Jamy Bechler - The Bus Trip

THE BUS TRIP

A Sports Leadership Fable

Jamy Bechler

Author of The Leadership Playbook

Copyright 2019 by Jamy Bechler

www.Jam yBechler.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by co pyright law.

For permission requests, write to the publisher, with the subject Permission Request, at the email address

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences o f their use.

ISBN: 978-0 -9992125-6-1

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The Bus Trip is a work of fiction designed to help individuals understand how to be better teammates and more positive leaders. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, incidents, or locales are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or locales is entirely c oincidental.

THANK YOU

Tristen Foote, Lexis Garcia, Ashley Anderson, Konner Beste, Peyton Booth, Travis Daugherty, Matt Grahn, John Motherwell, Jana Pearson, Scott Rodesiler, Sacha Santimano, Matthew Smith, Jessica Southern, and Reed Sutton for your help with the storylines and editing.

To my parents, Frank and Beth Bechler, for raising me the right way and showing me what true servant leadership was as they made the lives of people around them better.

To all my youth league, high school, and college coaches that worked with me and helped me develop.

To all my assistant coaches and colleagues throughout the years who worked tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of student-athletes. I appreciate all you did to help, encourage, and support me during my coac hing career.

To all my players throughout the years that exhibited the qualities in this book whether it was during your playing days or after. Im proud of so many of you for achieving things you never thought possible and maximizing your potential. Every example in this book was rooted in some real-life inspiration from you guys. Thanks for your hard work and sacrifice throughou t the years.

Alena Moody for the c over design.

MH Book Services for formatting and produci ng the book.

Michael Catt, Dan Hughes, Jason Romano, and Brian Stanchak for the back-cover book endorsement.

My last thank you goes out to Tabitha for your love, support, and encouragement throughout this process. This book would not have been possible without you. I love you.

This book is dedicated to my son Jaylen. My prayer for you is that you will be kind to everyone, have a positive influence on the people around you, and make a difference in the world. Youre an awesome son. Daddy l oves Jaylen!

Table of Contents

Wake Up

BEEEEEEP! BEEEEEE P! BEEEEEEP!

Seriously, shut that thing off! sho uted Learie.

The alarm definitely seemed to be way too loud and was going off way too early in the morning. But Jaylen knew that it was the exact time it needed to go off because it was the very time that he set it for.

Are you deaf? Shut that thing off!

Learie obviously meant business and wasnt a fan of Jaylens alarm clock.

Jaylen hit the off button.

Yeah, it was a little loud wasnt it? But regardless, we need to get up. Game Day, right?!? Jaylen said as he threw off his blanket and hopped out of bed.

Thats what they say. But it doesnt matter for some of us, remember? Some of us just have the best ticket in the arena. Front row every game, baby!

Whateve r, Captain.

Captain of the benc h you mean.

Even though Learie had been a highly recruited athlete, he had failed to live up to his potential through the years and was now barely playing even though he was a captain. His position was due more to his status as one of only two seniors on the team, rather than anything he had done to be a good team leader.

On the other hand, even though Jaylen was not a captain, he had earned the respect and admiration of seeming ly everyone.

I just know that weve got to get up now because we didnt give ourselves much time to mess around before we need to be on the bus, said Jaylen.

Maybe but its not like itd be the worst thing in the world to get left behind. Then I could enjoy a day off and not have to put up with another loss and the embarrassment of not pla ying again.

Learie knew that Jaylen didnt like this kind of talk. As the teams starting point guard, the junior took every loss personally.

Lets focus on what we need t o do today.

What we need, said Learie. Is a break from t his season.

Well all get a break soon enough, said Jaylen shaking his head at his roommate. But weve still got a month before the season is over and until then, we need to get dressed and head over to the gym. Like it or not, we do have another game today. It might be the same old, same old for some, but this is what we do, like it or not. I, for one, can think of hundreds of worse things to do than getting to play basketball and hang out with frien ds all day.

And with that Learie and Jaylen got dressed and left the dorm. It had seemed as if they had gone through this routine a million times but little did they know that this day would not be like a ll the rest.

Loading up the Bus

For more than a decade, Denny Dunn had counted the Eagles when he got on the bus. He loved leaving early if it was possible, but he also wanted to make sure that he didnt leave players behind if they left early.

I counted ten, proclaimed Coach Dunn. Who are we missing?

Youre joking, right coach? asked Drew. Were missing the usuals.

By the usuals, Drew meant James and Antonio. Those two had a habit of being late for everything. They seemed to operate in a world devoid of time, clocks, o r calendars.

Well, they still have a couple of minutes, said Coach Dunn.

One of these days they are going to cut it too close and totally miss the bus, said Drew.

Well deal with that when it happens. For right now, were lucky that it hasnt ha ppened yet.

Even though theyre our leading scorers, weve been losing, so maybe it wouldnt be so bad if they finally did cut it too close, said Drew. Maybe our luck wo uld change.

Our problems are not because of two players, responded Coach Dunn. Our struggles this year have gone a little deeper than that.

James and Antonio were both similar players, in terms of their athleticism and their versatility on a basketball court. They were both returning all-conference players. Unfortunately, their playing styles and abilities werent the only things that they had in common. In addition to being late more often than not, they tended to think the world revolved aroun d them both.