Troy on Troy - Learning From a Loss

On a cool Friday night in late November, 1981, my small piece of the World was about to be shaken upside down. A bunch of kids on both sides of a football field, coaches, fans and interested on lookers watched with anticipation but had no idea of what they were about to see. Edison High School's football team was ranked #1 in the State and most National polls. They played host to Servite, a Catholic school with a strong tradition but admittedly having an off season. They met at Orange Coast College in the first round of the C.I.F. Southern Section playoffs. A game that changed lives forever.

At the time, Edison was coming off a perfect 14-0 season from the year before and somehow, had gotten better. At 10 – 0, we were riding a 32 game winning streak, longest in the State and in reality, one of the most talented high school teams to ever put on pads. Depth at every position, well coached and well documented in the papers, local TV, etc. There was so much talent that off that team, 17 people ended up playing in College at Division 1 schools including 5 at USC, Notre Dame, Kansas, Stanford, Oregon State, Weber State, San Diego State and the list goes on. Honestly, we were the shit!

We didn't know a whole lot about Servite except they had "snuck" into the playoffs with a 5-5 or 6-4 record. They had no chance.

Great news had been announced that as soon as we dispatch with Servite, we were going to play St. Paul, they were undefeated and the match up was so big that we were going to play at Anaheim Stadium for the 4th time in two years.

Let's just say we had an off night. The best football player I have ever seen play in person at any level, Dave Geroux, broke his arm and the pads came off at halftime. We couldn't move the ball, we had turnovers and in general, just a terrible night. If we played them 100 times, that would have been their only win. We ended up losing 7 to 14. High school career over, out of the playoffs, done.

In a flash, truly in the blink of an eye, what we thought was ours wasn't. What was sure to happen, hadn't. I was 17 years old and now what the heck was I supposed to do. I was not used to losing football games. Our freshman team was undefeated and unscored on. My varsity record was 24 - 0 going into the game against Servite.

After the clock had made it final and hit 0:00, chaos filled our sideline. There were guys throwing helmets, tears, I was in quiet shock. I remember that at Servite, win or lose; they have an after game tradition of going thru a quick routine, not cocky at all but classy. It seemed to last forever and I can still see and here it with my eyes open or shut to this very day. It would have been impossible for the older Troy of today to explain to the 17 year old Troy the importance of that game prior to being played.

I have learned more from that loss then if we would have beaten them by forty and gone on to win everything. Don’t get me wrong, I hate losing, in fact, that was the very first lesson I learned that night. Without going thru each and every epiphany from that night, I just felt like sharing what I think was the most significant learned life lesson. What has had the biggest impact on the 45 year old Troy.

How do you handle adversity? How do you react when things go poorly or horribly? That is what makes you, uniquely you. Victory is easy. Losing shouldn’t be. It should be hard to accept and taste bitter and everything should be done to prepare to avoid defeat. But defeat comes. How do you deal with it? Cry, throw things, yes, maybe a little at first but you rebound. You get stronger and look forward to the next battle. I have been so very fortunate in my life to have so many more victories then losses but still I find that I am tested by the things that don’t go right. They test me but do not define me. Don’t make a sale, move on to the next guy. Learn from it and adapt to make the next one.

On many occasions, I have actually thought back to that night when MY World came to a brief but sudden stop. I remember telling guys to pick up your helmets, carry your head high; I was screaming this and didn’t know why. I think I was the last guy in our locker room, I couldn’t leave the field. I had so many great moments there, I was looking back and understood that things were different now; I was never going to be on that field with my friends in battle again. Not that stage. I just this moment got a chill as I could actually recall the smell in the air. The locker room was heavy with the scent of despair but the air outside was fresh with hope, crisp with uncertainty and clean like a fresh slate. That chapter of my life was over and things were going to get better.

For most of us on that team, things did get better, much better. I know it took some of us longer then others to get over the loss. It sometimes saddens me to think of “what if.” But for the most part, I look back and think, “what if it hadn’t happened.”

Fight On!

Troy