{"id":2197,"date":"2010-12-09T15:57:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T21:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2010-12-09T15:57:33","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T21:57:33","slug":"jim-valvanos-words-still-ring-true-in-prep-college-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/jim-valvanos-words-still-ring-true-in-prep-college-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Valvano’s Words Still Ring True in Prep & College Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upsets Happen Because of the Faith and Determination Which Jimmy V Described at the ESPY’s\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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“Don’t give up!\u00a0 Never, ever give up!”\u00a0 Those were the famous words spoken by former NC State head men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano at the inaugural ESPY Awards in New York City on March 4, 1993<\/a>, just eight weeks before his death due to cancer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valvano’s\u00a0speech that evening\u00a017 years ago have continued to inspire countless athletes and coaches across\u00a0America.\u00a0 We see examples of it each\u00a0day\u00a0in high school and\u00a0college sports.\u00a0 Outstanding athletic performances by individuals and teams in the form of upsets have been influenced his inspirational words ever since.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we have brought light to this fall on our blog pages<\/a>, there have been an unusual number of upsets in regular season play in sports across the college spectrum.\u00a0 But, upsets don’t just happen.\u00a0 A lot of unseen things must converge for an upset to occur.\u00a0 Mostly though, the underdogs must come to play that particular game or match with heightened sense of faith in one another and Valvano\u2019s “never-give-up” approach is a must.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You see, upsets ride on the shoulders of faith.\u00a0 They don’t happen just because one player has a spectacular outing.\u00a0 It takes a team’s faith in itself to accomplish what appears on the surface to be unattainable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In team sports, no one orchestrates an upset solo.\u00a0 While an exceptional individual performance is typically a big part of any upset, he or she must have\u00a0teammates to put\u00a0them in the position to make exceptional plays in high-pressure competition — motivated teammates who recognize then seize the moment\u00a0along with the help of a\u00a0supportive fan base, all pulling in one direction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

We can look\u00a0back at some of the most well-documented upsets in the annals of sports history, but perhaps the most famous of all was the 1980 U.S. Olympic\u00a0ice hockey team’s defeat of the vaunted Soviet Union team.\u00a0 Never\u00a0has there been a better example of a team which rode faith in themselves to such an\u00a0unexpected and dramatic\u00a0win.\u00a0\u00a0Individually the U.S.\u00a0team did not stack up anywhere close\u00a0to\u00a0talent-laden Soviet squad.\u00a0 Yet,\u00a0prepared then inspired by a driven head coach, and buoyed by the strength of every sports fan in America, the U.S.\u00a0team took to the ice in Lake Placid, NY, with a level of\u00a0faith in themselves which may never be equaled.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valvano’s legacy will always be his rousing speech that night in New York.\u00a0 And, you can be assured that some version of his words of faith and determination are carried into every\u00a0high school and college locker room every\u00a0night an underdog faces overwhelming odds.\u00a0 As coaches hunker down in front of their teams and challenge them to\u00a0focus on what they’ve been trained to do and to have faith in themselves and their teammates, we occasionally get to witness one of\u00a0those extraordinary and memorable moments in sports, the upset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upsets Happen Because of the Faith and Determination Which Jimmy V Described at the ESPY’s\u00a0 “Don’t give up!\u00a0 Never, ever give up!”\u00a0 Those were the famous words spoken by former NC State head men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano at the inaugural ESPY Awards in New York City on March 4, 1993, just eight weeks before … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}