FOREWORD BY SISTER JEAN DOLORES SCHMIDT, BVM
PORTER MOSER
L L A IN Y B N E V I DR , Y G R E N E , N O I S S A P E S O P R U AND P
Š 2020 Porter Moser All rights reserved. Cover art credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images. Dust jacket flap, author photo, Steve Woltmann Photography. ISBN: 978-0-8294-5001-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019954729 Printed in the United States of America. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 LSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my parents, Jim and Sandy: thank you for providing me with a childhood of love, life lessons, and the positive belief that I could accomplish anything with faith, energy, and passion.
CONTENTS FOREWORD
viii
INTRODUCTION: DEFINING MOMENTS
xi
1
ENERGY AND PASSION
2
FALL SEVEN, RISE EIGHT
17
3
LESSONS ON HUMILITY AND THAT DAMN TICKER ON ESPN
31
4
COMPETITIVE REINVENTION
43
5
FIND A WAY
57
6
BECAUSE OF YOUR FAMILY
65
7
LEARN FROM YOUR MENTORS
79
8
A PERSON FOR (AND WITH) OTHERS
91
9
GO FORTH AND SET THE WORLD ON FIRE
101
10
TRUST IN THE PROCESS
111
11
GIVING GRATITUDE
121
12
DECISIONS
131
1
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
143
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
145
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Foreword
I am Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose motherhouse is in Dubuque, Iowa. Most people know me simply as Sister Jean. I have been the chaplain for the Loyola Ramblers men’s basketball team for more than twenty years, since 1994. When the team advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 2018, the coach who wrote this book, Porter Moser, his team, and I became a bit famous. The Final Four win might be the reason you picked up this book. You’ll learn a lot about basketball, recruitment, and strategy. You’ll learn a lot more about life skills. I call Porter a “man for all seasons” because his impact on the team and students continues throughout the year as well as throughout their lives. Having been Jesuit educated at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, Porter is truly a person for others. His faith in God and his religious experience are evidenced in his personal life with his family as well as with his team. Porter encourages values based on leadership, global awareness, and service based on social justice. viii
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These Jesuit values are part of his life as one views him at basketball practices and games; his passion for the sport; his teaching skills with the team on and off the court; his local lectures; and his dealings with coaches of the various teams at Loyola University. Porter’s special ability to recruit the right young man for the right Rambler position is exceptional. His goodness is so sincere that it captivated me immediately when he came here to coach the team. His whole healthy attitude toward sports has to do with things beyond playing on the court. Not only does he know the values of a Jesuit education, he also practices them, and they rub off on the team. They’re really good kids. I think our other teams have improved, too, partly from his good influence on our Loyola spirit. Porter is interested in each individual, helping all with any difficulties they have. He also teaches them to be generous; they share the ball. They don’t care who makes the basket as long as the ball goes through the hoop. You can tell when a team does not live by that. He’s taught them to be friends with one another and with him. He brings a prayerful attitude as well. We pray before each game. I have to say, sometimes my prayers aren’t holy—I’m asking for a win all the time. Porter’s not afraid to talk about God. One of our slogans is “Worship, Work, and Win” and we have to do all those things. Those words are up in the weight room as well, so the students see them all the time. He’s a good father, and that has a lot to do with his work with the team. When a young man makes a mistake on the court, Porter talks to him right away; there’s no punitive quality to it. The young man sits down, then pretty soon, Porter puts him back on the floor. If a player does something really spectacular, Porter lets him come off the court and take a little rest, but before he sits down, he commends him. Then he goes out on the court again. Everybody sees that.
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The entire student body recognizes him as a friend. After games, you hear, “Porter, Porter!” After they congratulate the opposing team, he and the team go around the whole arena and thank the Pep Band, the Spirit Teams, and the student fans for their attendance. The students wait for that—they don’t even leave. They’re grateful for that. So many of the students are excited about Loyola sports. The Final Four had such an effect on them—it happened before final exams. I was asking students, “How come everyone is so happy before finals?” They answered, “Sister Jean—the Final Four!” Porter’s the boss and a great man to work with. He tolerates some of the things I do. He never says, “Don’t do that, Sister Jean,” such as when I do my scouting report—but I know that I’m on the same page as he is. People ask me, “Sister Jean, do you pray during games?” and I say, “You better believe it!” I hope other coaches will take this book to heart. I think a lot of other people will want to read it as well, especially if they’re involved in basketball. I think high school coaches will read it. Athletes will read this—all kinds of athletes. This is easy reading, but it’s deep. Porter writes it that way because it comes from his heart. Enjoy Porter’s style, his honesty, and his integrity as he describes his personal experiences as an undergraduate basketball player at Creighton University; how he overcame his sense of failure, how in his professional life perseverance, failure, adversity, passion, humility, enthusiasm, and energy played such important roles. And, yes, the culture that he and his Final Four team of 2018 created is one to be admired. His young men learned more than basketball skills: they learned lifelong skills and are continuing to practice them and teach them to others. If you want to see a coach dedicated to his team and to his passion for basketball, just come to Chicago and attend a men’s basketball game in our Gentile Arena.
