...it was in my sophomore year of high school baseball. We were like the bad news bears. it was really frustrating. it was hard to accept defeat. I'd get hopping mad. My interest gravitated away from baseball after that and into basketball.

Playing basketball my mindset was always, "if I'm going down, I'm going down swinging and taking guys with me." Even when facing an individual matchup with a better player that was my mindset. Prior to my sophomore year I was a more timid player and hated that about myself. My high school basketball coach was a fiery and passionate coach, a high school legend, won over 1000 games in his HS career, dozens of state titles. Playing for him helped channel my hatred of losing and a stubborn refusal to accept defeat.

Once in a church basketball game during Christmas break most of our starters were with their families on vacation and not available. We were playing our rival ward and only had 5 players, me and our 4 worst players. The team we were playing was pretty good and in 2nd place behind us. Rather than feel overwhelmed I gritted my teeth, embraced the challenge and fixed in my mind with a determined resolution said to myself, "we are NOT losing this game." I went out and scored 42 pts and we beat them 48-44.