NYR #5-Give someone else some juice
December 27, 2016
Throughout a players career with IWUHoops, they begin to value shared experiences with others more than accumulating possessions for themselves. That is why we have been everywhere from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico to New Zealand to the Dominican Republic. It is why we have hiked the Grand Canyon and gone on a cruise. It is through these experiences that memories are created and the bonds of brotherhood are strengthened, allowing each man in our program to grow closer to his potential.
IWUHoops recently returned from a trip to San Francisco and Hawaii. The experiences from the trip stretched the team to grow in new ways. Go behind the scenes as we count down the days to 2017, and accept the challenge to adopt some of these mentalities the team learned as your 'New Year's Resolution' for the coming year.
Read past New's Years Resolution blogs at the following links: NYR #6
Over our Christmas break trip, Coach Whaley challenged us to provide "juice " for our team. In simple terms, juice is about using your specific talents and abilities to energize and empower a teammate. This became our rallying cry for our 3-0 record on the trip. To me, the perfect example that I saw juice in action was our game vs Menlo.
There was a point in the game where one of the Menlo players used a few choice words that I cannot repeat toward Bob Peters and started talking some smack to him. One thing that I've learned here at IWU is to never talk trash to BP. I remember him huddling us up after a dead ball, telling us that he was going to carry us through these next 10 minutes of the half. Bob went on to score 26 points that game, highlighted by a deep three to finish off his scoring rampage that he went on.
I remember how motivated I was to play hard for Bob because of him stepping up and fearlessly attacking on offense. Bob gave me some juice, and it started to spread to the whole team! I was pumped up and ready to battle with him, knowing that he was giving it his all every possession. The energy started to spread to the entire team.
This is what it's all about. If basketball was a one man sport then I am not sure anyone would be very motivated to play it the way we played that night against Menlo. The fact that we got to battle together with Bob leading the charge was empowering and motivating to our whole team, propelling us to a 24 point victory that night after being down 7 points early the first half.
As we head in to 2017, I challenge you to consider how you can you share "juice" in order to empower and encourage others around you. We weren't given gifts and abilities to prop ourselves up but to make others better. Make a habit of using your juice to make someone else better this year!
Jacob Johnson, Junior
