When playing in the State Soccer Tournament, we tell our players to focus on the game and what they need to do to help us succeed. We warn them to ignore trash talk (negative comments from our opponent or their fans). We explain, while they are thinking up a response or getting upset over the comment, the game continues and their head is somewhere else. If they allow it, opponents’ trash talk will do exactly what it is meant to do, give the trash talker a psychological advantage and distract their opponent.

Playing Little League and high school baseball the opponent was always trying to get in our head. Sometimes it was a struggle to ignore. Trash talk happens even at the professional level. It takes mental toughness to ignore it and stay focused on the task at hand. In a recent State Tournament one of our opponents used a racial slur on one of our best players. The official didn’t hear it. The slur upset our player so much he asked to come out of the game rather than retaliate in anger and get ejected. The slur did its intended purpose. It distracted our player and got him out of the game temporarily. It angered us coaches. At halftime the entire team knew and were upset. We got our player refocused. Going back on the field the entire team was energized and determined to win. They focused on the dream of winning the State Championship and played harder. The boys sent a strong message to our opponent with a solid win moving on to the Championship game.

People who trash talk aren’t always bad people. Sometimes they are our co-workers, friends, relatives, even parents. They don’t think we can achieve the goals we set and want to protect us from disappointment. Ten years after our first trip to the State Tournament, some of the parents approached me early in the season, “Coach, we know you do that leadership thing. But these boys are a bunch of screwballs!” I didn’t see it that way. The juniors told me after a tough loss in the 2008 State semifinals, “Coach, we’re coming back to Beckley next year and are going to win it all!” I told them, “That’s great but it has to start on Monday.” The parents had no idea how motivated the boys were. Throughout the winter I saw them working out when I went to the YMCA for workouts. The boys overcame negativity at home to achieve their dream of winning our first of now eight State Championships.

After this year’s State Championship, Lynnda and I went to Disney World. At Epcot we saw their new fireworks/lightshow, Luminous the Symphony of Us. It’s a great show. The message we took away was, we are all in this world together. We all have a part to play like instruments in a symphony. We need to learn what our part is and play it. A big part is using our unique gifts. We need to speak our truths and not be intimidated into silence.

This week before leaving for Florida, Lynnda and I attended a conference on Virginia’s Clean Economy Act in Richmond. We are concerned about Lynnda’s brother and our two grandchildren living in Virginia. Virginia Flyover said, “Policymakers hosted a clean energy summit to discuss how to meet Virginia’s energy needs in the years ahead while still reducing carbon dioxide emissions. A Virginia law enacted four years ago requires Dominion Energy to decarbonize by 2045 and Appalachian Power to decarbonize by 2050. Those companies say that the demand for electricity will likely double over the next 15 years. Data centers are expected to be the main driver of the increase in demand.”

A PJM representative displayed the same graphs we saw in Charleston recently showing queued (planned) capacity where only 4,300 of 209,000 MW was baseload power. The rest was intermittent wind and solar. In Charleston, representatives of PJM, First Energy and Dominion were asked, “Without changes to this queue can we expect blackouts and brownouts.” All three responded, “YES”.

West Virginians immediately recognized the problem and talked about solutions. In Virginia those attending who understood the severity of the problem were intimidated (trash talked) into silence or wouldn’t give a direct answer on the severity of the problem. The solutions Virginians offered were more solar, offshore wind and a couple of SMRs (small modular nuclear reactors).

I asked the moderator. “I care about the planet but not at the expense of human lives. We can’t continue to replace baseload coal, nuclear and natural gas with intermittent power. What is the plan to cover the power shortfall?” The state senator who set up the meeting is trying to bring people together. He has no idea but hopes the group will find answers. This requires a common goal and an atmosphere where people and companies feel comfortable sharing their truths without retaliation. They will need to focus on good science, sound engineering and think Globally. Local and regional decisions can have unintended negative global environmental consequences. Like driving manufacturing to places like China.

Shale Crescent USA is a 2024 finalist for the Platts Energy Award for energy transition. SCUSA’s transition plan uses current energy sources and reduces GLOBAL emissions. It was a team effort based on sound engineering. Implementation can start immediately.

There will always be naysayers and trash talkers who try to get into our heads and keep us from our dreams. Some have good intentions. It is better to have high dreams and fall short than to have low dreams and achieve them. As a sales manager my teams had high personal goals. They missed them occasionally but out-performed other company sales teams.

Develop confidence and mental toughness by being with positive people and encouragers. Have high goals. Tune out trash talkers, naysayers and fear (False Evidence Appearing Real). Focus on things that will take you to your dreams. All things are possible.