Words Worth Repeating

I just replied to this email and thought it was worth sharing.

Dear Mr. President,
Didn’t know who else to contact, but when I see excellence in attitude I like to acknowledge it. I am the father of the coach of Indiana Wesleyan, the team that beat you in the tourney. After the game my wife and I had occasion to speak to your coaches and players in the hallway. I was impressed by their excellent attitude, even after a tough loss. They were truly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such a great event. Even your leading scorer who hurt his knee, had to sit out and walked out on crutches, Cameron Coleman, had a positive attitude. He will get his problem fixed, rehab, and hopefully return next year. I hope I see him.
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Congratulations on helping lead young men to living life with an excellent attitude and expressing that to others, even in trying circumstances.
Jack Clark

​Dr. Clark,

It is hard to fully express my appreciation for your email. That fact that you took the time to communicate is impressive, and the message you sent was even more so.

It is of major importance that our students, especially our student athletes, represent us well. I was unable to get to Branson for our first two games and arrived just in time to see the game you refer to, but heard many comments about the character of our team from multiple sources. I recently posted on facebook that I hope our young men hear the accolades they are getting for character and behavior and they realize that character will be more important than accomplishment. As far as I am concerned, observations like yours mean more than a national championship.

We are blessed to have great coaches and their main emphasis is to instill character. Interestingly, as we began concentrating on character, we started to improve athletically. For a school of around 400 students we are blessed this year to have all-Americans in track and wrestling and nationally competitive teams in basketball and baseball. This can only be attributed to our faith in God and our emphasis on character. We had seven wrestlers in the national tournament two weeks ago and I heard the same types of comments from other coaches and parents.

It makes me proud to be associated with these great young men and women as well as perhaps the greatest coaching staff I have ever been associated with.

Congratulations to your team and their success. Your young men competed with class and integrity. There is hope for sports and for athletes as long as there are coaches like your son and Delton Deal.

Thank you again.

Steve Eckman