Blog 1
It was the district championship football game of my sophomore year. I had finally gotten my first varsity start. It was due to an injury but it was still a big deal to me at the time. I played the whole game and did alright. I definitely knew I could have played better and there was a lot to improve on. But overall, we still came home with a win. After the game on the field there was a medal ceremony. Essentially, the ceremony is just the entire team lined up and the school’s athletic director awards you a medal for winning the district. As Mr. Wagner, our AD, put the medal around my neck he looked at me and said, “Stand in, Stand out” with a big grin on his face. I remember being very confused by what he meant. For the time being I brushed it off but as the playoff season went on, every time Wagner saw me he would repeat his new mantra “Stand in, Stand out”. The best I could figure out of what he meant was that since I was filling in a position I was “standing in” but I guess the second part “stand out” is almost like standing out from the crowd. So that would imply that I not only did what was expected for a sophomore filling in a spot to do but exceeded expectations. The longer I think about this odd phrase that was thrown my way in celebration of a game, the more I think it can be applied to so much more than just football. In anything in your life, you should try to attack it with the energy to stand out from the crowd. Over the years, Wagner told me a lot of different things, not all as uplifting as this one was. One of my personal favorites he would tell me after any game, football or basketball, was that I was one of the dumbest smart kids he knows. Little backhanded compliments like that were expected from him, he was never one to inflate someone’s ego larger than his own. Another thing to remember about Wagner is that a lot of what he says can have more than one meaning and he often did that intentionally. So that is what makes me feel that those words he said after the championship were not just some random things he decided to say off cuff. I doubt he remembers the exact words he said to me like I do but I have always wondered how he would explain their meaning to me. Part of me feels that would almost run out the same way it did for Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights when he tells his father the entire quote he based his life off was “If you ain’t first, you’re last”. If you’re unfamiliar with how that played out Ricky’s father goes on to tell him that that phrase makes no sense at all and that he was probably intoxicated when he told Ricky that. So, I never did ask Wagner what that phrase “Stand in, Stand out” meant at the time, but for me it has definitely grown into something more.
