This is your team

Perhaps he sits behind you in Bible Interp, speaking only just enough to remind you that he’s there. Perhaps you sit at a table adjacent to hers in the caf, noticing her when she laughs out loud at a joke told by a friend. Perhaps you pass him as you migrate from McClellan to Jones on a Wednesday morning.

They are your classmates; they are your roommates; they are your friends. They are our student-athletes. This is your team.

Some discovered their craft early — taking to the water, for example, as an infant and nurturing that passion into a finely-tuned skill.

Some found joy in a simple game of catch with a relative. Many have played their sport of choice since they were children, while family and friends shuttled them hither and yon to practices, games and meets.

They bought the necessary equipment, supplied the necessary encouragement and mended the unavoidable injuries — physical or emotional — that accompany human competition.

For some, sport forged a critical link in their lives, binding them to their loved ones in powerful and durable ways. For others, sport supplied access to a sterling education here at Ouachita.

The reasons for which they endeavor are myriad, but all share the determination to excel in sport. This is your team.

Sport illuminates that which is most noble within the human spirit — the better angels of our nature. 

It reveals our capacity to work in common cause and with uncommon dedication; it challenges us to persevere not only against opponents who seek our failure, but also against the limitations imposed upon us by age, time, body and mind; it demands that we transcend our own weaknesses and reach for a higher plane of being.

More than these, however, sport embodies the relentless pursuit of human perfectibility. And perfection is there — it’s available every time we take the field, court or slip into the water.

It lies in the culmination of months of work and pain, sacrifice and study, focus and fatigue — all committed to achieving one moment.

 It appears at the moment when intent and outcome intersect; when preparation and execution collide in harmonious convergence to create perfection: the perfect shot; the perfect serve; the perfect pass; the perfect catch; the perfect stroke; the perfect kick.

It is in these moments that we are given a glimpse of what’s possible, however fleeting — like a blinding shaft of sunlight piercing an overcast sky. A glimpse of human potential fully realized.

We celebrate sport as a people — by the hundreds, by the thousands and by the millions — because we recognize in our athletes our own pursuit of perfection.

Here at Ouachita, hundreds of student-athletes step forth daily to represent us and our beloved university. More than that, however, they reach for perfection — not merely for themselves, but for us all.

It is long past time that we support their efforts. Get into the bleachers and unleash your wildest enthusiasm. They deserve nothing less. This is your team.