Chapter 19: BE ON TIME – ROOKIE: Surviving Your Freshman Year of College Soccer

If you want to announce your predilection for irresponsibility, show up late for team functions.

I don’t know who first said that on time means early, but I’ll bet it was a coach. Coaches are fanatics about getting things started on time. You need to know this going in.

The coach has a limited amount of your time, so he needs everything to run on schedule. He’s also in charge of the team culture, so it’s important that players show respect for the time of their teammates. When the coach says we’ll meet at 10 A.M., he expects everyone to be in their places by 9:59.

When players are late, usually it’s only by a minute or two. The reason players end up a minute or two late is because they didn’t leave themselves enough margin for error. If they were supposed to be somewhere at 10 A.M., they tried to time it so they would walk through the door at 9:58. They didn’t anticipate hitting every red light, or the accident that was blocking a lane of traffic, or that the hotel elevator would stop at every floor on the way to the lobby. When they encounter one of these surprises, all of the sudden their plan falls apart and they are late and the coach is unhappy.

Being responsible means being on time. You’ve got to allow for the possibility of unexpected delays and factor them into your plan.

If I’m scheduled to meet with the athletic director at 10 A.M., you can bet I’m going to be sitting in his lobby by 9:50. As the saying goes, better an hour early than a minute late.

I could find a thousand different ways to explain to you why it’s important that you show up on time, or you can just trust me that it is. How about you just trust me on this one?

Incidentally, if you are going to be late, call the coach yourself. Don’t ask your teammate to deliver the news because that just ain’t gonna fly.

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