Attitude Reflects Leadership

Remember the Titans has become a Luther Ultimate staple prior to national tournament qualifications over the last 5 years. In years past Luther has had too many leaders and not enough leaders, emotional leaders and athletic leaders, loud leaders and silent leaders. As you can see, there are lots of ways to show leadership (on and off the field).

To be a truly effective leader one has to lead with actions and attitude. Ultimate (like everyday in your life) is a fickle sport and because of all the variables that can change the outcome of a game, it can be emotionally draining. However, the worst thing you can do as a teammate is give up. Whether it is after a tough loss and you come out flat the next game, or if you start blowing a big lead and implode, you can never give up.  Are you a teammate, boss, or a leader?  Yes?  Do not give up. 

This particular story is from a club ultimate game where I first witnessed the 'TITAN' phenomenon. We were down 4-8 at half in the game to move on. We were receiving out of half with some optimism, but after going down 4-9 a lot of people's heads were hung. Take a mental note of this, because that is the attitude that loses games. The game continued and eventually it was 6-11 and a majority of the team did not want to play, so the captains began asking, "who wants to go out there?" This is where the turn around begins: by putting competitive attitudes out there that are either too proud or too stubborn or too competitive to accept defeat, it allowed for a huge swing in momentum as the game's momentum began to turn. The team's attitude picked up because of these 7 Titans playing as a competitive, cohesive team again. The team ended up victorious, 16-14. This was the first of numerous games that came down to the wire because the Titans that stood together refused to give up. The fascinating part was, these so-called Titans were different people every game, it was just a matter of someone stepping up and bringing up the team's morale.

So, never hang your head, never count yourself out, and never give up. Negativity is infectious, but optimism is too. Be the leader the team needs - play with fire - and always remember to be a great example on the field, in school, or at the office.

John Anderson

Luther '11

B.A. Nursing

p.s. always remember to aggress.