Belief in self

By Ed Piper

One of the personal benefits of having my own sports blog is recalling things from my own sports background that I wouldn't have remembered otherwise.

When I was a senior, 16 years old on the Camarillo High basketball team--destined to finish fifth in a six-team league--we faced powerful Santa Barbara High, which featured 6'8" Don Ford, who later would play for the Los Angeles Lakers.

In triple overtime, I stepped to the free throw line. I felt the pressure of the situation so much, that I literally could not feel the basketball in my hand as I shot.

The ball cleanly went through the hoop. I completely relaxed, bolstered by that successful free throw, and went on to sink three more free throws to help seal the upset win over the to-be-league-champion Dons.

From then on in my basketball-playing days--which included a year in community college and a year as an adult playing in Mexico City--I carried the confidence I gained from that one, numb free throw that went through the basket. "I made free throws in triple overtime against Don Ford. I can do anything," was the basic underlying thought that I took away from that fateful night in the Camarillo High gym.

Classmates carried me off the floor. A girl who had a crush on me (who I was too shy to ever date) came over, sobbing, and hugged me on the sideline.

But none of that embodied the powerful thought I fortified myself with from that day forward.

What if, with numb hand, that free throw hadn't go through the hoop? It would have been a struggle confidence-wise for me. I don't think it would have destroyed my confidence, but I would have had to work at it to overcome having missed that free throw. I had more chances, and I was a good-percentage free thrower.

All of this came back to me in reflecting on the importance of a student athlete believing in themselves after reading the morning report on an Angels reliever who has blossomed along with his self-confidence--Cam Bedrosian.

Your coach can believe you can do it. Your parents can believe you can do it. Even your teammates can believe it. But until you yourself do, it will show in the way you carry yourself, the way you react to failures, and ultimately in how successfully you perform.

Tai Nguyen, the goalie on La Jolla's CIF title-winning soccer team this past school year, confided to me when I interviewed him for a feature that he had had a similar experience to my own free throw numbness: Just before making the save in the shootout that gave the Vikings a win in the semifinals to send them to the championship game, he said he "blacked out", as he termed it, blanking out. He said, in a startling admission, that he didn't remember making the lunge that allowed him to block the penalty kick and make the save.

Like me, he experienced a surge of confidence in his already-growing skills as head of La Jolla's defensive unit that will, likely, benefit him from here on, just as my triple-overtime success did me.

Peter Sefton, though not a dominant player, at 6'5" believed in his effectiveness as a member of the Vikings basketball team early in my years covering LJHS sports. It led to his being recognized as Western League Player of the Year. Sefton was not a gigantic hulk at his height, not in basketball. Nor could he jump out of the gym. But he went out each game, I believe, knowing what he could accomplish, and he did it. I think his coach, Kamal Assaf, reinforced that confidence of his starting center.

Stone Scoppettuolo, recently graduated from La Jolla High, evinced this kind of belief in his abilities on the baseball field this past season. He came in and pitched a doozy of a playoff game, though he was more accustomed to being the hard-hitting centerfielder for Coach Gary Frank's team. He got the job done.

Now, in some of the sports that have club and travel teams, a lot of the players' development takes place away from the school court or field, so I'm not as much a witness to some of their steps of self-confidence and poise.

Another issue is that in some sports, including with girls, development can often come early, leading into high school or even the 10th grade. (My improvement as a basketball player took place late in my high school years.) I'm thinking of Abby Waldburger, who was a prodigy from early on in Vikings indoor volleyball, starting in her ninth-grade season. You could see when Abby took part in pregame warm-ups and when she stepped on the court for matches that she had already logged a lot of time in high-level competition--her body language communicated that ease and confidence.

What's really exciting about watching high school sports is following the trajectory of a young man or young woman out there on the field or court, and seeing the baby steps of skill level and self-belief while they take them. It's like eyeing an incubator, with the warmth and light of the light bulb of coaching instruction and game experience growing the individual from greenness toward maturity.

In reading over my entry, I realize we could apply the importance of one's believing in their own abilities to apply universally. A citizen or a scientist who gets the insight that they can make things happen, can make a difference, suddenly is vaulted toward participation or achievement that can bring a change-rendering breakthrough.