Honeck shares from the heart about special season
Editor's note, the following is a transcript taken from a tape recording of the pep rally speech given by Hillsboro High School girls' basketball coach and principal Dale Honeck.
I want to reiterate what all the girls have said. I wish we had a chance for all the girls to share their highlights of this season. We've had many of those.
First of all I would like to thank [USD 410 Superintendent] Mr. [Gordon] Mohn, and Mr. Heinrichs for allowing me to do this. They supported me and gave me the help I needed to do this kind of work. And I didn't realize how much work there was.
Twenty girls! That's a lot of girls. I only raised two, and they kept me busy. I'll tell you what, 20 of them keep you busy. I'll have some other things to say about them in a minute.
When this opportunity arose, the last thing I took this job for was to win a state championship. It couldn't have been any farther away from my mind.
When we first got together, the very first time, with the girls and the coaches, it was on June 19.
Of course they were being introduced for the first time to a principal who was trying to convince them that he had a basketball background.
But one of the things that I told them, and I'm not sure if they will remember this or not, but I wish they would, maybe they will now.
I said that the most important thing for me was to take over a team and have those kids become a unit; a group of one, thinking and working and respecting and having relationships with themselves.
It wasn't about winning and it wasn't about state championships.
And I told them this, and I will tell some of you and some of you who are older may understand what I'm saying.
About two years ago my mother, who was still living in Iowa, was real sick.
And we knew that she wasn't going to live much longer. So we started going up to Iowa. I did especially, every opportunity we could.
And every time I visited my mom, we did one thing. We took out a picture of her 1937 girls' high school basketball team that went to the state. And every time we talked about the girls at that time who were in that picture.
My mom knew where everyone was, living or dead. She knew who they married. She knew where their kids were. And it was 67 years after she graduated.
And I thought to myself (not knowing that I was going to coach a girls' basketball team, or any basketball team, again) I thought that's what this should all be about, relationships.
And as I told the girls, that's what we had to have. That was going to be the most important thing.
And I'll tell you this: They couldn't have been any more successful, even if they would have never gotten out of the sub-state, let alone go to the state, let alone win a championship.
These girls did that. It was a joy to be around them every single day, in practice, and every single day that we played games, regardless of the outcome.
And to me, that's what high school sports should be about.
I reminded them then that there's never been a championship team, ever, that didn't have chemistry. If it was our goal to have success, the one thing we had to do was care about each other.
We had to be leaders. Not statistical leaders, like points scored and rebounds, or even a season record. But it had to be each kid on this team helping their teammates become better.
And I can tell you that over these past five months, we never had one practice, and our coaches also will say this, I don't think there was ever one time that we went back and felt as coaches that that had not happened. The championship attitude was there. And it got better and better.
I enjoyed being around the girls before games. And, as Tina said, we did have fun. And it never seemed like basketball was the most important thing, it was the relationships.
As we moved through the season, I think Coach Chisholm hit it on the head, I think we thought we could beat anybody. Anybody.
And not only did we win, but we won by large scores. And it just kept getting better.
And when we went into that championship game, I had absolutely had no doubt in my mind that we would win this game. I couldn't tell you how much, but I knew we'd win.
And that's because the girls had that same sense of confidence and respect for each other that they'd had all year, and that builds confidence in each one of the other girls, when they know they're supported, and I think that's what this is all about.
Whether we won the state; whether we went to the state; no matter how it finished, I will consider these girls winners in life, and champions in life.
And like Coach Boldt said, there's a tremendous opportunity for this to happen again.
We lose some wonderful seniors. Truthfully, I could never, ever imagine having five wonderful girls like these.
So I say to all of our girls, thanks. I wanted this job when it was available to have one more chance after many years of coaching, to have relationships with kids about something I love, which is basketball, and they gave that to me.
And I thank them forever.
When I'm 85 and my kids come and visit me, I'm going to have that same picture right by my bed, like my mom did, because, you know, that's what life is about, is the good times.
I can't thank the community more, for a wonderful place to coach. You support your children. And many of you do not have children playing. I still saw you at every game. That to me meant to a lot, it really did. I had some of them, I don't even know their names, they'd come up to me and say, 'You know, the girls are really starting to pull together as a team.'
I heard that several times, and they couldn't have said a better thing to me, because that's truthfully what they did.
I thank all of you people.
It couldn't be better.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
