By Hal Lamar
"If you're average, you're the best of the worst." Those were sobering words from the head football coach at North Carolina A&T But those nine words from the mouth of Bill Hayes grabbed the attention of the young high school football players from the metro Atlanta schools attending the annual prep awards breakfast put on by the 100% Wrong Club.
Hayes was named this year's Ralph C Robinson Coach of the Year and his Aggie footballers were named the Wrong Club's 2000 mythical national black football champion. But Hayes also told the young gridders that North Carolina A&T graduates almost 75% of the nation's black engineers.
Engineering can be a difficult major but he said over half of the 80 or so players on North Carolina A&T's squad are persuing it. "They can't play football, get their studies and accept being average," he said. They have to work and dedicate themselves."
"If you're in the classroom making Cs, that's average," he said. It means that you could be making As and Bs if you just applied yourself. You can't win ballgames either coming onto the football field just to be average. And we can't win with average kids."
Hayes, who mixed humorous stories in his short but poignant talk, then gave the high schoolers three things they need to win:
a) DISCIPLINE. "It's the key. Many of you are going to college and leaving home for the first time. Mama won't be there to wake you up in the morning. Nobody's going to tell you to study or go to the library or get to class on time. You've got to develop discipline to do that."
b) AGRESSIVENESS- "When you get to college , you got to hit the ground running." Hayes related the story of Timmy Newsome, a former Dallas Cowboy running back who he coached in the 70s while at Winston Salem State. "When the scouts came to look at Timmy in his junior year, he was running a 4.7 in the 40 yard dash and they said he was too slow. I told Timmy that when those scouts return next spring, I wanted him running a 4.5 or better. He asked me how you do that. I said be aggressive.You have to get up earlier, work harder and stay later than the rest. Every day for nearly a year, I would see him pass by the window of my office headed to run the 40 and run those hills . Well, the rest is history."
C) CARE ABOUT THOSE AROUND AND CLOSE TO YOU- "You've got to care about your parents, care about the team and the coaches. Tell them that every now and then. "
Hayes also ended his talk with a sobering parable. "How many of you have ever been bitten by an elephant?."he asked. No hands went up. " How many of you have ever been bitten by a giraffe?", he then asked. Again no hands went up.
" Well, how many of you have ever been bitten by a mosquito?" he said.
All the hands in the room went up.
"You see, " he said as he headed to his seat. " It's the little things that can hurt you most."
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