Just Win the Red Jersey

Dennis Currier is not just a good friend—he’s a great friend, even though throughout our friendship, we’ve gone through a year or two without speaking. I know that might sound strange. How can you call someone a great friend when so much time passes without a call or check-in? I get it; I really do. But I’ve always known that if I ever needed anything, Dennis would drop everything to be there for me. And you know what? I’d do the same for him. I hope he knows that. Dennis would undoubtedly sit on my Board of Directors if my life were a company. I bet each of you reading this blog has a Dennis in your life.

Dennis is a year older than me, and we went to high school together. Back then, he was a soccer star—one of those rare athletes who seemed destined for greatness. He played at the highest level and was often the top scorer on his select team. Meanwhile, I was your typical jack of all trades but master of none, dabbling in baseball, basketball, and soccer without standing out in any of them. In reality, Dennis and I should have been acquaintances but not great friends; we simply were on two paths and running in different circles.

But Dennis saw something in me. He took the time to get to know me and became my mentor, especially in soccer, and I should recognize that I can be better and do more within the sport. Every day after school, Dennis would invite me to his house to lift weights and play soccer in his backyard. As he put goal in after goal against me, I just found a way to hit his mom’s plants hanging from the screened-in porch. He always took the blame for me, though. To this day, I’m not sure why he did it. Maybe he saw potential in me as a player, or maybe, knowing Dennis, he was just so competitive that he wanted to elevate his high school team by making everyone around him better. Whatever the reason, I was the lucky beneficiary of his time and effort.

After Dennis graduated, we kept in touch sporadically. He went off to play college soccer while I finished high school. Thanks to his guidance and hard work, I had a decent senior year of high school and earned a scholarship to play at a local junior college—East Central Community College in Union, Missouri. Although I did not realize it then, those two years were some of the best of my life. They solidified two things: I loved playing soccer and wanted to become a teacher. I also met my wife, Jennifer. I was living my best life, so to speak.

Dennis and I continued to check in with each other as he pursued a degree in hotel and restaurant management, and I transferred to Harris-Stowe State College, which was known for producing a lot of teachers. I felt fortunate to be getting a degree in something I knew I would love doing, and I could continue playing soccer. But it wasn’t long before Dennis realized that working in the hotel restaurant business life wasn’t for him. He hated his first job at a Residence Inn, and although I was glad he was now back in St. Louis, I knew it would not be long before the sport of soccer came calling him again. While Dennis was beginning to figure out life as an adult with all those responsibilities, I completed my Junior year of college at Harris-Stowe, and it was not the best in terms of soccer as we struggled to rack up the wins.

To top it off, as fate would have it, heading into my senior year, our soccer team at Harris-Stowe lost its head coach. Well, as one door closes for one, it opens for another. As captain, I was invited to sit in on the hiring process. And there was no doubt in my mind who should be the next coach—Dennis Currier. I pushed for an interview for him, and despite not having any coaching experience and some hesitancy from Jim Velton, our athletic director, he got the job. It might have been because the number one and the number two candidates backed out and turned the job down, but my number one choice, Dennis Currier, Coach Currier, got the job, and now it was time for the world to find out who Dennis was going to become. It only took a couple of weeks for Jim Velton to stop showing up so much at practice and for everyone to realize Dennis was born to coach.

Playing for Dennis in my Senior year of college was like coming full circle. He had been my mentor in high school, and now, once again, he guided me—but this time from the sidelines. Under his leadership, our team thrived, and Dennis soon moved on to more extensive programs, coaching the men’s soccer team at Incarnate Word in Texas and eventually landing the head men’s soccer coach position at the University of Dayton, where he has now led his teams to remarkable success year-after-year.

Who would have thought that Dennis taking an interest in a kid like me would set the stage for our futures? He not only helped shape my soccer career but also helped shape me as a person, and in my persistence, I helped open the door to his coaching career.

As life has a way of doing, we drifted apart again—Dennis was busy coaching. I was building a career as an educator: teacher, coach, principal, and now superintendent of schools in Ladue School District in St. Louis, Missouri. We were also both busy with our own families. However, when my son Jacob started looking at colleges to play soccer, Dennis returned to our lives. He didn’t just offer Jacob advice—he similarly mentored Jacob the way he had mentored me. Dennis came to watch Jacob play. Dennis would text Jacob, offering guidance and insight, and I couldn’t help but smile. Can you imagine being an 18-year-old kid, getting messages from the head coach at the University of Dayton? Just like before, Dennis was investing in someone else’s future. He did this not because he needed to or even wanted to but because it was just the right thing to do…give back to others whether there is anything in it for you.

In our last conversation, Coach Currier had just led Dayton to a stunning victory over the #1 ranked team in the nation, West Virginia. Jacob and I called to congratulate him, but a 45-minute lesson on life followed. Dennis explained the concept of the “Red Jersey.” During pre-season, his team competes in everything from fitness drills to 1v1s and 3v3 contests. It doesn’t stop on the pitch, though. You must sometimes push yourself out of your comfort zone to get the Red Jersey. Jumping into the pool’s deep end, literally and figuratively, is all part of the expectations. I think my favorite activity to learn about was karaoke night; players sang and bonded with each other despite some being scared to death to sing in front of an audience. What you won’t do to get that Red Jersey? The player who accumulates the most points wins the Red Jersey, a symbol of leadership, perseverance, and excellence. Dennis also said that, more often than not, the player who wins the Red Jersey is someone Dennis might not have predicted. What remains consistent is the player who wins the Red Jersey always has a significant role on the team. They have too many intangibles that equal success on and off the field.

As Dennis explained the Red Jersey to Jacob and me, I realized he wasn’t just talking about soccer. He was teaching us that Red Jersey represents something more significant: the discipline to work hard, the drive to succeed, and the character to lift others along the way. The Red Jersey represents the will to thrive when others quit, the desire to give more to the cause just when you thought there was nothing more left to give, and the strong want to make all those you come in contact with better. No, it isn’t about soccer, but the intangibles, which one cannot define.

So, I simply ask you:

• What does the Red Jersey mean to you in your life?
• What goals do you have, and do you want to attain those goals as much as the Men’s Dayton Soccer players want to win that Red Jersey?
• How can you be a Dennis Currier in someone else’s life?

As I reflect on this story, it all seems to be coming together, and it hit me—maybe that’s what Dennis was doing all those years ago when he took me under his wing. He may not have even known it back then, but he was teaching me how to win the Red Jersey in life.

I encourage each of you to create a road map in your life to your own Red Jersey and assist someone else along the way to their Red Jersey!

Thank you, Dennis, for assisting me in putting on my own Red Jersey and now helping Jacob earn his Red Jersey in life!

Want that Red Jersey in life!

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