On College Campus

Student Learns to Step Out of the Shadows

By Tommy Cochran

I always wanted to play sports. I was involved with them all the time while I was growing up. I love the rush that I feel when I’m part of team, working together to accomplish a victory. I‘ve used the lessons I’ve learned on the court and in the dirt in every aspect of my life. Being involved in athletics helped me work hard to do well in school, maintain good relationships and advance myself.

When I started high school in St. Louis, however, something changed and presented me with a life lesson that has taught me about myself and who I am and who I want to be. I entered a school where people I love and admire had already established themselves.    There I was, a first year, a young scrappy kid full of ambition. However, it was an ambition that I was emulating, not an ambition that I had discovered for myself.

At my high school, my father was the director of admissions and the assistant basketball coach. My brother was already a star point guard on the basketball team. So into their shadows I went. They are people I admire and who are examples of the kind of people I want to be, but I also wanted to discover myself. I wanted to find out who I was and set my own career as a student athlete. I didn’t want to repeat my brother’s career and constantly be compared to him, so it taught me a great lesson.  I also discovered an important life tool: goal setting.

After my brother graduated, I wanted to leave my legacy. I wanted to play as many sports as I could and do the best I could in school, hoping that somehow people would remember me for me and not as Ty’s (my brother) younger brother. 

Before my senior year, I sat down with my basketball coach, as was customary. We talked about the coming season and the things that I needed to improve. Then we talked about dreams and wishes and we set a goal. It seemed weird to set a goal like this, and it didn’t seem like something that would happen. We decided that my goal would be to break the record for three-point field goals in a single season. The record was 57. In games I was always focused on the game and not what my stats were, so it just seemed impossible.

I played my season with this in mind but I used this goal to concentrate on doing the best I could. It helped! I had an amazing season, and yes, I broke the record. I had 58 three-point field goals that season. While I was at it, I broke the single game record with 7! 

Here I was just trying to do my best to leave a legacy for all the hard work that I did, and by setting what seemed to be an unreachable goal, I did it. It taught me how to work toward something no matter how big and unreachable it seemed. It taught me that by staying focused, other things could open up just by my working hard. Once again, I had learned something about life from athletics.

Now I’m a first year at Avila University and I’m back in the shadows of great players who have been here longer than I have. I guess I will have to work hard to set my own legacy. However, now I know what to do. Set a goal. I already have a goal of graduating and getting that degree. Now I just need to add basketball and see what my hard work can do. Again.

Tommy Cochran is a freshman at Avila University in south Kansas City, Mo. He is a point guard on the university’s basketball team.