Coyotes Upend Antifragile Owls in Finale

I grew up in an era during which sports were defined by a series of grit-fueled phrases like “No pain, no gain” and “Just do it.” With resilience and grit as our compasses, we “sucked it up” and “toughed it out.”

But surviving something hard doesn’t always help us to grow.

What I have watched this year as I have coached this group of 14 young men on the basketball court has been more akin to what Nassim Nicholas Taleb has designated as antifragile. The term, Taleb explains, is that category of things that not only gain and strengthen from chaos, but actually need it in order to grow, thrive and flourish.

I believe that this year’s basketball season has been one that has strengthened this group of boys. I believe they have been antifragile. As we have played a tough schedule. In fact, we haven’t once faced a team of 5th and 6th Graders; instead, we have gone head to head with teams of 7th graders, and in a few cases, 8th graders. The results are that we currently sit at 1-4 with one more game to play (though the 6th and 5th graders will be playing different games). 

In our final game together, our team played a game that at times felt like a rugby match, while at other moments, felt like a game of monkey in the middle with the big kids keeping the ball out of reach of the younger ones. It wasn’t fair, but–as always–our team adopted a spirit of antifragility. They toughened up. They toughed it out. By the final buzzer, the score was 41-18, but the moment-to-moment script of the action was a qualitative lesson in what Kobe Bryant calls the “Mamba Mentality”: that mindset that is about pushing yourself to be your best and being obsessed with your craft. 

While our team might not all be obsessed with basketball, they are obsessed with caring about each other and with supporting the team mentality. There were lessons throughout the game that I am confident these young men will be returning to in future years whether they play basketball again or not. The box score will tell you about Kyle Jacobson and Edward Barney combining for  8 points (4 apiece), Harper Merrill’s 8 points, or Sam Collins’ 2 pointer. But it won’t tell you about the grit showed by Logan, Mason, Cam, Lucas, Oliver, Jake, Gideon, Sam G. and Ari as they all donned the Country School jersey and became stronger than they were 32 minutes earlier. Congratulations, boys. You bent, but never broke, and emerged stronger in your character and resilience…and that is at the heart of antifragility.

As Duke women's basketball coach, Kara Lawson (who is coincidentally a former classmate and friend of Mrs. Butler!!) , once told her team, "We all wait in life for things to get easier, but it will never get easier. We handle hard better." That is true, in life and basketball, and this group handled hard beautifully this season. Bravo, boys.