 |
| Coming for you, buddy! |
In life, as in sports, we have a tendency to focus way more on our losses than our wins. Go 9-1, you tend to focus on what went wrong once instead of what what right 9 times. Amazon item has 100 good reviews and 1 bad one, you're clicking on the bad one first. For instance, it's been almost a year since Mojo took my godson away from me and family left for their overseas adventures. While I miss them all dearly, I'm able to focus on the positives, e.g., their amazing experiences there together and, selfishly for myself, learning who the important people are in my life and working harder at keeping connections with people we want close to us. Our "negatives" don't always have to be all negative. In my job, we work with people on acknowledging that "negative" feelings such as anger or worry aren't negative in healthy doses. They tell us that we are experiencing something negative, and give us the opportunity to make positive changes, and/or remind us to do more of the things that make us happy, that bring us joy.
In that vein, a former head coach of our basketball team and a man who meant a lot to Mojo, Coach Bernie Holowicki, recently passed away. Until he passed, I didn't know how much this man truly meant to Mojo. In the passage below, it's clear that he had a significant impact on his life. So when I first read this, I feel like I read the thoughts of a man who is grieving the loss on two levels. One, sadly, missing a man who is no longer with us. And two, celebrating the impact of this person on his life, and the life of those around him.
So while I continue to experience the "loss" of not having Mojo inspire this space on a more regular basis, we celebrate his return to the pages of Logical Betting with the post below. The following is all Mojo's words, no interjections from LB and no band send off to close. It is far too moving to taint it with banter. Pics have been added by both of us. Welcome back, brother, and congratulations on this one. Tell BGE to share an M&M as a thank you. Floor is yours.
There are many Coaches today: Sports,
Executive, Life, etc. Coach Bernie H.
Holowicki was all of them and I was so lucky I got a chance for him to be my
Coach.
A couple weeks ago, the game of basketball
lost one of its biggest fans and greatest Coaches; simultaneously the world
lost a man who taught young people about life. Young people like me.
When my mom first told me that I was signed up
for Catholic Central (CC) basketball camp I was upset I wasn't going to Salem
or Canton camp with all my friends. When
I first met Coach at camp, I was unimpressed.
He was on the court wearing his classic outfit: slacks with a belt and
clunky tennis shoes; looked more like door to door salesman than the person who
would teach me how to slide for loose balls or stay late to work on drills one
more time.
Anyone who worked for him, played for him,
taught with him admired him for many reasons, but, ultimately, for me it was just
that he gave you everything he had and he was just full of integrity, humility,
and an insatiable positive outlook on life.
It has been years now since I worked for him,
years since I saw him, but there are life lessons he taught me that I use
today. Let me share some takeaways from Coach.
On
Basketball: He always said he wanted to light a fire in hearts for the love of
the game of basketball. There are still
bonfires burning today in his former players; many, many of which have gone on
to be coaches. He didn't like it if you
said you liked basketball. "I don't
like basketball....I love it."
Humor: He taught me that corny jokes
(especially Polish ones) and one liners are funny as long as you don't care
what people think. Here are some
examples to highlight:
1. You hear about the red ship that collided
with the blue ship? Its survivors were marooned.
2. (Putting two quarters on his forehead)
"Look, It's Polish headquarters!"
3. Read the Bible, it will scare the Hell out
of you.
4. Don't go away mad; just go away. (I use
this on a monthly basis :)
5. Who do you think you are, Big Oscar off the
Pickle Boat!
6. My all-time favorite, he said (to a player
struggling on defense) "Don't ever apply for a job at Buckingham Palace;
you couldn't guard my lunch!"
On Integrity: Every morning at Camp there were
Dunkin Donuts Munchkins. Sign said take
two. It was on your honor, which is
tough for a 12 year old who loves donuts.
“You can start your day off doing the right thing or the wrong thing." A
great daily reminder.
On Family: When I was working 5-Star camp in
Pittsburgh, PA, I heard Coach yelling, 'John John!' He ran over from across the
court to tell me his son had surprised him and was taking him to a Pirates
game. Family was something to get
excited over. It was also something to
have fun with. Once he asked me to take
his wife to the game. Sure, I said. He then said with his classic crooked smile,
"I would take her but she talks too much :)" Which was ironic since Mrs. Coach was quiet, and Coach was not. :)
On listening to others: We were out to dinner
after I had filmed a game for him in a tournament. We had just watched the
second game to scout the team we would play the next day. He said between bites
(this man never turned off the basketball thoughts), "What did you
see?" I was not expecting the
question, but I had noticed a tendency of the point guard to dribble to the
right first every time. He wrote it on a
napkin, pulled it out in the locker room next day and told everyone to force
the guy left. I was a junior in high
school, he was the 7th winningest high school coach in Michigan history. He never had to be the smartest guy in the
room, but he wanted to hear from everyone in the room. On another occasion, when he created a round
robin type activity at camp he asked the kids to name it; after a couple
suggestions a kid said 'Basketball Olympics!
