THE PLAYERS ON THE BENCH
It takes more than six players to make a winning team. The starting six may win a game, but it takes the whole team to win the championship, to go all the way. The team is really like an iceberg. You see the starting six, but underneath it all is that big, wide, strong base, the rest of the team. This is the part of the team that builds the character of a lasting winner. The more dedicated the player on the bench, the harder she works, the more she pushes and strengthens the starting player, the better the team becomes. If the player on the bench quits, doesn't give her all, or becomes complacent in her position, she erodes that strong team base and erodes the character of the team. She contributes to the error in a tense, two point game, she is partly to blame for that mental lapse with four points to play in the big rivalry, she undermines the total effort necessary for the team to come back from a ten point deficit in a championship game. And yet this player on the bench must be there watching, waiting, and hoping, sometimes agonizingly, for that chance to use her special skill to better the team effort, to help build the character of the team. Yes, agonizingly because she knows there is a chance she won't play because she may be the smallest player waiting to make a defensive save or she may be the big player called in an instant to shut down the unusually big attacker who is hurting the team in the middle. She may even be the player that's hurt, but working twice as hard to be physically fit in time to play in the playoffs. She may be the player on the bench who demonstrates to the fans that this team really has character from the bench to the court. But even more important she may be the whole bench that the starting player looks to late in the game when she is hurting, out of breath, and burning inside for that spirit, that push, and that enthusiasm, and that love necessary to make the big play and win the match for the whole team.
When the match is over, when the season ends and all the fans and sports writers are talking about the top of the iceberg, the stars and heroines, the players will know that the real winner is the team, the whole iceberg, especially the base-the players on the bench who build the character to make the team a lasting winner.