When I first created the Baltimore Bums intramural football team, I had no idea what to expect nor how to coach my friends into a cohesive team. I…
When I first created the Baltimore Bums intramural football team, I had no idea what to expect nor how to coach my friends into a cohesive team. I knew leading my team would be a trial by fire. However, the greatest question was whether I would let my failures let my team down or whether I would use these lessons to improve my leadership and strengthen our team. We were underdogs going into our first season.
It took us a few games to familiarize ourselves with the rules and strategies to win intramural football. Immediately, the schedule tossed us into competition against dominant intramural franchises like MEGA (Mechanical engineering graduate students), Chemballers (Chemical and Biomolecular engineering graduate students) and Robert Cohen's JHU Ravens. Miraculously, we had luck on our side and prevailed against Chemballers by a meager two points in the championship. A championship in our rookie year was certainly a morale booster. However, it seeded overconfidence in my coaching decisions.
We established ourselves as an intramural powerhouse in our second year by dominating teams in the regular season. Yet something felt off in the playoffs. Our quarterfinals and semifinals were closer than expected, with the latter needing a last-minute touchdown to secure the win. Unfortunately, overconfidence blinded me from seeing the difficulties that awaited us in the championship. During the semifinals, our quarterback Jonny Feng injured the UCL ligament in his elbow, which prevented him from throwing over 15 yards deep.
Nevertheless, I was too stubborn to change my game plan for the finals. I could have substituted him with our backup quarterback due to Feng's injury. Alternatively, I could have offered him extra linemen to boost his protection and give him more time to throw. My optimism, however, convinced me to overlook these options, and my decisions cost us the championship as our passing game sputtered and our quarterback was harassed by the opponents' rushers.
Afterward, our wide receiver Ethan Chang handed me Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy. He told me this book helped Patriots star receiver A.J. Brown rebound after some bad games last year. The quote "failure is the key component to growth" stood out. In times of discouragement and defeat, personal growth occurs. Yet personal growth is difficult without others holding you accountable. That was where my teammates played a pivotal role in our third and final season this year.
This is a source-linked briefing. Read the original report from Johns Hopkins University .