Get in the Game

Walls cousins, about 1950, take a break from football. LeRoy is the small one - second from right. LeRoy seemed to be among giants both here and against the Mountain Grove Panthers. 

Photo by

  
Margaret Walls  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO 

Football was in the air. It was our first game of the season and we were playing our arch rivals - - the Mountain Grove Panthers. It was my first game as a varsity Bulldog player. I was a junior 135-pound defensive end.

Coaches Cooper and Morton were rightfully worried. We were an inexperienced team playing one of the best teams in our conference.

But now the game was on and I was enjoying being a part of it. Since I didn’t know any better, as the Panthers ran my way I would go out to meet them - - taking on the blockers and generally getting the worst end of the deal. Coach Morton was thrilled with my play and especially with Gerald, the tackle beside me who always came over to stop the Panther runner.

We won the game and enough others during the rest of the season that we became conference co-champs. But as I played with the bruises I had received, I got just a whole lot smarter. Instead of directly meeting the opponents’ blockers I learned to step to one side and avoid the jolts and the bruises. Soon I had gotten so smart at my defensive end playing that I was sitting on the bench. It seemed that whichever way I side-stepped the blocker, their running back would go the other way.

After time sitting on the bench for much of a game or two, I decided to get back in the game. I knew I was going to get knocked around but I decided why go through the practice sessions to sit on the sidelines.

In life, as individuals or as a business, we can get in the game or we can take ourselves out of the game.

It’s our choice. We can meet each day cheerfully, doing our work quickly and accurately with a willingness to help our team in their tasks. Or we can do only what is absolutely required from us and never offer to help others.

Those who stay in the game and give it their best are the winners. The reward is respect, pride, self-confidence and much, much more!

12/31/1999