I am honored to have the opportunity to address this group of Triton graduates and loved ones here in attendance today.

Thanks for allowing us the opportunity to assist you in your academic careers. We are honored that you chose Iowa Central, and we don’t take for granted that you did.

My background is in education and athletics. I’m going to share with you some advice from having the privilege of working in collegiate athletics as a coach and athletic director for nearly 40 years. I have had the opportunity to learn a few things over these 40 years from a tremendously supportive family – and from the outstanding student-athletes and fellow coaches and staff members that I have had the honor of working with on a daily basis. I’m not going to preach to you, rather I am going to relay some concepts to embrace and some points for you to consider as you graduate and move forward into the next chapter of your life. I will end this address with a challenge to each and every one of us in this fieldhouse today.

I am only going to take 10-12 minutes of your time – so please tune in as best you can.

First, I have four concepts that I want you to consider embracing as you move forward.

CONCEPT No 1:

Just be a great teammate. As a head college football coach for 28 years, I always challenged our football squad members to be the best teammates they could possibly be. To me, that was always the greatest thing that someone could say about a football player – he was a great teammate. That was far more important than how talented someone was or where they stood on the depth chart. Being a great teammate is all about what type of person you are, not what job you will soon obtain or what school you will be transferring to. Being a great teammate is about being positive, being supportive, and displaying perseverance and grit. It’s about being someone that your family, your classmates, your co-workers, and your employer can count on to bring your best every day. Our college president challenges each employee here at Iowa Central to be a great teammate and to bring the best version of themselves to work daily. People admire and value teammates that they can trust to bring their best effort every day. Be one of those individuals that all can count on because of who you are and the consistency that you bring to your personal and professional relationships. Being a great teammate is a daily challenge – but it’s well worth the effort because it has a positive impact on others and makes you feel good inside as well.

CONCEPT No 2:

The second concept that I would like you to consider embracing is the fact that the “only thing in life that is constant is change”. We have all heard that – but what does it really mean? Just go ahead and accept the fact that your purpose in life and that your role in life will constantly be changing. Each time, as your role in life changes, you will step out of your comfort zone. Don’t fear stepping out of your comfort zone – embrace the challenge of stepping out of your comfort zone. Look at change as an opportunity and not as a threat. Change is what makes life fun, exciting, and exhilarating. Initially change might seem a bit unsettling – but if we all accept the fact that changes in our lives are inevitable – and accept the challenge of embracing change and viewing change as an opportunity to grow – things will all work out for the better. The saying “Do the best you can – with what you’ve got – where you’re at – right now” – is how I suggest you choose to view change – attack change and don’t run away from it. I will repeat: “Do the best you can – with what you’ve got – where you’re at – right now” – attack change – never fear it.

CONCEPT No. 3:

The third concept that I would like you to consider embracing is this:

The who you are is way more important than the what you are. Over the course of your lifetime the what you are will change from month to month, year to year, and decade to decade as you advance in your academic and professional careers. The what you are constantly changes within your family structure as well. However, the who you are, the intangibles that you bring to your family, the positive energy that you bring to your family, your friends, and to your co-workers – that smile, that sense of humor, your passion and competitive spirit – that’s what people remember. People don’t remember or really care about what title you held, or what occupation you had, or how much money you did or didn’t make. They care about how you treated them and what type of person you were to them. No one ever forgets that. Be true to yourself and who you are – and try your best to maintain the who you are as the “what” you are will constantly be changing. The who you are will always trump the what you are.

CONCEPT No. 4

The last of the four concepts that I would like you to consider embracing is this: This great game of life is a team game. We can’t play this game alone. We will always need the support of others on our journey. Always take the time to thank the people that have helped you and those that will be helping you on your journey. There have already been several people in your life who have assisted you on your high school and collegiate academic journeys. I challenge you to call or text at least one or two of those special people and just tell them “Thank you” for what they have meant to you and what they have done for you. And I challenge you to do that tonight. It will mean the world to them and it will make you feel good inside as well. I also encourage you – when you are doing this – to not be afraid to tell them that you love them – we don’t do that often enough – me included.

Next, I have eight points to always keep in mind as you go about your daily routine:

POINT:

#1) It doesn’t cost anything to be nice – be kind and smile – this is so simple but so powerful

#2) The best things in life – aren’t things. The best things in life are the people you surround yourself with, the relationships you have with your family, friends, co-workers, and the experiences you encounter on your life’s journey. That new truck or car that you purchase will make you happy for a week or so. That new house you buy, or build will make you feel good for the first two months that you live in it. Then you’ll figure out that it’s the people inside the house that make it a home and not how much money you paid for it to live there. Always covet relationships and experiences over things because the best things in life aren’t things.

#3) Always keep the 24-hour rule in mind: You have 24 hours to get over it – good or bad. Don’t ever get too up or too down. If things go great – awesome – enjoy for 24 hours and then get back to work. If things don’t go really well – too bad – feel sorry for yourself for a bit – but no one else is going to – get back on your feet and come back fighting. Learning is overrated unless it leads to change/improvement – figure out what went wrong – then fix it and move forward. If you have a tough decision to make (especially when emotions may be running a bit high) take the time to sleep on it before you make that decision. Most of us make better choices and decisions after we have slept on it, and we’ve let the heat of the moment subside a bit. Value yesterday – but live today. Live in the now – do everything you can to win today. The saying: “Yesterday is History – tomorrow is a mystery – today is a gift – that’s why we call it the present” – is so true: “Don’t underestimate today – Live in Today!!

