that I could to achieve the end result, and fortunately it worked out for me. But, even if it had not, I would still look back at those memories and be proud of how I had done my best at something that I loved. This is a lesson that I carry in my daily life now. It allows me to see that I should enjoy each and every day that I have now, while I am in the process of creating my next “big” days.
The second thing lacrosse taught me goes along the same lines. There are a lot of times when things happen in lacrosse that our beyond our control. Sometimes the ref makes a terrible call, or the field is slippery, or our stick sucks, or we get hurt. At those times, trying our absolute best is all that we can do. There are a lot of times when people say, “Well, I tried my best, but it didn’t work out...oh well!”. But many times, those people are fooling themselves. If you can honestly look at yourself in the mirror after a game and say that you did everything you possibly could have done to help your team win, then that is enough. You don’t have to worry about the score or what your stats were. All you need to know is that you did your best. The reason that this is such an important lesson to learn is that life brings us many challenges that we have absolutely no control over. In those moments, that is when we are being asked to be the best people that we can possibly be, whatever that looks like for each individual.
One more lesson that lacrosse taught me was the lesson of humility. Our culture is fueled by wanting to be rich and famous. We worship celebrities like they are Gods. This is simply foolish. We are all capable of doing extraordinary things with our lives. It is a crime to take the life that we are given and waste even a second of our time and energy studying the lives of “stars” or trying to model ours after theirs. The funny part about all this is that the better you get at a specific thing in life, the more you notice others who are great at what they do! Athletes tend to get overblown egos all the time. We strive for attention and applause. Many times, you will notice that athletes feel that simply because they play a sport well, then they are somehow “better” than other people. Here’s something that should always be remembered : no matter how good you get at something, 99.99% of the rest of the world could care less because they are living their own lives. So, if you love lacrosse and you want to be the best that you can be at it...then great! But, if you are looking for the world to acknowledge you in some way because of it, you are going down the wrong path. Instead of looking for acknowledgement, start to appreciate those who are around you. Go talk to the shy kid who everyone else at school makes fun of and find out what his interests or hobbies are. Find out more about your teachers lives or what your parents love to do in their free time. What you will start to notice is that everyone around you has something that they are quite talented at, and they are people that you can learn more about life from.
Obviously, there is much more to be learned from sports, including lacrosse, but I felt that this was a good place for us to start our discussion. I hope this finds you all well.
Best,
Trevor Tierney
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