Six Pillars of Character

The ‘Six Pillars of Character’ are characteristics of an individual that when practiced will allow an individual to excel in all walks of life.

The first being responsibility. On this team you have responsibility to yourself, the coach, your parents, and the rest of the school. You have to be responsible for your own actions and you must show up on time and perform to the best of your ability. This includes trying to eat right, going to bed early, and doing well in school. You are a Catholic Student Athlete, and in that order is your priority. If you are failing a course you are not eligible to run. How you perform throughout the season reflects on me as coach. Staying up late, never showing up for practice, eating 14 tacos 1 hr before a meet all lead to poor performance. You may not care but I do. I only care about two things your health and you getting better as the season progresses. Your teachers, fellow students, and principal are all honored by your great performance as an athlete.

The second pillar is trust. Lying can often be like a drug. You lie once innocently about one thing just to test or find out something. Eventually the lying will grow and fester into a daily routine. Some people lie because they do not like what they have done or what they have achieved in life.

The third characteristic is caring; to do unto others as you would want done to you. This is well known as the ‘Golden Rule.’ Any one who lives by a double standard is both illogical and immoral. This includes bullying. If someone is not laughing with you then maybe they are not enjoying you picking on them. 

Citizenship is simply put ‘all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.’ The most applicable form of citizenship in high school is bullying. If you see someone else being bullied, stick up for him or her. Imagine this scenario, a boy is bullied because he is not athletic on the basketball court in grade school including his 8^th grade year simply because he is short and stockier than the other athletes. When high school comes along he never participates in a sport for fear of being ridiculed even worse. Instead he finds friends somewhere else. The first people he comes across is the thespians, but he hates plays, the next people he comes across are ‘drugies.’ They quickly like him because he gives them money that they can use to buy more of this awesome drug. He loves them because he finally feels like he belongs somewhere and thinks that they actually care about him. After all they always call him to ‘hang out.’ He always has a feeling of ‘euphoria’ around them and thus associates the good feeling with being around these kids. In the end he lost his best friend in a car accident, he got expelled from high school, he moved out of his parents house to move in with his girlfriend who was a crack dealer, has spent thousands of dollars on lawyer fees for the never ending list of illegal charges, and now he spends every day experiencing something called tardive dyskinesia, a side of effect of drug abuse, where he can’t even control his own mouth anymore. By the way when all this happened he was only 21 years old.

Fairness is the fourth characteristic of a successful individual. This includes not cheating on a test to sportsmanship on the field. If you cheat admit that you cheated. If you are faster than someone encourage a fairer race when in practice. You should want this because it will force you to try harder. Do not be afraid to fail. Try to make races fairer by giving your opponent the needed advantage.

Respect is the last of the characteristics. The things you do off the field such as drugs and alcohol regardless of whether they are legal will only foster dependence, and cripple you into a life long struggle with whatever it is. My only advice is to stay away from others who frequently choose to do drugs but invite them to hang out with you only if they choose to not do it. If they want to do whatever it is then make them leave, the temptation can be too strong. Allow them to understand you love them but hate the drug. Yes some people have taken a drug once or twice or a dozen times and still turned out to be successful normal people who never were addicted to the drug with no harm done. But I bet if you ask them they will most likely regret that they ever did the drug only 5 years later. Others though who have addictive personalities take it once and they are hooked and still other have a personality somewhere between the last two personalities and take a risk of becoming addicted. The fact is most people do not want to admit they are addicted to a drug or alcohol because that means they are no longer in control of their life. No one has any idea how addictive their personality is until it becomes a problem. So the best bet is to stay away and never do it once. Encourage those who do drugs to join your team. One problem they may have developed since their addiction is self doubt and low confidence. So do not be surprised when they say “no I can not run.” Take the initiative to convince them they can be great.