Hello Cougar Fans! Here we go with the third installment of The Bottom Line with Coach Kent. Today I will talk about finishing the book, which takes a look at the different chapters of life we experience.

All of our lives are like a 20-chapter novel. Our novels start with a wonderful beginning because we are just kids at birth. Life is fun and enjoyed, in most cases. In some situations, the first 5-10 chapters in the book are wonderful life situations that are setting you up for, hopefully, a happy ending. In other cases, the first 5-10 chapters can be traumatic, scary, humiliating, or dysfunctional. But no matter what, the reading of the book continues to go forward.

In basketball we always talk about valuing every possession there is over the course of the game. I’ve touched on that in previous columns as well. Hopefully this season on the court it will be between 70-80 possessions with the fast pace we want to play at. It becomes important because you want to take care of the basketball, never turn it over and cherish it like it’s the single-most important thing in the game. The reason is that any given turnover can change the momentum and/or outcome of the game. As it relates to life, those possessions are your life experiences. Either good or bad, you must value them because they are all learning and growing experiences. You only have so many before you have to move on to the next chapter that will bring you different life experiences.

In all of our cases, somewhere in our book, we are going to face adversity. That’s why it’s so important that as you read or live your book, although you may not be fully prepared, you have to be fully aware that adversity strikes us all. So, if we know that in our book, we will have that chapter on adversity, or in some of the better novels, several chapters of adversity, it is extremely important that we prepare for the challenge by valuing every possession (i.e. moment, day, week, relationship, job, etc.) because, each one of those possessions will enable us to learn to grow, and to understand grace, humility, toughness and love, which are all the ingredients needed to handle your adverse chapter in your books/life.

Most of you students here at Washington State are about a fourth of the way through your books. Some of you have already faced some of the biggest challenges that anyone should have to go through, or those experiences are about to hit you. As you get ready to start your journey toward the half-way point, it’s important to understand the mere fact that you are here on the wonderful campus of WSU, you’ve already written a successful ending, yet to be played out.

And that my friends, is the bottom line.