What Would Coach Wooden Be Doing Today?

Surreal.  That is the word I keep hearing as we head into this new week and ponder the events of the past week.  Yes, one week.  A week ago, yesterday the Pac 12 was finishing their women’s basketball tournament.  It seems like so much longer…and certainly the pace of events and daily changes have been dizzying.  I’m a slow, internal processor.  I’m still trying to digest that my Bruins lost to Stanford and didn’t play in that championship game last Sunday…my heart still hurts about that!  So, I might be the literal worst person to be talking about where we are now.  As one friend likes to say, “I’ll ask you how you feel about this in a few weeks”.  If you are like me, you are still saying, “wait, what?”  It will take me awhile to catch up.  No March Madness.  No NBA.  No spring sports.  No trips, no vacations, no church attendance, no school…whoa.  What?

As I’m sitting here trying to find words for people I love—coaches and athletes especially-- my mind looks to Coach John Wooden.  I have his words in my heart. I am fully aware that I’m to hide Scripture in my heart that I might not sin against Him, but honestly, I think Jesus is good with Coach Wooden’s words living there too.  Here are two things Coach would say that are helping me right now:

“Make each day your masterpiece.”

“Things work out the best for people who make the best of how things work out.”

I can picture his twinkling blue eyes as he would call me out on some statement I’d just made that didn’t fit with his way of thinking.  He would always be gentle, but firm.  I shake my head that he was my friend…that is still sinking in as well.  What a gift from God to have spent hours at breakfast and in his study asking him questions and listening.  I mostly listened.  He is one of the very best parts of being in the Bruin family.

I wonder what Coach Wooden would be doing with this complete halt to basketball.  I know he would be making the best out of it, every day. I think he would say what he said after he retired, that he missed practice the most.  And all the “falderal” can just take a rest, good riddance.  He would mutter that last part, likely, because he wouldn’t want to sound too negative.  He didn’t like the showmanship and big business direction of the game.  He preferred unselfish teamwork and hard work done for the sake of becoming the best version of yourself.  If he was here today, I think he would be figuring out a way to take care of “his boys” and how to keep teaching them somehow.  Maybe he would be writing letters, which he did a lot, or increasing his knowledge and ideas around teaching the game.  I can also imagine that the greatest part of his newfound time would be spent on his family.  He would have loved that part.

The reality of these surreal days is that we are faced with a lot of new choices. 

Our days have been disrupted, slowed, changed completely.  And all of it creates a lot of wondering doesn’t it? We who do sports, we are doers and planners, movers and shakers, and yet here we are in limbo.  It’s disorienting and it can produce uncertainty and fear. 

I’m sure it’s different for everyone.  We all experience uncertainty differently.  Some of us process quickly and make adjustments quickly…others of us are fearful and prefer to be very careful.  All of us are sad about various losses we have experienced…we have all lost something with this, and many have even lost loved ones. It has been seven years since I sat on a bench and lead a team.  The truth is I miss it every day.  So, I do understand some of how it feels to lose a team and a season for that matter. It hurts.  And yet what we do with the hurt and uncertainty and fear is so critical to our own health, and to the health of those we love.  I’m not just talking about this virus and these recommendations we have been given, I’m talking about that and more. 

This is not about a “to-do” list… “how to survive March 2020”. If you are like me, though, you would prefer that, right?  We want lists and proven methods, and some demonstrated security that creates a sense of control.  I don’t have answers, and if we are honest, we really don’t have even an illusion of control anymore.  San Francisco just told everyone to “shelter in place.”  Things are changing by the hour.

I do have a few Scriptures hidden in my heart, side by side with Coach Wooden!  One of them is pretty much all of 1 John 4.  John talks about love so much in this chapter, especially verses 7-21.  It’s a great place to land in the midst of change and anxiety.  “Beloved, let us love one another….  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another….  God is love….  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.  We love because He first loved us.”

I think one of the reasons Coach Wooden was and still is so beloved to so many is that he loved people so well.  Maybe one of the gifts of these days is time…time for more love.  We have time to be still and receive love from God in the quiet hours. We can choose to be still and let Him love us.  We can let Him fill our hearts…how many times have you felt like you were running on empty in the past few months?  Now we can take the risk to be still and let Him come meet us and fill us.  Love is powerful.  God’s love is the most powerful of all.

Love God, love people.  Love your neighbor as you love your self.  Enjoy the quiet, soak up all the love He has for you.  Oh, how He loves us….  I am praying for an outbreak of love in our hearts that overflows onto others, diminishes fear, increases our strength, and sustains us through these challenging days.  Lord willing, before we know it, we will be back on the courts and fields playing the games we love too.  Until then, let’s know and believe the love God has for us…and let’s get determined to love each other in new and creative ways. 

Debbie Haliday

Debbie Haliday is currently the director of Restoration Sports, a non-profit which works to encourage and support women in sport as well as to lead camps and clinics for underprivileged children in the United States and Mexico. Haliday worked as Program Director for UCLA women’s basketball from 2013-2019. Her duties included mentoring student athletes, overseeing social media, camps and clinics, community service and assisting with team building.

Prior to serving at UCLA, Haliday coached girls’ high school basketball for 25 years and was a K-12 athletic director. From 1996-2007 she served as the Regional Camp Director for Southern California Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Haliday was also the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Biola University from 1990-1995.

As a student athlete at UCLA, Haliday competed on both the women’s basketball and softball teams, earning National Championships in both sports in 1978. She was an All-Regional second baseman and All-Conference guard.