News outlets in South Carolina have written at great length this past spring season about the boys’ lacrosse team at Wando High School in Mount Pleasant, and since I am neither a lacrosse expert nor a sports writer in general, I won’t add to the volume.
But the 2024 championship season for the team was a remarkable journey, regardless of your interest in the sport or in South Carolina. The team, who had lost the state 5A title game last year, came back this year with a single goal in mind: dominance, as beautifully narrated by Emma Stanton in the school’s award-winning student newspaper.
(Kaya Steele/school newspaper)“We lost in the state championship last year, so we just had a revenge season,” she quoted senior Connor Neal, a two-time all-state player, as saying. “We all envisioned it to happen, so it was just like the job’s finished.”
As an educator, I am inspired by the team’s journey from defeat to victory. Neal’s use of past setbacks as a springboard for success is a powerful example of a growth mindset in action. The team’s ability to turn a loss into a catalyst for improvement is a testament to their resilience and a tribute to the educators at Wando for cultivating this mindset. What could be a more significant setback for champions than losing the title game? Yet, they visualized success and worked relentlessly, demonstrating the power of continuous effort.
We congratulate the boys’ lacrosse team at Wando on their amazing season and the 10 of 11 team members who returned.
“We all knew in the back of our minds that we were going to win and that there was no other choice,” Neal continued. “We were watching film and just how we were playing. We were super confident, and there was not one thought in our mind that we were going to lose.”
Another key principle of a growth mindset is the confidence it builds through preparation and learning from past performances. This is exemplified when team members review game films. Whether it’s about lacrosse or life science, the emphasis is on progression and developing leadership skills that focus on continuous growth and building on the past.
“Hopefully, the lessons [the team learns] with us and their experience can help them with the adversity they are going to face in college and also help them with the trials and tribulations that will occur as they become young adults,” head coach Lance Renes was quoted as saying about team members’ character, expressing the belief that experiences and lessons learned can help overcome future challenges and emphasizing, consistent with a growth mindset, resilience and lifelong improvement.
