Congratulations to Roosevelt High School
The Roosevelt Rough Riders won the Hawaii High School OIA Softball Championship this past weekend. Congratulations to Coach Okamura and his staff and of course, to the girls! Roosevelt showed an excellent display of teamwork with everyone contributing something. Apparently they also worked very hard this season in their training (I’ve heard rumors of tire flipping and sled dragging – and a player made reference to “all that running”) and it showed.
Congratulations Roosevelt!
In addition to all the hard work Roosevelt did, I think their success is also attributed to their approach. There was something Coach Clay said in the newspaper article about their championship win that caught my eye. It was a topic I had wanted to talk about, but didn’t really know how to go about it or explain it well. Hopefully by referencing this article, it will help, so I’m going to try.
In the article, Coach Clay said, “To be honest, we didn’t really think about (an approach to Mililani’s lineup),” Roosevelt coach Clay Okamura said. “Mililani is a mean team, take nothing away from them. But we didn’t think about (them), we were more concerned about what we had to do.” That’s a big part of why they won.
Too often we focus on our opponent. The pitcher has a great change up. Their batters can hit the ball. They’re great at putting down the bunt. They’re aggressive on the bases. Watch for the rise ball…etc, etc, etc. Not that it’s wrong to know your opponent, but I think it’s a mistake for them to be your primary focus. Read more…