Let me take you on a little journey. Yes, it was a journey not a destination. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride on a bus that took a coach and her team for the ride of their lives.
It all began over dinner with my friend Tami Matheny who became my mental coach. To make a long story short about her, she started the tennis program at Upstate from nothing and built it into one of the most successful programs in school history. I have had the pleasure of watching her teams perform. They were the most mentally tough teams I had seen. They would truly shine in adverse moments when most teams would fold. What were her secrets? Could she help me and my team?
I came to Upstate five years ago and took over a program that had not been successful in 10 years so, I decided over dinner to ask Tami a simple question that eventually led to one memorable season for the Upstate Women’s basketball team. That simple question was, “What three things would it take for my team to be successful?” She responded without hesitation and blurted out the following three things: “One, they must put in extra work outside of practice. Two, they must put the team above themselves. And three, there can be no negativity. Those are the three things I think that will help you have a successful team,” she said. Sounded plain and simple but I thought to myself how am I going to get the team to buy into this? I guess Tami read my mind because she began telling me how I was going to do it.
It was that night where this journey begins. It was the summer and I wanted to get the team started in the right direction so, that night I sent out a text message to all 12 players stating the following, “We will be successful if we do the following three things: 1) Extra work outside practice, 2) Put team before self, and 3) No negativity. I can’t remember what they all responded but they seemed receptive, so I thought to myself this is a good start.
I decided to have Tami work with myself and the team. I believed from the beginning that our team was talented, but we needed to be mentally stronger. We needed to learn how to push past our limits. Without hesitation she agreed to work with my team, but she asked that I be open to some things that I might not be comfortable with. I had to be willing to step outside my comfort zone. I agreed because I wanted more than anything to be successful.
Quickly summer passed and it was August. The players were returning for the start of the school year and pre-season was about to begin. Tami would begin with the mental coaching sessions with my team and meet with them periodically throughout pre-season. She had a poster of our team picture printed with the caption, “The sky is the limit” and presented it to the team during a session. They loved it and everyone wanted one made. So, everyone got a poster. I started to see a team come together. I also continued to randomly remind them about those three things that we had to do to be successful.
Preseason flew by and it was October which means the start of basketball practice. At Upstate the start of practice brings the madness, midnight madness which has become tradition now that we have moved to DI. This year the madness happened to fall on my birthday. What I got for my birthday turned out to be a bus ride that I haven’t got off of yet. Tami gave me a book to read called “The Energy Bus: Ten Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy” by Jon Gordon. If you know me, you know that I hate to read, and I mumbled and grumbled about reading this book. However, I had agreed to step out of my comfort zone so I said I would at least attempt to read it. I figured I would start it and never finish it. I was also hoping Tami would forget about it or just give up trying. Well neither one happened. I started reading it and gave daily reports to Tami. It grabbed my interest from the beginning. I actually finished it in about two weeks which for me is amazing.
I figured reading it would be good enough but no, Tami asked me to apply those rules to my team. She had introduced the team to those rules in one of her mental sessions. The book takes readers on an enlightening and inspiring ride with bus driver Joy that reveals 10 secrets for approaching life and work with the kind of positive, forward thinking that leads to true accomplishment – at work and at home. Everyone faces challenges and every person, organization, company and team will have to overcome negativity and adversity to define themselves and create their success. No one goes through life untested and the answer to these tests is positive energy—the kind of positive energy consisting of vision, trust, optimism, enthusiasm, purpose, and spirit that defines great leaders and their teams.
10 RULES FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE
1. You’re the Driver of the Bus.
2. Desire, Vision and Focus move your bus in the right direction.
3. Fuel your Ride with Positive Energy.
4. Invite People on Your Bus and Share your Vision for the Road Ahead.
5. Don’t Waste Your Energy on those who don’t get on your Bus.
6. Post a Sign that says “No Energy Vampires Allowed” on your Bus.
7. Enthusiasm attracts more Passengers and Energizes them during the Ride.
8. Love your Passengers.
9. Drive with Purpose.
10.Have Fun and Enjoy the Ride.
With that was the birth of the energy bus, a big yellow school bus using the word energy to replace the word school. How can you lose when your bus driver was named JOY! I was going to have to drive my bus (team) with positive energy, vision, trust, and purpose. With my co-pilot (Tami) by my side, I got on the bus and began to apply those 10 rules to my team. I talked about being positive every day and keeping out negative vampires. I printed off tickets and a motivational poster (which can be found on the energy bus website) for every road trip. I handed each player and staff member a ticket to ride my bus. Every road trip everyone including the real driver of our travel bus got a ticket. It could read, ”You’re invited on my bus”, “Positive passengers wanted”, or “Enjoy the ride.” Each time I printed off a different one. The motivational poster also was different for each road trip, and it was passed from person to person to sign as a commitment to the message on the poster. In the beginning, I got some strange looks, but I think the team actually started to look forward to what their ticket might say. Tami told me that even if only one person bought into it, then that was one more than I had started with. It started with one and then two, three, four, five, and eventually I believe all 12 started to believe in the energy bus.
