If you’re anything like me, then you’re probably a little crazy, and you probably harp on “the fundamentals” often. We can’t progress properly if we don’t have them down, and once we do move on from there, they still never go away. They are the groundwork for everything we do, the little constants without which we cannot be fully successful lacrosse players or teams. From your beginner players to the most elite players, catching, throwing, ground balls, cradling, defense and running are at the base of everything we do.

However, in my opinion, it’s the other things we learn, almost accidentally, while we’re mastering the fundamentals that are so much more vital. On the journey to becoming an invested team sport athlete you have the opportunity to acquire some things beyond the fundamentals that set you up to live a full and rewarding life.

I want my athletes to learn what it truly means to become disciplined. Through the times when they may not understand why they have to do something, but they trust that it’s what’s best for them, and they’re dedicated to that process.

I want them to embrace their toughness. When failure hits them like a freight train and they realize that it can teach you even more than success can and that success without your team is much less sweet. They’ll learn this by being challenged, and pushed, and supported — not by being handed anything.

I’d like them to understand what perseverance means firsthand … when they shave minutes off their mile time or cause a turnover against a player they couldn’t slow down the previous year; when they shake off their outside life to have a great practice against the odds of that day; and finally, when they realize that the cement looking ceiling they were seeing above them was actually made of clouds.

I don’t wish it upon them, but when adversity hits, I want them to be ready. To be able to refer back to the times when things really did feel too difficult. Because they lost a big game that they felt they could’ve won. Because there was a time when everything they worked for that year was pulled from them. And because they came out of all of it stronger on the other side.

I wish for them to become a person that their loved ones go to when they’re in need of support and the person that makes a stranger’s day with a smile. When they remember that time they had their worst practice, game or whole week of their life, when they were in pain. Then they remember how much it meant when their teammates and their coaches picked them up out of it and reminded them of their worth.