September was a busy month. Busy can be fun as long as everything has a priority. Along with home soccer, volleyball, and cross country events, we had all of our sports begin practicing in September. Our tennis, golf, and softball teams even played in tournaments, and we saw some great accomplishments. Our men's soccer team defeated Division I Presbyterian, our softball team defeated Division I Furman, our men's cross country team dominated our home meet, Sandra Campbell was twice named the Conference Carolinas "Player of the Week" in volleyball, and our women's soccer team finished the month with its best start in six years. September has set an incredible standard to our year of the remarkable in Fleet athletics.
It was easy to look at my calendar at the first of the month and see how busy it was going to be. The problem with calendars though are that they only list the predictable. I knew all about our scheduled events but I have learned that being an athletic director is more about putting out "spur of the moment" fires on a daily basis. Planning is great, but most of the time my daily plans don't always get much attention. I am often reminded of the Rascal Flatts song, "If you want to see God laugh, show Him your plans." I realize as I get older (I won't get carried away and say wiser) that you can't do everything so you better learn to prioritze and focus. No question daily fires have to be addressed and at times watered, but not all of them can be given the same amount of attention. There has to be a priority list determining how they are handled so that the right amount of focus is given. How do you decide on priorities? Lou Holtz always describes it as "WIN," What's Important Now. That is fairly easy in this job. One of the most fun things we did this month was take a group photo of one athlete in uniform from each team (see the top of the blog). As I look at this picture I don't need to determine what's important now. Any issues dealing directly with student-athletes is top shelf priority everyday. Our job as coaches and staff are to provide student-athletes with the best experience possible so any issues dealing directly with student-athlete experience have my focus. We dealt with some tough issues this month in regards to student-athletes. Some issues required decisions that were not so fun to make. Regardless, whether we make the right decisions or not, we know the priority. There isn't an NCAA report, a budget concern, or scheduling conflict that supercedes the student-athlete experience. I love the picture taken above because it represents all that Flying Fleet Athletics is about...the student-athletes. No matter how busy October gets, we will keep our eyes focused on them. For it is the student-athletes who create the remarkable in the land of the Fleet.
**Erskine Director of Athletics Mark Peeler post a new blog on the first Monday of each month**
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