Posted on September 29, 2021
Lyle Topping, Staff Writer
It is an age-old question in sports. What makes a player good and what makes a player great? How can we differentiate between the two? Daytona State’s Men’s Baseball Coach, Tim Touma, and Daytona State’s newly appointed Men’s Basketball Coach, Joseph Cantens, shine a light on these questions from a coaching standpoint.
Cantens has a Rolodex full of reasons why he is the perfect candidate to fill the head basketball coach position here at Daytona State. Not only did he serve the previous three years as an assistant coach at Florida Gulf Coast University, but he also took part in the organization as FGCU’s director of basketball operations in 2013 when FGCU
became the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen.
According to Cantens, the true separator of good and great is the mindset. “Everyone works hard, lifts weight and gets extra reps perfecting whatever sport they play, but the great ones also train their minds,” he said. “The great ones know how to deal with failure and success. They know how to block the outside noise and focus on their sport.”
Touma is going into his seventh season as the head
coach for the Falcon’s baseball team. His idea of separating good and great
players are like that of Cantens. “They are willing to make more sacrifices, so
they are not just good. They hate to lose more than they like to win,” Touma
said.
Some consider the number of championships won by a player the true determining factor between good and great. Coach Touma says otherwise, “I think you can be considered as one of the greatest without winning a [champion]ship. Team sports means the player is only a part of the picture. There are a lot of factors in winning it all, and as a player you can only control a few of those variables.”
Like Touma, Cantens believes there are a number of factors at play. “I think it depends on the sport. In an individual sport such as tennis, swimming, track. You have to win to be considered the best,” he said. He explains how team sports differ because of the number of factors that come into play. “In the NBA, you might be considered the best player but if your franchise is going through a rebuilding year, or trying to develop young players, it will be hard to win a championship,” Cantens said.
So, if championships do not make you a great player, why is there such a need or want to obtain them? Coach Cantens sees championships as a motivational tool to keep players going, through the long and sometimes dragging season. “Athletes have to find a way to stay motivated though a long season. Being able to hold up a championship trophy is a driving force and tool to keep athlete’s motives on the daily grind to be the best.”
Source: <a href='https://www.freepik.com/photos/paper'>Paper
photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com</a>