Richard was the kid with inbuilt abilities. As he grew up in primary school his sporting talents shone. He took to field hockey like a duck to water and by the age of 14 he was captain of the most successful under 16 team in his state.
Everyone in Richard’s team knew he was a champion. He would encourage his team at practice and show them new ball skills, which they used in their real time match games.
The team continued to play together as they grew into adults and they all still wanted to win, but they were no longer the best team and Richard was no longer their captain. They hadn’t won a premiership since they were all aged 15.
Richard had changed. At around the age of 15 his attitude to one person, Joshua, on the team was one of dislike. Although they went to high school together for many years they really didn’t know each other and were quite different.
One day Richard was standing outside a classroom at his school and heard Josh talking about him. Josh was telling a group of boys about Richard’s performance at the game on Saturday. He was telling them that if Richard had passed the ball when heading at goals they would have won the game and it was Richard’s fault that they lost.
Richard was hurt. He was upset to hear a team mate bitching about him, blaming him and embarrassed because he thought that the team was responsible not one player. Reflecting back he knew that passing the ball would have helped, but he didn’t. Richard thought ‘How many other mistakes have I made that I don’t know about and how many times has Josh talked about me to others, but never to me?’
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