ERIE, Pa. – As I prepared to take photos at the first day of volleyball practice, I couldn't help but notice that not a single player was dressed in team-issued gear. I saw cutoff t-shirts and pink zebra-striped shorts, high-school jerseys and a wide array of Asics. It was about as far away from the standard identical grey t-shirts, black shorts and green shoes as you could get.
I was completely puzzled but continued on with my photography adventure, eager to capture the first day for a photo gallery.
After I snapped my first photo of head coach
Ryan Patton and a player diligently studying the new whiteboard filled with instructional material, I continued to stare at the team in disbelief that they were not in team-issued practice gear.
Patton must have sensed my stress. “We're earning the right to practice today,” Patton says after hurrying to my side. “I'm pretty excited about it.”
“Okay,” I said. “What exactly does that mean?”
To the 2010 edition, it meant achieving a certain list of things together before they “earned” the right to get their practice gear and have a “real” practice.
And since I arrived on Tuesday morning to the sight of grey t-shirts, black shorts and green shoes, I was relieved that the players had earned the right to practice.
The Lakers had
• exhibited a proficiency at ball control,
• knew everybody's name in the gym,
• knew bits of personal information about other teammates,
• recited a quote from the team's summer reading assignment “Man's Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl
• and passed a conditioning test
which allowed their locker room to be stocked with practice gear and new equipment.
“I heard about this from a former player of Bill Neville (a former USA and Canada Olympic and University of Washington coach),” explains Patton. “The criteria are our own and change from year to year, but for all intents and purposes, I stole this idea from Coach Neville. This is the first of a whole bunch of things we do during the year in which my explanation to the team begins 'there's this great coach named Bill Neville.”
Patton, the Lakers sixth-year head coach, conducted the “earn your right to practice” exercise so that his team will be ready to get to work on achieving high goals for the 2010 season.
And based on the quote the team had to memorize, it looks like this year's edition is more than ready to earn their right to practice and much more.
“Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – the ability to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” – Viktor Frankl.
