I was in Oxford, Ohio on the Miami University campus this past Saturday. Right before I pulled into town, I heard the commencement ceremony was scheduled for later that afternoon. Since my son was not graduating this semester, I thought little about it except that the traffic on High Street would be horrible (it wasn’t).
As I pulled into town, my glance caught the front of the Uptown Cafe (if you have not yet been there, go. Best pancakes anywhere!) What really stunned me was the line of moms and dads waiting to get in. The place was jam-packed with people. And this was bad.
This was bad because the Uptown is one of those little local places where you go to experience breakfast or a casual lunch. This is one of those places where they don’t mind if you bring your dog and hang out on the sidewalk tables, nursing a cup of coffee, grazing on a burger and fries for an hour (burgers are good, too.) I am certain that the moms, dads and almost newly-minted graduates had not stopped into the Uptown just for food, but to have one last cafe experience with their child-now-an-adult. And, because all the other parents were looking for that same experience, they were robbing each other of that one moment of convergence that would have become a memory. Instead, that moment will be forever as a rushed and crowded hassle. And it is sad.
Our Advice: Figure out what your tournament soul is and fight like hell to preserve it. The Uptown could have spent a few moments every morning throughout the year taking names and numbers of graduating seniors who eat frequently at the Uptown with the intent to auction a place on commencement morning. They could have opened at 3:00 am only for graduating seniors and their families whose parents wanted to slow down the day just a little bit before losing their child forever to employment, their own family, the outside world. (I would have gotten up early!!) For a student who has made the Uptown Cafe a part of their college experience for four-plus years — and shared breakfast there with their mom or dad when they were in town — the 30 minutes or so spent on graduation day would have been the most precious graduation gift the Uptown Cafe could have given.
If your soul is your registration night party for the coaches, make it special. I know of several tournaments that do a dang good job of using the registration for reacquainting with old friends. If your soul is allowing the teams to have fun, don’t invite or accept teams that will use win at all costs tactics (you know who they are.. so does everyone else.) You get the idea.
A soul is a terrible thing to sell. Once it is put on the market, it can never be bought back. Treasure it, grow it and above all, protect and preserve it.