Congrats to the Calgary Bantam Wildcats

CBFA Calgary Wildcats win the Tier II Alberta Championship

This weekend my youngest son played in the Alberta Provincial Bantam Football Championship up in Edmonton.  The site was Clarke field, the former home of the Edmonton Eskimos and the opposition was the St. Albert Fury and their PLOW offense.  Actually it was the only play they had.  This was the classic “David and Goliath” story, the Fury had brawn and I have to admit, the Wildcats the finesse and talent.  I am a biased father of a Wildcat Offensive lineman.

Watching this game got me thinking about life and business.  Commitment, playing to win, being a sore loser and many other topics game to mind during this game.  The Wildcats won the Tier 2 Provincial Championship beating the team from St. Albert 34-32 on a brisk November day in the Provincial Capital.

What can 14-year-old boys teach us?

You can learn a lot from 14-year-old boys and here are some of the things I picked up.

Commitment – The coaching staff of the Wildcats, Greg Wilson and the entire team committed to the boys to serve them throughout the entire 5 or so month season.  These guys were out every night, canceled trips away and committed their heart and soul to the development of these young football players.  The kids committed to giving 100% every day their took to the grid iron.  DYJ – Do Your Job was the theme of the Wildcats.

Playing to Win – As I mentioned the other day in my video from Las Vegas the importance of playing to win with everything you do and getting rid of the mindset of simply “not losing”.  They did not attack the play surface with the mindset of “not losing”, they did everything to win.  So why do we in business do many things simply “not to lose”.  What a crappy mindset to have.

Never be a sore loser – After the match was over, I overheard a number of the Fury players complaining about the game they just lost.  They were the classic sore loser.  They complained about the Wildcats bringing up the fact the Fury pushed their way through, sure they had concerns during the game.  How many times to we in business complain about losing a deal?  Suck it up princess comes to mind, we will lose deals, games and opportunities, we just need to suck it up, learn from these opportunities and move forward.

A great season wraps up.

Hats off to the Calgary Bantam Wildcats, all the boys, the staff and especially the parents.  It was great to meet many of you and I look forward to the Midget season starting in the new year.  What a great CBFA season this year…

Thanks for my friend Jesse Jervis to came out for the first half, you missed a great second half mate.