I kept reminding the team of the three things that we needed to be successful. Tami kept meeting with the team and working on their mental approach, and the energy bus wheels were in motion. Not done yet! The season has begun, and we are having some success early and blowing some teams out. I’m getting excited and looking ahead. Now comes another test. Tami says I have to stay in the moment, one day at a time, one game at a time. I must enjoy the journey. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I knew she was right.
It was easy to believe all those things Tami was saying in the beginning because we were winning but what would happen the first time, we or even I was tested with a setback. It came right before Christmas on a three-game road trip that tested me and my belief in mental coaching, and the energy bus. Let’s call it the road trip from hell; three straight losses that led to a 0-2 start in conference play. Christmas break came and was desperately needed for all of us. After the break, we played ok and beat Presbyterian, but our true test was coming in the next game as we started conference play once again.
What happened was another loss at home to Campbell, and now we are 0-3 in conference. And in two days the number one team in our conference ETSU was coming to our gym to play us. I’m ready to drive the bus off a cliff. I went home after that game truly disgusted and laid awake all-night wondering what I was going to do- my bus was headed in the wrong direction. It was Sunday morning; I woke up early and went out for a run. It was during my run that I heard Tami’s voice and 10 words she has said to me since coming to Upstate to coach. “You’re at your best when your back’s against the wall.” I showered, decided to skip church and headed into the office early with the intention to find a way to beat ETSU. Even more important than that I needed to get my bus headed back in the right direction with positive energy, vision, trust, and purpose. After watching film and a pep talk from Tami, I headed into to practice with the intent of being positive and a plan to take down #1 ETSU. We did it! We won the game! This was the turning point in our season, the beginning of the ride of our lives.
There are many stories I could share but the one I feel the one that symbolized the season best was this one- The season was nearing the end and I wanted to do something to put a stamp on things. We had 4 games left and I needed something to inspire the team to finish strong. Tami and I sat down and began to share ideas and together we came up with idea of writing each player a personal letter and attaching it to a mini energy bus for each of them including my staff, trainer, and sports information director. The next road trip, I presented each staff and player with their very own energy bus and a personal note from me. I told them that that this bus would give them all the energy they needed for the last four games. Once again, I got some crazy looks, but I remembered what Tami said, “If one believes in it, then that’s more than you started with.”
In those last 4 games, we had to play three of the top four teams in the conference. Well against ETSU, the #1 team, we struggled and lost badly. We had no time for flat tires because coming into our gym with the conference title on the line was FGCU. With the win FGCU could clinch a share of the conference title and to add a little more wood to the fire, since joining the A-SUN we had never beaten this team. We played well the first half and managed to go into halftime with the score tied. Trying to think outside the box and give us an edge, I decided to grab an energy bus from a player’s locker and take with me to the sideline. I returned to the sideline just as the horn sounded for the second half to start. I walked to the huddle with my bus clinched in my hand and said, “let’s go.” I held it in my hand and was trying to let that energy overflow from me to the team.
The team had yet to realize that I was holding the bus. I was waiting for the right moment to show the bus. During a timeout, I decided to share with my team what I had in my hand. So, I raised the bus in the air in front of all of them and I said, “RIDE WE ME” and that was exactly what the doctor ordered. At this point there was no strange looks-just a team that had bought into this little yellow bus. We had come a long way since the start of the season. The bus was passed down the bench through different people during timeouts to boost energy. It was our best game of the year. We won that game. Buses began to pop up everywhere. A senior captain printed a bus for everyone and posted them on their lockers and the coaches’ doors. It had been an amazing ride.
Throughout the season, I applied those 10 rules to my team, I kept reminding the team regularly of those 3 things that would make us successful, and Tami kept on meeting with them as a group. We had hurdles to jump, the ride wasn’t always smooth, but I believe the energy bus principles and Tami’s hard work to keep me and the team mentally tough and focused on the right path was a major factor in the end result. As for the end result- a 20-9 overall record, a first team all-conference selection, freshman of the year, coach of the year, post season for the first time in DI history and one hell of a ride.
So, what began back in the summer from one simple question to the coach of the most successful program at Upstate over dinner led to one of the most successful seasons in USC Upstate women’s basketball history. And still today a motivational poster that hangs on my door reads TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED and for my buses, they all remain in my office on display. Beep! Beep!