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FRIDAY NOTIONS
If You Arrive Five Minutes Early
How many minutes late are you?
Anyone that’s ever participated in any sport has probably learned that “If you’re ten minutes early, you’re already five minutes late.”
My high school football coach was a retired Lt. Commander in the Navy. He retired before Vietnam and was an excellent coach. We learned this rule because of Vince Lombardi, the coach of the Green Bay Packers. Our Coach admired and respected his choices, plus it was also his Alma Matter.
Like many, I was late on my first day of football practice with Coach Snyder. Being on time or early was not that important. Man, I was sure wrong. If you were late, he singled you out and placed you in a holding area. Maybe you’ll show up on time; perhaps I’ll use you. Seems fair.
This was a serious notion that I needed to learn. So I vowed to myself that I would always be twenty minutes early.
What happened?
That first day there must have been half of us that were “late.” Late is late. The next day there were about ten guys. As far as I know, they never played in a scrimmage or even participated in drills. Even if that was the only day out of three they were late, anyone on the third day was cut from the team. If anyone was late for…