Introduction: Defining Moments
I often think of the time I had to tell my then-eight-year-old daughter Jordan that I was no longer going to be the coach of the Illinois State Redbirds. I think about the look on her face, about how her face started to crumble and her eyes teared up. I think about the pit in my stomach. Telling my family that I had been fired was the worst day of my professional life. But what I now think about most from that day is how I responded to that fact and the feeling it gave me. I wasn’t going to let failure define who I was as a person. That failure led me into what I call “competitive reinvention,” in which I used my energy, my positivity, and my passion to find a way to succeed. There are a lot of different ways to define success. You can be successful when you achieve certain professional or personal goals—that might mean getting a scholarship to play basketball at a Division I school or winning a conference title. For someone else, success might mean landing that dream job right out of school. And for yet another person, success might mean having a great family and a deep faith. I’ve measured success in all these ways at one point or another in my xi
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life. I played Division I basketball at Creighton University, where we won the Missouri Valley Conference. I have a dream job coaching collegiate basketball at Loyola University Chicago, and our team went to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in 2018. I have a great family, a wonderful wife, and terrific kids. And I try to be the best man of God that I can be by living a faith-filled life that I hope gives glory to God. But when I reflect on my successes, I can’t help but recognize the hardships I had to overcome to achieve them. Success doesn’t come easily. You have to be driven by something. You must have an energy about yourself that motivates you to overcome obstacles. That energy can come from a vision you have about who you—or what your future—could be. That energy can come from your faith, beliefs, or values. Whatever it is, that source of energy is what drives you to respond to adversity with positivity. There’s a word that describes that source of energy for me: passion. When an obstacle prevents you from obtaining something that you want, it’s a gut-check moment. Will your passion or desire for what you want push you through whatever is standing in your way? The answer to that question can be the difference between success and failure. If your answer is “Yes, my desire is greater,” you will find a way to succeed. On the other hand, if your answer is “No, not today,” then success will remain out of reach. When I was fired from Illinois State, after some time spent reflecting, I still had a strong desire to coach again. It was my passion, and so I found a way. Without that desire, that passion, I wouldn’t be coaching today, my team wouldn’t have made it to the Final Four, and you wouldn’t be reading this book. When you are driven by passion and energy, you will find a purpose. I found my purpose in coaching basketball—not through wins
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and losses but by having an influence on the young men I coach, the student body at Loyola, and the kids who attend my basketball camps. When you have that deep sense of purpose, that personal mission, and a way to fulfill it, you will find happiness because you are satisfying your deep-seated desires. Yes, I want to be a Division I basketball coach. Yes, I want to win championships. But I also want to be a person of influence. I want to have a positive impact on the people in my life. That purpose motivates me; it directs my passion and focuses my energy. It makes me grateful for the people I’ve met and for the opportunities I have to make a positive difference in the lives of others. I’ve learned a lot of lessons on how to be a person of influence. There are the hard lessons I’ve learned from responding to adversity. I’ve also learned about humility in facing those challenges. There are the invaluable lessons I’ve learned from my parents: having a strong work ethic, maintaining a positive mental attitude, and putting others first. There are the lessons I’ve learned from my mentors: always putting family first, finding a work-life balance, and building culture the right way. Then there are the lessons I’ve learned from being part of something bigger than myself. Coaching at Loyola University Chicago, I see myself as part of not just a great educational institution but of a tradition that goes back to the founding of the Society of Jesus in the sixteenth century. These lessons and others have helped me be a person for others, and they have helped me realize that what makes me happy is not how much money I make or how many championships I win but how I’ve had an impact on others. Most importantly, these lessons have led me to live a life of gratitude. I see gratitude as a gift that I can give others to make them feel special and valued. When I look back at some of the worst moments of my life—such as telling my daughter that I was no longer going
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to be the Redbirds coach—I realize that they led me to experience some of the best moments of my life. Those hardships became defining moments for me. I would not be the person I am without them. And yeah, they sucked. But in the end, I’m grateful for all of them. In the pages that follow, I share with you stories and lessons learned from some of my heroes, hardships, successes, and defining moments. You’ll find that passion, energy, and purpose have driven me to get to where I am today: to be the best version of myself, the best coach, the best husband, the best father, and the best man of God. Maybe these stories (and the little bit of wisdom they contain) can inspire you to find passion, energy, and purpose in your own life and to become the best version of yourself too.
©2018 Steve Woltmann Photography FGS Sports/Alamy Stock Photo
Loyola Ramblers’ head coach Porter Moser cuts down the net after the Elite Eight game against the Kansas State Wildcats at Philips Arena on March 24, 2018, in Atlanta, Georgia. LoyolaChicago won 78–62 to advance to the Final Four.
The Loyola Ramblers celebrate after the Elite Eight game against the Kansas State Wildcats at Philips Arena on March 24, 2018, in Atlanta, Georgia.
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