Being Confident and Critical

What a weekend to be a Saline Hornet!  Friday our Football team defeated AA Pioneer 31-17 to win the District Title and its 10th game of the year – a school record.  That same day, our Girls Swim & Dive program laid the groundwork in preliminary events to comeback on Saturday and win their 4th consecutive SEC title.  Our Girls and Boys Cross Country teams, fresh off SEC and Regional Championships ran in the State Meet at MIS.  The Girls finished 3rd and the Boys took 6th place.  Our Volleyball team went 36-15-3 this year before falling to Bedford in the District Finals on Saturday night.

Earlier this fall our Girls Golf team won the SEC title and finished 7th in the State.  The Field Hockey team and Boys Water Polo had their most successful seasons ever.  The Crew and Equestrian teams along with Boys Soccer and Boys Tennis each had strong seasons.  Saline took 5 of 8 possible SEC titles this fall.

How does this level of success happen?  I believe from hard work and support from all involved – the student-athletes, coaches, parents, and the community.

I also feel it requires a mindset that embraces two things – being confident and being critical.  Our student-athletes need to be confident about facing the competition.  There is no doubt, our rivals across the State are working hard and aspire to out perform us.  The confidence to face this pressure and perform at a high level is key – and something our student-athletes are doing.  The other is being critical of our performances and realizing that we can always improve at what we do and how we prepare for the competitions.

Our school motto, “The Pursuit of Excellence” means we need to continue to strive to improve everything we do.  This is a key life lesson we want to teach and to have our students take with them as they move on from Saline Area Schools.