Hold The Rope
Every year, a professional football team wins the world championship. Every year, a college team wins the national title. Every year, a high school team in each classification wins a state title. All of these teams have one thing in common. No matter how tough it became throughout their season, they did one thing- they held the rope!
What is holding the rope? Imagine you are hanging from the edge of a cliff with a drop of five hundred feet. The only thing between you and a fall to your death is a rope, with the person of your choice at the other end. Who do you know has the guts to pull you to safety? Who do you know that will let the rope burn their hands and not let go? How many people do you know who are going to withstand the burning pain and watch blood drip from their hands for you?
If you can name two people, that is not good enough because those two people might not be around. The next time your team is together, look around and ask yourself "Who can I trust to hold the rope?" "Who is going to let their hands bleed for me?" When you can look at every member of your team and say to yourself that they all would hold the rope, then your team is destined to win a lot of football games. You see the team that holds the rope when the going gets tough are "winners." When you are down by two touchdowns and thoroughly exhausted, yell at your teammates to "hold the rope, let it burn, but don't let go."
Every year there are winners and losers in every sport. Every year the winners hold the rope. You do not have to be the best team on the field to win the game. If you play with poise and do what your coaches ask of you, and most of all HOLD THE ROPE, you will be successful. No matter what sport you play, in order to win, you must have a commitment to the team. If you are supposed to sprint four laps, then sprint four laps. Don't cheat. Give it your all. Once you start letting up at practice or start missing workouts you've killed the team because you did not hold the rope.
Don't let your team down - YOU have to HOLD THE ROPE!
—Coach Greg King