Leading from the Bench
In most cases, it’s easy to put all of our attention on the people in the spotlight. In athletics, this is typically the player who is scoring the most, the coach or team with the most wins, the 1 percenters.
Shining the spotlight only on these outliers can leave the rest of us feeling like catastrophic underachievers, when in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. Should the outliers be celebrated for their uncommon excellence? Absolutely. Should we admire them and try to incorporate some of the methods that have made them successful? For sure. Should we compare and shame ourselves for not achieving the same level of excellence? Not if you want your sanity!
In basketball specifically, guess the number of collegiate coaches at the Men’s NCAA Division I level who have won 80% or more of their total games in their careers.
Answer? Two. Hit this link for the full list.
Or, guess the number of men’s collegiate players across all levels who average more than 20 points per game (in 2023)?
Answer? 105. Sounds like a lot… until you realize that’s out of a pool of 18,816 players… or, 0.005%.
The Wooden Way
John Wooden, one of those two coaches with the 80% + winning records, was well known for how he defined success. In his autobiography, Wooden, he talks about how he was just as proud, if not more, of the success of the teams that didn’t win national championships as those that did, because for him, winning games was not what it was about.
“True success is attained only through the satisfaction of knowing you did everything within the limits of your ability to become the very best that you are capable of being. Success is not perfection… you can never achieve perfection as I understand it. It’s giving 100% of your effort, body, mind, and soul to the struggle. That you can attain. That is success.”
The important take away is that you’re not a failure if you don’t don’t arrive at the level of the 1 percenters. You can be an expert at something without being a superstar.
To become an expert, a person needs countless hours (10,000 and more they say) practicing, preparing, struggling, succeeding, obsessing, and repeating this process over and over again.
And you must love the work.
That type of relentless dedication certainly isn’t for everyone. It’s for the committed few who at whatever point in their life, found and fell in love with their passion. They knew that without it, their reason for existing felt a little less important. And they knew with it, that they would do whatever it took to be great at it.
The Devine Way
We most often celebrate the people who have made it already, not those who are currently in their struggle, working to overcome and make something of themselves.
As an athlete development coach, celebrating the struggle is one of my favorite things, second only to getting to be in the struggle with that individual.
It is uncommon to find a person who also thrives in the struggle, and rare to find someone who is so selfless that they are willing to do whatever it takes, from handing water to their teammates to working to be as uplifting as possible, without any expectation of anything in return.
Luke Devine cheering for his teammates at a home game in Anchorage, Alaska.
One individual in particular who all of us, from the starters to the bench warmers, from coaches to fans, can learn from, is Luke Devine. Born in Wasilla, Alaska to a family of athletic royalty, Luke is the third of his family to put on a Seawolf jersey for one of Alaska Anchorage’s basketball teams.
In fact, he is the fifth in his family to play a college sport. That is an incredible feat of its own given that only approximately 4% of high school athletes will go on to play at the collegiate level for the NCAA (for basketball specifically).
Having had the privilege to coach Luke’s older sister, Alysha Devine (now Anderson), who was an incredible competitor, selfless beyond belief, tough as nails, extremely coachable, and an amazing human being, her younger brother is a spitting image.
The Devine’s are a clan of classy winners, whose impeccable character is on generational display, even in the most unideal of situations such as playing limited minutes as a walk on.
Coming off of a year off from playing, Luke made the decision to walk on to UAA. A bold choice, given that, again, the chances of playing at the next level are so limited. With just being on the roster, Luke is already quite literally a 1 percenter, as only 1.0% of high school players will move on to play at the DII level in men’s basketball.
As many of us may know and have witnessed, it’s horribly easy for a young person to mope and be a lemon drop on the bench because they’re not playing.
That said, one of the most impressive qualities about Luke as a player is not his stat line, it’s the way he selflessly gives to others from the bench. The way he leads from the bench.
“I want to do what I can to help my team win, and if that just means cheering as loud as I can and giving my brothers advice from the bench, then that’s what it takes.”
If you are currently in the process of working your way to more playing time, consider the golden lessons Luke shares in the video below. Drop a comment or a question for Luke or Coach Alysa and we’ll get back to you!
And last, but not least, make sure you get out next season to watch Luke and the University of Alaska Anchorage Men’s Basketball team!