#4) “If you always do what you’ve always done – you always get what you’ve always gotten” – that may be really good or that may be really bad. Most times it’s somewhere in the middle – Maybe you don’t need to change a thing (just keep doing what you’re doing) “If it’s not broken – don’t fix it” – or maybe you should slightly tweak how you handled a particular situation – just constantly evaluate and adjust if need be, to assist you in getting desired outcomes

#5) Always say please – don’t demand anything – ask nicely. Always say thank you – show people that you appreciate what they have done for you – and never be afraid to tell someone that you love them – be sincere and genuine when you use these words – they are powerful.

#6) Don’t waste any time worrying about things you can’t control. It’s a total waste of effort. Put all of your time, effort, and energy into working on things that you have control over. The good coaches spend very little time worrying about their opponent (they can’t control their opponent) – they spend an incredible amount of time and energy working to make their own team a little better every single day – as they have some control over that. Remember to spend time on things that you have control over – and don’t waste any precious minutes spending time on things you can’t control anyway.

#7) You have to have some fun. You need to be able to laugh. You need to be able to make a joke and relieve some tension. You need to work hard – but you have to have some fun at the same time. Life is way too short to grind hard every day and not have some laughter, smiles, and good humor each day as well. Most of the successful people that I know have a tremendous work ethic – but they’re happy – they can laugh at themselves – and don’t take themselves too seriously.

#8) The final point that I would like you to consider embracing is this: be proud of where you came from. Be proud of your hometown, be proud of your ethnicity, be proud of your high school, be proud of your elementary school teachers, and be proud of your high school teachers and coaches who have helped shape you into the person you are today. Here is what is so neat about society: No one cares if you were rich, poor, or middle class. No one cares what your ACT score was or what your HS GPA was, and no one cares if you were raised in a single parent home, had both parents in your life, or were raised by a grandma or grandpa, by an aunt or an uncle, by a brother or sister, or if you were raised in foster care. Here is what people care about: what kind of person are you and can we count on you to give it your best shot every day? And the beauty of it all is this: you get to control that every single day. We want you to be proud to be an Iowa Central graduate. A degree from this great institution stands for something. It is a degree that is highly respected. Be proud to wear the navy and white and to have the iconic interlocking IC logo on your caps, pullovers, and shirts. Please know that you are always welcome back here. It makes us proud when our graduates return to visit.

In closing my address today, I am going to issue a challenge to everyone gathered in this fieldhouse. I will challenge the graduates, their loved ones, our faculty and staff, the platform members, and myself. This challenge is simply termed: don’t fumble.

My college football coach was a man I greatly admired. His name was Jim Hershberger. We all called him “Coach Hersh”. He was big on keeping things simple and was excellent in communicating his expectations to us.

One of Coach Hersh’s core principles in winning football games was to have less turnovers than your opponent. Don’t fumble the ball when carrying it and don’t throw interceptions.

Quite frankly if you fumbled the ball in practice, you probably weren’t going to play in a game. Fumbling to Coach Hersh indicated that you didn’t value or cherish possession of the ball. Fumbling to him meant that you just didn’t care. He firmly believed that to win football games you needed to take better care of the ball and value the ball more than your opponent did. He often said: “squeeze the ball and it won’t come out – if you just hold the ball, it might come out”. To him – there was a big difference between squeezing something and just holding something.

Let me illustrate to this audience what the difference to Coach Hersh was between holding the ball and squeezing the ball.

This was holding the ball – if you did this – you wouldn’t play!!

This was squeezing the ball – you had better do it this way if you were going to play.

I want to take Coach Hersh’s concept of winning football games and apply it to a much bigger game than college football. I am going to take his concepts of valuing and cherishing possession of the ball – and squeezing the ball and not just holding the ball – to the greatest team game there is – the game of life.

My challenge to all of us is this: pick the three most important facets of your life and cherish them, value them, and squeeze them – and do so every single day. The three most important facets of your life may be different than someone else’s. That’s fine. Whatever those three facets are, cherish, value, and squeeze them.

For me it’s really simple.

The three most important facets of my life are:

#1) My family- I cherish them every single day and do my best to stay connected

#2) My faith- I value my faith every single day and seldom forget to give thanks

#3) My positive attitude and energy- I make a concerted effort to squeeze every ounce of positive energy out of my soul each day and try to bring a positive attitude in all that I do every day.

I don’t always succeed in doing this every day – but I make a concerted effort to cherish, value, and squeeze my three life guiding principles daily

Because here’s the deal folks: Every day when you wake up – you have a choice.

Are you going to cherish, value, and squeeze the three most important facets of your life and keep possession of them? Or – are you going to lightly hold on to them – when it’s convenient for you to do so – and take the risk of possibly losing them? That daily choice is up to you.

And we’re not talking about winning a college football game here. We’re talking about winning in the real game – the game of life.

So, as we move forward after today and step into the real world – I challenge every person here to take the advice of Coach Hersh: to value and cherish, the three most important facets of your life.

And I challenge you to squeeze them and don’t just lightly hold them. And whatever those three life guiding principles are that you choose – value, cherish, and squeeze them like this. And for goodness’ sakes don’t fumble.

Thank You and go Tritons.

Kevin Twait is the athletic director at Iowa Central Community College. This column was his speech at the college’s May 9 commencement ceremonies.