WEATHER CLOSING: Pioneer Schools are closed Tuesday, Jan. 21, due to a state of emergency declared for WNY in response to extreme cold and weather conditions.
From maroon and silver as a kid to blue and gold as a young man Missoula Sentinel product @AJonessy burst onto the scene in his freshman season. I caught up with him and his parents over Xmas break to talk about his journey and what this season has meant to the Jones family
So What?
When I started doing the social media and photos for UNI one of the things that was most interesting to me was hearing how coaches speak to their athletes, what they yell during big matches, how they follow them out after losses, and how they hype them up beforehand. 10 years in and I could hear my husband from the stands, but sometimes with all the cheering you didn’t really hear what was said or with arms filled with babies I didn’t hear much at all.
This past weekend as I was matside during one of our guys’ matches, our guy got taken down and I heard Doug say “So what”. In that moment I realized just how much he uses that phrase. Guy takes you down- so what? You gave up back points- So what? Call didn’t go your way- So what? Call gets reversed- so what? Crowd goes crazy when you’re scored one- so freaking what?
It is that quick reminder of : if there is still time on the clock, there is still an opportunity to score points and win. It’s a phrase to say don’t let this one score, this one mistake, this one move take you out of the match mentally- go get the next one. If you’ve seen For love of the Game- it’s almost like “clearing the mechanism”.
You’re going to get scored on, things are not going to go your way, more than likely you’re going to fail more times than you succeed- so what? In the moment our mind must be able to focus on getting up, scoring the next match, controlling our breathing and remaining in the match. What is going to be that snap, that flip of a switch, that phrase that reminds you to move on or your athlete and get the next one?