The Eye of The Tiger!

I don’t exactly remember the score that fateful night of our football game against Flowing Wells High but we were losing and doom was on the horizon. You couldn’t find a more dejected and pitiful group of football players anywhere that night…anywhere. We sucked and we knew it and to make matters worse we knew we could beat them. As we filed into the locker room, some of us were tired and downright pathetic, a feeling of apathy soon came over the team as we settled into some uncontrollable funk. Yeah that lasted about ten seconds, as we learned in the following minutes we were going to be exposed to the most rousing halftime speech ever. The kind of halftime speech that tears at your soul and reconstructs every priority and belief you ever had. The person who was going to deliver those words was Mr. Rasool.

A few words about Mr. Rasool, he was the coolest cat at Marana High School, I mean the man was our Free Enterprise Teacher and I learned more about myself and my identity as a young Chicano during my sophomore year. On the exterior he was the consummate professional in his slacks, dress shirt and tie sometimes with a blazer sometimes without. He was also the sponsor for the Karate Club and his classroom was adorned with Japanese tapestries of tigers and posters of his Master from the Dojo he belonged to. He was also the Junior Varsity Football Coach and practice was not just a bunch of meatheads lollygagging on the grassy field, there was serious philosophy and knowledge being passed on every afternoon. Coach Rasool, as we affectionately called him, represented all the positive measures that young men seek as they transition from boys to young men. He was our Mr. Miyagi and Malcolm X. On some days in his Free Enterprise class he would wear his dashiki and bring in his African drums and play for us, on those days he made me proud of who I was and my background and I thank him for that. As a football coach he wove in ancient Shinto and Zen thought into our strategies and so when he coached it was like you were learning the ancient art of zen football.

That night at the football game against Flowing Wells, he was Tariq Rasool the man. We were in the locker room for about 10 seconds sitting down and it seemed we were basting in our self pity. We were really overwhelmed but we couldn’t seem to pull it together. Maybe collectively we were waiting for a pat on the back and some words of encouragement and maybe a few words on how the line has to open up for the halfback or how the corners had to run to the ball. Perhaps the special teams weren’t forming the wedge the right way. We were expecting the routine speech and maybe we could chalk up the loss to being outmanned.

The coaches walked in one by one first Coach Robinson, then Coach Patterson, and last was Coach Rasool. Coach Rasool paced for a few seconds with an angry frown on his face. The other coaches stood there in solidarity with Coach Rasool looking down at the ground also pissed of as all hell. We were not going to get our pat on the back, nor were we going to receive any advice on running the Slot Left Sally play, or the Flea Flicker.

“I’m losing my wife over you guys!!!” were the first words out of his mouth. For those of you who have ever played organized sports, you know that is not how most halftime speeches go. As he said those first words he high stepped down the lockers causing every player to strap their helmets as if Coach Rasool was about to open a can of Whup Ass!

“I’m losing my wife, because I spend all my free time with you guys! Every night I am with you guys. Look at you, you look pathetic, you’ve already given up!” Speaking for myself, I felt responsible for his possible break up, maybe it was that missed tackle or maybe I should have blocked that pesky tight end who somehow got by me. Either way I was sure that was why he was going through marital turmoil. As I looked down the row of football players I think they were all thinking the same thoughts. He had our attention now…

“I thought that maybe she didn’t understand why I would want to invest so much time with you guys. Now I don’t know!” that really hurt, the guilt soon poured into every sweaty pore of my skin.

“The worst part is that you can beat these guys! They aren’t quicker than you, they aren’t stronger than you! They sure as hell aren’t smarter than you! So what the hell is wrong?

Yeah he was right! They weren’t smarter than us! I could be a lot quicker off the snap and they didn’t call me the Xav Monster for nothing. Collectively we all sensed that same feeling of resurgence, of our impending second wind. All the while he walked by us with a sense of urgency and his drill sergeant like approach with sensei stylings was lifting the spirit within us. He mentioned we needed to get our eye of the tiger back, he was the only one who talked about the eye of the tiger without sound corny nor cheesy. Soon he was giving orders and giving us hope that we might win after all. By the end of the speech we had come together as a team and were bursting at the seams ready to show those pesky Cabs how real men played football.

We lost the game that night. I think it was by a touch down or a field goal, but it was what most people call a moral victory. And in a sense it fit the title of a moral victory. He gave us a glimpse into the life of an adult other than our parents. As students, teachers are these exotic animals that you only see in schools and you never stop and think about what they go through and the travails that they face on a daily basis. Sometimes the ingratitude and the age appropriate defiance takes a toll on many teachers. I know its wrung me out to dry several times. But there is payoff. The payoff is when those students come to you a few years later and thank you for what you did to motivate them in their academic undertakings or maybe because you were there to lift them up when they needed it.

A few years later, I ran into Coach Rasool at a supermarket I was working at while I was a freshman at the University of Arizona. Right away he recognized me and asked me how I was doing at the U of A. I beamed as I told him that one of my first essays in college was an essay about that memorable halftime speech.

He laughed and said he wanted a copy of that essay. I told him “Of course,” and he walked to his car with his cart full of groceries to take to his family. I shook my head as I remembered his famous quote from his Free Enterprise classes “TANSTAAFL – Folks its simple There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!” Everyone must sacrifice something, just make sure that sacrifice is worth it.