Woodside talk: Learning life lessons from sports Woodside talk: Learning life lessons from sports (December 31, 2003)

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

There were some rapt faces recently in the library of Woodside Elementary School when two Hall-of-Fame sports pros stopped by to talk: Stanford head tennis coach Dick Gould and former San Francisco 49er defensive back Ronnie Lott.

At the December 2 event, the two veterans spoke to about 75 parents and students on the topic of winning gracefully in sports and in life. The school's Parent Education Committee sponsored the talk as part of the Woodside Speaker Series.

"The best teams have the people who work best together," said Gould, who stressed time-tested values such as commitment, sacrifice, patience, a sense of humor and mutual respect.

Lott picked up on the theme. "If I didn't learn to get along with people, there's no way I'd have gotten to the Hall of Fame," he said. "You respect the game and you respect people who play the right way."

As someone in the audience pointed out, Lott appeared to practice respect regularly during his career by helping opposing players to their feet. He has little regard for showboating, noting in particular the behavior of current 49ers receiver Terrell Owens and retired defensive back Deion Sanders. "Don't emulate some of these guys that go slamming the ball," he said.

"You never see the best athletes rubbing it in someone's face," Gould said.

Both men stressed the importance of keeping things in perspective. Every game has a winner and a loser, and losing isn't the worst thing to have happen.

"It's a hard lesson," said Gould. "Excellence does not necessarily mean winning. ... Not reaching your goal is not necessarily bad. The worst thing you can do is run away."

Parents, in particular, need to understand this point, he said, and should not be asking young athletes who won or lost, but think instead about the challenges their kids are taking on.

Lott has plenty of victories to put into perspective, with four Super Bowl rings and 10 Pro Bowl appearances to his credit. "Life isn't about wearing Super Bowl rings," he said. "Life isn't about playing with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice."

It's about give and take, he said, about people helping each other. "I want to exhaust life," Lott said. "When you go to your grave, you want people to come ... to your funeral ... for all the right reasons."

Gould also took the long view. "If we can learn to appreciate the journey ... then you can look back on that journey and nobody can ever take that away from you."

During his 36 years as head coach, Gould's teams have won 17 national titles and have had three perfect seasons. Nine players he coached reached the top 15 in men's professional tennis rankings. Gould will retire as head coach in September 2004 to become director of tennis at Stanford.

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