Feb. 4, 1987 on staying power Joe Paterno has coni' piled one of the best rec - 'ZM ords in college football while emphasizing aca |. demic excellence. In 20 -A years as PenrfState’s head coach, he has never had a los ing season and has competed in 17 postseason bowl games. His teams have been ranked first in the country in four of the last eight years. Equally important to Pa terno is the classroom per formance of his student athletes. Eighteen of his play ers have been named first team academic all-Americans and twelve have received NCAA postgraduate scholar ships, ranking Penn State in the top five teams nationally according to a recent NCAA report. Having a bad start was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. We went 5 and 5 my first year, then lost the opener the following year. Everybody was placing bets on who would succeed me. Had we been moderately success ful, I never would have questioned the way I was coaching. Now I con stantly question everything I do. Success is a journey I never get very elated over a win, be cause, as Churchill said, “Success is never final.” Likewise, I never get de pressed over a loss. I look for the les son in it. If you’re knocked down, you can’t lose your guts. You need to play with supreme confidence or else you’ll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit. You must always do what you’re afraid to do People aren’t just lucky. Good things happen to them because they’re will ing to take chances. I don’t ever want to think about ties. If you don’t win, you don’t win, but at least you have the experience of going for it, of making something useful happen through your efforts. You either get better or you get worse Yau can never stay the same. All of us are changing every day. Every thing we read or see or do makes us different in some small way. If you think you can come off a practice field the same player you were when you went on, you’re kid ding yourself. If you practice well, you’ll be better. Some players think that when Saturday comes, they can get by on natural ability, that practice isn’t important. That’s foolish. In our Capital Times league, everyone is good. If you want to be #l, you better get yourself ready. That’s also why I emphasize academics so much. Preparing for a game is like preparing for life. You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional. Profes sionalism has nothing to do with get ting paid for your services. One of the things we look for in play ers is honesty. If you accept people who are only interested in a flashy car and handouts from alumni, they won’t have much staying power. To be consistently good takes commit ment to the good of the group. Coaches have to be honest, too. Too many make promises they can’t keep just to sign a kid. When he shows up on campus, he discovers he has to make the team just like every one else. Then he gets disillusioned and morale is lowered. It’s easy for first-stringers to have good 'morale. But what about the guys who almost never get to play? If they have good morale, then every The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital We only promise a fair shake one has it. And the only way every one will have it is if everyone believes he has had a fair shake. To win you must play as though you can’t lose We’ve had five undefeated regular seasons and three all the way. To have a 10 and 1 or 9 and 2 season isn’t exactly what our fans hope for today. The secret to performing well un der that kind of pressure is poise. To develop poise, you need to con stantly subject yourself to more stress than you’ll find in games. Then when you find yourself in a difficult situation, you react confidently. Our players work so hard in prac tice, Saturdays seem easy by compar ison. We go out to have fun and it shows on the scoreboard. In that sense, I feel my greatest ac complishment has been to keep foot ball in its proper perspective. You don’t know what you have until you have to use it Football is only a tiny part of a kid’s total emotional, physical, and intel lectual development. All I ask is that they give it their best. If we win, great. If we lose, there’s always next Saturday. If we can’t get knocked on our rear end once in a while and come back and be better, I’m going to be awfully disappointed. You don’t know what you have until you have to use it. Page 11
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers