"Sports Have Allowed Me to Go Places" - Matt Striebel '94

Aligning himself with other proponents of the concepts of grit and deliberate practice, Matt believes that both help with sports, but also with life. He said to the students, “Taking something that you care about, whatever it is, applying deliberate practice and time, equals improvement. Improvement over time equals the achievement of whatever your goal is.” He went on to say that for some, skills come quickly. For others, practice is needed to improve. The latter group ends up with a level of confidence they may never have had if they had not endeavored to achieve. That is something we all can learn from competitive sports. Watch Matt elaborate on this idea here.

Matt feels that playing sports gave him opportunities he would not have otherwise had. Watch him tell a great story here. Sports also brought Matt back to Eaglebrook. Watch him talk about that here. He ended with a thought, “Everything you do right now seems super important. Everything that people are telling you is designed to get you thinking in a certain way. You guys have a lot of time to make mistakes still, and to find what it is that you want to be great at. But, I will also say this, because I can remember what it was like sitting in that chair back there: it goes by quickly, so don’t waste it.”

Watch Eaglebrook Athletic Director Rachel Horn’s wrap-up of the winter 2014-2015 athletic season here. See photos from this season here.

Learn more about athletics at Eaglebrook at www.eaglebrook.org/athletics.