I read a piece a couple months ago that included the following statement, “Hailey Van Lith commits to TCU after Elite Eight run with LSU.” Those of you who might not know, last season and this season, LSU women’s basketball player, Hailey Van Lith, was a pretty good player. This past season she led the team in assists, while averaging nearly 12 points per game. The thing that struck me about the statement was the use of the word “commits.” You see, Hailey Van Lith started her career at the University of Louisville, then transferred to LSU, and now is transferring again to TCU to finish her college basketball career. My question is, what was the commitment she made to Louisville, and LSU?

In the past couple years, college sports has created what could (already has?) become a monster that will grow out of control with one, the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness), two, the Creation of Super Power Conferences by moving teams to conferences where schools might have to cross country several times in a season to play, which makes no real Common Sense, but will result in lots of Dollars and Cents to Universities, Media, Airlines, and maybe those promoting Sports’ Gambling, and three, the Transfer Portal, which allows student athletes to move from one school to another, at will, from year to year, if they choose to do so. Many of these transfers are scholarship recipients who took money from the institution they “committed” to after being recruited and agreeing to play where they started.

In some cases, there may be a valid reason to have to transfer, changes in majors, or needed courses no longer being offered, but many of those reasons aren’t usually shared with fans, nor reported by writers or broadcasters. There are some reasons that do make it into the media and often those reasons are weak in my opinion. Last season Ohio State’s University Quarterback earned the starting job to lead the team, but decided after the season was done, that he wasn’t receiving enough NIL money that he thought he should be receiving. Another report came out that he, and his father, wanted a guarantee that he would be the starting QB for this season, before any spring practices were held where he could compete for the starting position. As a result, he transferred to a program that has had difficulty maintaining high standings in their conference over the years, and who doesn’t recruit the same caliber of QB that the bigger schools can afford to recruit. Bottom line is that the former OSU QB will have a much easier path to being the starter this coming season, if he hasn’t already been named the starter.

In this year’s NFL Draft, Caleb Williams was the first pick overall. In all the “experts” discussion about him, it was said more than once that he committed to the University of Oklahoma, yet when his coach left for USC, he decided to jump ship to follow him, thus breaking his commitment to OU.

In Van Lith’s situation, she had hopes of being drafted this year after her junior season, but realized she needed another year, and felt the need to go back to a place where she could relax and go back to her normal position of shooting guard, being the scorer of more points rather than the teammate setting up the scorer.

These are just a few examples of what has become the change for the worse in the definition of the word, commitment, and what it stands for, and entails, because the light might not shine as bright on some, or that a player might not make as much money as someone else makes, or their parents might not agree with the coach’s philosophy, or they want an easier path toward becoming the star that they want to be, etc.

First of all, I’d respond to some of these reasons using the quote from the Tom Hanks movie, A League of Their Own, when his character told Geena Davis’s character, after she was going to quit because it was too hard, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hardness that makes it great.” You PLAY the games, but you have to WORK as hard as you can to be able to play the games. It’s the price you have to pay if you want to play.

And if you commit to a program, you are making a verbal contact, an agreement to do what it takes to be the best that you can be, be a good teammate, be coachable, and if it is hard, don’t look for something easier. Commitment means staying true to your word, and to yourself, and seeing it through. In doing that you choose a path for yourself, a path which may get bumpy at times, may be slippery at times, may be muddy at times, but it was the path you laid claim to when you chose it, so stay true to it. Borrowing another quote, this time from the movie Draft Day, (one which I wrote down for use myself in situations I felt was appropriate), Jennifer Garver’s character told Kevin Costner’s character, “Sometimes the correct path is the tortured one.”

Life is not easy, nor should it be easy. Making a commitment is hard, because it comes with an agenda that requires doing hard work, making hard decisions, keeping promises, which many times is very hard, and dealing with failure at times, consequences at times, and both physical and mental pain at times, which is also very hard.

Take a lesson (while excusing the not so good grammar), from one of the few songs which Beatle, Ringo Starr was lead vocalist, “It don’t come easy, you know it don’t come easy.”

Just don’t let the hard stop you from following through with, and sticking to, your commitments.