Coach turned around, 'Guys (to the other counselors) what do we
think? We like it? Great, it will now be called Basketball
Olympics.' I bet that kid told his mom
that story on the way home.
 |
| Magic |
On believing in your players: During his run for the 1976 State
Championship CC had to play Lansing Everett in the semi-finals. A reporter asked him about one of the other
teams players, "Coach, who is going to guard player X?” Coach dismissed it and said, "Player X?
Who cares? What about Mike Prince (a top CC player)? Who is going to guard Mike
Prince? Player X, by the way, was Earvin
'Magic' Johnson. Coach's belief in his
players made him fear no team or player.
On having the tools: He told us that our gym
bag was like his dad’s lunchbox. His dad, a Polish immigrant, worked
construction and everyday left with his lunch box. It had all he needed: food,
first aid, money for the bus, cards to play, pictures of his family. That’s all
he needed to provide for his family and himself. He said our bags needed to
have the right tools to come to work if we wanted to be successful.
On Money: Aside from the joke, “Stop bouncing
the balls…reminds me of my checks!” He would also tell a story to remind us
that we while we may not be rich, don’t forget about people who really are poor
before your pity party. He told us about
when he started teaching and one day Jonathan wasn’t wearing socks. “Jonathan,
where are your socks?” and the boy replied “It’s my brothers turn to wear
them." He would always repeat it a
little slower, “It’s my brother’s turn to wear them."
On Race:
Race was a sensitive topic so only the fearless took it on. Each camp he
would ask a white camper to wear a black shirt and a black camper to wear a
white shirt. The poem on the shirts were
the same and the two kids would take turns reading alternating lines about how
Color didn’t matter in basketball or life.
On Faith: One time on an overnight trip for
Madonna University, Coach said to meet in the lobby at 730 for Mass (Catholic University
after all). As it got closer to 8 we
realized we were the only two going. He
said, 'John, this is bad. In life you can lose basketball games, but you can't
lose faith'
On Patriotism: When the national anthem was
played before games he made all his players walk across the court and stand
facing the flag with on hand on the heart and the other behind the back. They
stood completely still in silence. I think of it each time I see others behave
differently.
Now I would like to pause here for some
thoughts my brother, Deez, wanted to add:
Story #1.
My sophomore year I was playing on the JV
team. Our coach was unavailable one of our games, so he stepped in as a
sub-coach. As you might imagine, for someone like myself who was huge into
basketball at the time (remember the only reason I went out for track [and eventually
sparked my entire running career] was to get faster for basketball) having the
opportunity to have the Varsity coach swap in for a game definitely made me
both excited and nervous at the same time. However, since he was just a
substitute coach (prob on short notice) he was not as prepared as he would
likely usually be. However, I vividly remember a situation where we
needed to draw up a play to make an inbounds pass. Somehow (no clue)
there was a piece of chalk nearby so Coach Holowicki drew up the play right on
the court floor (with the piece of chalk - maybe it had been in his pocket from
school? The truth is lost to time.) But not only was I impressed at the
play he could quickly draw up, on the fly, but also the uncanny ability to think
quickly on his feet. No clipboard? No problem!
Story #2.
I remember being at his basketball camp before coming to
CC as a student. Must've been the summer before my freshman year.
Would've been the summer of 1991. To put it in perspective, the Pistons were
hot off their back-to-back championship seasons of 1989 and '90. So my
basketball interests were at an all-time high. That summer at his
basketball camp, I remember him offering up basketballs to anyone who wanted to
borrow them for the summer to practice. Only 1 condition - they come back
in very poor condition. He said if you're going to borrow them to use
them - it's money well spent. But don't you dare bring them back in good
condition - obviously that implied that you went home practicing with them.
Story #3
I remember Coach H coming by your graduation party.
That's it - just a cool memory about a coach that would do something like
that.
Back to Mojo...
Keep in
mind I never dressed for this coach. He left CC after my freshman year, but I
never stopped working for him. He was someone you wanted to be around because
he never stopped teaching, he never stopped laughing, and he never stopped
giving it all. These are things I wanted
to define my day, too, and Coach made it happen.
There are many coaches, but this one, as for
so many others, was mine. Things he taught me I will teach my kids. His story
will be told for a long time. Those who know him know he has been reunited with
some players in heaven and that coach arrived no doubt with a Manila folder and
one of his blue pens drawing up his next play…..
 |
1 comments:
Great read, thank you for sharing Mojo
Post a Comment