JJ SAYS: Players motivate themselves

When there are no crowds, players find a way to motivate themselves.|

I’m a big football fan. I like all high school sports, but I really love high school football. There is nothing like the start of a new season, with the anticipation that seems to permeate the entire campus and the entire school community.

But for pure emotion-dripping, adrenalin-pumping excitement, there is nothing that can match a big basketball game. When a gym is full of screaming teens, official-helping fathers and hyperventilating mothers, you have to be ready for a Life Tribute if you don’t feel the excitement and the frenzy that is all bottled inside a rocking gymnasium.

Unlike in football, where even the loudest of cheers can drift away in the frigid fall air, basketball rooting sections are within jeering distance of one another, and some of the cheers, taunts and retorts can be quite creative. Most is in good natured fun.

It all translates into excitement on the floor. The players sense the excitement and react, magnifying the energy they bring to the court.

Unfortunately, those kinds of events are becoming fewer and fewer as more and more activities compete for both teens’ and parents’ attention.

It is very easy for players to be pumped up to play in that kind of atmosphere. Of course, some players handle the pressure better than others, but every player deserves the experience.

But, what about the other games? Teams will play 25 to 30 games a season. For many of those games, there will not be a lot of crowd emotion for the players to feed on. Their motivation will have to come from within. It gets especially difficult when their season is less than successful.

I thought about that as I watched Casa Grande play in the Sonoma County Classic Tournament at Piner High School earlier this season.

Casa Grande lost its first game in the tournament to Las Lomas, meaning it would play its next two in the early evening and afternoon. The Gauchos played Eureka at 5:30 on a Friday evening and Elsie Allen at 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon. Both games came when there was no school and at times when few parents could attend the games.

From my vantage point across from the benches in the Piner gym, I could easily count the fans. It is no exaggeration to report that there were more players than spectators. You could hear coaches giving instructions during the time outs.

And yet Casa Grande played what was perhaps its finest two games of the season so far. Granted, neither Eureka nor Elsie Allen are among the elite teams in the North Coast Section, but the Gauchos played with the intensity they would bring to a championship game. They scored; they rebounded; they played tenacious defense; they ran; they moved the ball quickly and assuredly in their set offense; and they had fun doing it all.

Casa scored the first 18 points of the game against Eureka and held on for a 53-46 victory and played a full game of good basketball to beat Elsie Allen, 61-35.

There was no cheering, no support. Where did the energy come from?

It came from within. The Gauchos motivated themselves. They are not alone. Teams all over the Empire play for pride. They play for the team and they play to support their teammates. It is just one more life lesson taught by sports.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)

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