THE PROCESS PERSONIFIED
Last week’s newsletter focused on the obvious challenges, and some of the not-so-obvious benefits, of raising a late bloomer - an athlete who matures later than those around them. I hope it provided some encouragement for those of you waiting, either patiently or not, for your young athlete’s next level to kick in. This week I want to do more than just offer some abstract ideas about the journey of the late bloomer. I want to offer you some tangible evidence that success in sports is a lot less about where your child starts and a lot more about where they finish. Here are two current, real-life examples of late bloomers and the process they personify.
Alec Mills recently made headlines when he pitched the second no-hitter of the 2020 Major League Baseball season and only the 16th in the history of the Chicago Cubs. That achievement has helped to highlight the unique path he's taken to this unexpected place in the big league history books. A classic late bloomer, Mills loved baseball but had very little college interest after high school, and it appeared his playing days were over when he enrolled as a student at the University of Tennessee-Martin.
One day, walking past the baseball practice field, Mills stopped Bubba Cates, the head coach at the school, and told Cates he thought he was good enough to make the team. The coach reluctantly agreed to a tryout, then called a friend who scouted local talent near Mills’ hometown. “Do you know an Alec Mills?” the coach asked. “Never heard of him,” his friend replied.
Mills did show up for that tryout, he did do enough to impress his coaches, and he did earn a spot as a non-scholarship walk-on player for the mid-level Division I school. Over the course of the next three years - later than most of his peers - Mills hit his stride. He went from seldom-used relief pitcher to staff ace, and was eventually drafted in the 22nd round by the Kansas City Royals. Eight minor league seasons, a career-threatening elbow injury, and one unexpected trade later, Mills found himself the temporary injury fill-in for the Cubs this season. He waited and worked and got his chance...and the rest is history.
Asked about the advice he’d offer others after his historic no-hitter, Mills replied, “The lesson is to never give up. Some people will tell you you can’t do it. They may tell you you aren’t good enough, but that’s just one person’s opinion. Just keep working and persevering.”
The surprise team of the shortened NBA season has been the Miami Heat, who’s impressive playoff performance has them on the doorstep of the NBA Finals. The MVP of the Heat season has undoubtedly been Jimmy Butler, who’s emerged as one of the league’s toughest and most tenacious competitors. A four-time NBA All-Star, Butler’s prominence in the league has grown over time, making it easy to forget the path he took to get here. Jimmy Butler, one of the NBA’s best players, is a late bloomer, too.
Butler loved basketball, but as a 5’3” 13 year-old, he didn’t exhibit the early dominance so many of his NBA peers enjoyed as kids. The 73rd ranked shooting guard in the state of Texas his senior year of high school, Butler had zero Division I interest, eventually landing at tiny Tyler Junior College as his only option. His future college coach Buzz Williams later said, “He didn’t go play at junior college because a Division I program sent him there to prepare him. He went because he didn’t have any other options.”
Still, Butler worked, and grew, and improved. Later than most of his peers, he finally hit his stride. Two years later he earned a scholarship offer to Williams’ Marquette University program, where he eventually become a first round draft pick. His commitment to getting better continued as he was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2015. His success today is the result of a long, winding, sometimes painful road that Butler, and most other late bloomers, are required to endure.
Even so, Butler has never resented his road. “There’s nothing to feel sorry about,” he says. “I love what happened to me. It made me who I am. I’m grateful for the challenges I’ve faced. Please don’t make (people) feel sorry for me.”
Alec Mills and Jimmy Butler are two very different people, with very different backgrounds, playing very different sports. But they do have one thing in common: they were both late bloomers. Neither one was dominant at an early age. Neither was ever considered a sure thing. And neither took the easy road to their athletic success. They are the process personified. They developed an authentic love for the game, they embraced the struggles and challenges that came with pursuing their dream, and they developed the patience and perseverance required to turn that dream into reality.
If you’re working to raise a develop a late bloomer, you face a unique challenge. Your patience and perseverance are probably being tested. Your young athlete’s may be, too. But I hope these real-life examples can help validate for you what I said in last week’s newsletter, that sometimes what’s really hard can actually be really good for us, and for our kids....if we use it the right way. So press on! Keep developing in your young athlete the toughness, the effort, and the attitude of a champion, and keep clarifying the important place struggle and adversity have in any meaningful experience. Keep enjoying the journey - despite the challenges - and help your late bloomer do the same. Trust the process of growth and development, and soon you may find, like Alec Mills and Jimmy Butler did, that what’s bloomed is beautiful.