As a sports fan, I have found inspiration and interest in uplifting sports movies.  As a former coach, I have used clips from certain movies in an attempt to inspire my team to do their best.  I’d like to share my insights here on three movies in particular that I have used for motivational purposes.

Although I am not the first or the last coach to use sports movies as inspiration, what makes my experience in this area rather unorthodox is that I may be the only one to ever do it in the non-sports arena.  My experience in coaching sports is limited to my one season as captain of my college intramural basketball team that infamously lost a game 63-2, as well as the time I took over as acting coach for one game for my church league softball team and lost 29-4.  Rather, my coaching background comes mainly from several years leading a Bible quizzing program for teens at church, plus three years as a high school academic team sponsor.  So, even though I did not use these movies as the coach of a sports team, I figured the lessons and inspiration that can be gained from them would still translate.

It would be this time of year when our Bible quiz team would either be at the annual national competition or cramming in the days leading up to it.  The fact that it would be at this time of year is what led me to think of this and write about it here.  So, naturally, it would be at this time of year when I would spend valuable practice time that I could have spent helping them study, or on practice questions, that I would spend showing them one of the following clips from the following movies:

Movie #1 – Hoosiers

Hoosiers is my favorite movie of all time.  This 1986 basketball film stars Gene Hackman as the basketball coach of fictional Hickory High School in Indiana.  The movie is inspired by the true story of the 1954 Milan Indians who won the Indiana high school basketball state championship despite being one of the smallest schools in the state.  Although most of the events of the movie itself are fictionalized, it’s definitely a classic, especially as someone who grew up watching high school basketball in Indiana.

My favorite scene from the movie comes from the regional championship game.  With Hickory ahead 54-50 but no more bench players available, they are forced to put in Ollie the team manager as their 5^th player at the end of the game.  They promptly lose the lead, and Ollie is thrust into a position to shoot two free throws with three seconds left, and his team down 55-54.

As you can see in the clip above, Ollie would hit the two free throws to win the game.  There are two lessons we can take away from this clip. First, even if you don’t think you’re going to contribute, always be ready.  You never know when you might be counted on to help the team when they need you the most. And secondly, a little encouragement goes a long way.  After a Linton player tries to intimidate Ollie, Merle (#12) encourages him.  Perhaps this made the difference and helped Ollie make his free throws.  But regardless of the result, encouragement at least makes for a more positive experience.

Hickory would of course go on to the state championship game.  (Because first, this is inspired by the true story of Milan’s state championship team, and second, how many sports movies don’t have their team going to the championship?)  The final scene is also a classic, with Jimmy Chitwood sinking the game-winner to mirror the way the finish to Milan’s game played out in real life.  This might be most people’s favorite scene, as it was the championship scene, but I’ll take Ollie’s moment to win the regional as my favorite.

Also, my favorite speech from this movie comes from Coach Norman Dale before the regional championship game.  “Forget about the crowds, the size of the school, their fancy uniforms.  And remember what got you here.  Focus on the fundamentals that we’ve gone over time and time again.  And most importantly, don’t get caught up in thinking about winning or losing this game.  If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game.  In my book, we’re going to be winners!”

Movie #2 – Miracle

Although Hoosiers is my all-time favorite movie, Miracle at least ranks on my top ten list of favorite movies.  This 2004 movie re-captures the magic of the Miracle on Ice, in which the 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team shocked the world by beating the Soviet Union and winning the gold medal. Below is a clip from the movie showing coach Herb Brooks’ pre-game speech.  I showed this clip to my team, and would sometimes borrow and paraphrase this speech for our own competitions, in an attempt to be both inspirational and humorous:

My paraphrased speech would go something like this: “Great moments are born from great opportunity.  And that’s what you have here today.  That’s what you’ve earned here today.  One quiz.  If we quizzed against them ten times, they might win nine.  But not this quiz.  Not today.  Today, we jump with them.  Today, we quote with them.  And we shut them down because we can!  Today, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.  And we were meant to be here today.  They’re time is done. It’s over. I am sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have.  This is your time!  Now go in there and take it!”

Also as a result of this movie, we also adopted the “U-S-A!” cheer before our competitions…just because.

Humorous parodies aside, this at least sets the proper mindset that if you want to be successful in a competition, whether it’s sports or otherwise, don’t worry about if the other team is better than you.  Don’t be intimidated by the fact that the other team is supposed to be really good.  If Team USA had simply accepted defeat going into the game, there’s no way they would have actually won.  So, that’s something we can all take away from the movie Miracle.

Movie #3 – Facing the Giants

Facing the Giants is another one of my top ten favorite movies of all time.  This 2006 film by the Kendrick brothers features the story of a struggling football coach at a Christian high school who experiences a remarkable turnaround both on and off the field.  The movie is written from a Christian perspective, which fits in line with the fact that I would show this to a group of teenagers at church.  The most famous scene in the movie is the “death crawl” scene in which coach Grant Taylor puts his underachieving best player through a practice drill to have him actually give his best effort.

I adopted this scene for some of my own pre-game speeches as well.  “Give me your best!  Your best!  Your very best!  Do not quit!  Just keep going! Your very best!”  Granted, quizzing doesn’t take the physical exertion of football, so in the non-sports arena, some of this speech translates more to humor than actual physical effort.  But some of it translates to the principle of the matter as well.  That being, give your best in whatever you do, whether its sports or other competition, or school, or work, or whatever it is.

Other clips from this movie translate to all of life as well, whether it be competition or whatever you do.  Namely, Coach Taylor’s speech to his players about the main purpose of the team (if the main purpose was to win ballgames, it would all be meaningless).  Also, the end of the championship game (because yes, this was another sports movie in which the team advances to the championship game) provided a great scene, when the backup kicker had to be called on to attempt a game-winning field goal that was 12 yards longer than he’d ever kicked before.  It essentially provides the same lesson as before, to not accept defeat, no matter the odds, but to try your best and live with the result.

So, in my experience as a Bible quiz coach, I showed certain clips from Hoosiers, Miracle, and Facing the Giants.  Although I showed three of these clips above, part of me wanted to show even more, but I didn’t want to be excessive in the number of YouTube clips I posted on here.  Feel free to look them up yourself though.  I can’t necessarily say that these scenes helped us do any better in competition.  But they at least provide lessons and a certain mindset (not to mention being entertaining to watch).

If you’re looking for a sports movie to watch (or re-watch), these movies have my recommendation.  If you’re a coach of any team, whether it be a team currently playing in this year’s NBA Finals, or a T-ball team for 2-year-olds, or participating in next week’s Bible quiz nationals, maybe you’d even like to borrow some of the coach’s speeches from these movies and use them yourself to motivate your team.

What’s your favorite sports movie?  Scene?  Quote?  Feel free to let me know in the comments.  Until next time, I’m Ryan, and I hope you’re all enjoying your summer.

“And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it.  And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground.  Amen.”  –Preacher Purl (Hoosiers)