I want to recognize and celebrate the Trinity College Men’s Basketball team winning the Division III Men’s Basketball Championship on March 20th in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Trinity Men’s head basketball coach is Jamie Cosgrove, my college roommate and teammate at St. Anselm College. Jamie’s Trinity team showed resilience, grit, mental toughness, and teamwork to upset NYU. Trinity also beat Wesleyan who had only lost one game all season (in the NESCAC to Trinity) to get to the final game.
I attended the Division III Championship game with three other St. Anselm teammates, some of who I hadn’t seen for 30 years. The beautiful thing about being part of a team is the deep engagement we have, even after decades, as we all went through a lot together as a team. The hard work, the ups and downs, wins, defeats, laughs, and tears all make up a brotherhood that lasts a lifetime.
Jamie invited his former teammates into the locker room after the game to celebrate with the team. He emphasized that their victory was a result of mental toughness and determination, and that they were representing themselves, their families, the Trinity community, and his former teammates.
I took a picture and shared it with a Trinity basketball dad whose son hit a crucial 3-pointer with 12 seconds left and got the MVP award. They shared a long emotional hug. What a great moment.
I shared some pictures with our leadership team here at Smith Brothers and included some of Jamie’s thoughts on how they won, especially after having such a horrible 3-point shooting game percentage. Here is what he summarized:
- What is so intriguing is how teams, whether Trinity Basketball or Smith Brothers teams, all have similar challenges and hurdles.
- The themes of success are very similar.
- The expertise in your role/technical skills are a staple yet it’s the grit and resilience shared with a team mentality that wins championships or consistently posts top quartile results in the business world.
- Key here is players need to believe in the values and standards of the team, align, and develop their skills and role performance for the betterment of the team and not themselves alone.
I describe this at Smith Brothers as the Me/We – The Me for the We.
Great teams see and align with a vision and standards of behavior. They need to believe and commit, and non-believers need to go. The united team then has players who form their individual contribution on behalf of the collective good which takes giving up pure individualism and having faith all are better when the team wins. Trinity players will certainly tell you this.
Imagine a player who is twelfth on the bench at Trinity. He will wear his NCAA National Championship ring forever and tell his grandchildren the story of the journey and the win, never mentioning the MVP or individual accomplishments. It will be the team story.
I never played on a National Championship team yet celebrating with my former St. Anselm teammates, this National Championship felt the same.
Me. We.
Joe