A night with no regrets, UCLA handles defeat with grace

Senior Katelyn Ohashi’s ‘perfect 10’ floor exercise routine
was a viral sensation on YouTube.

The UCLA women’s gymnastics team did not repeat as national champions this year. However, they handled defeat with grace and humility. Sometimes, as the Bruins learned on a recent April Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas, when they finished in third place behind Oklahoma and Louisiana State after winning the 2018 NCAA championship, that takes more strength.

By the end of the evening, the Bruins shed plenty of tears and, yet, still they danced.

Looking back, perhaps not winning it all was a better sendoff for UCLA’s legendary coach Valorie Kondos Field, who taught her gymnasts to savor the joy of competing as much their victories.

The Bruins left the 2019 NCAA Gymnastics Championships with no regrets and they did one final dance for their Miss Val, who is retiring after 29 years as head coach. A trained ballet dancer, she coached UCLA to 19 Pac-12 Conference championships and seven NCAA national championships. She counted the late, legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden as a mentor and friend, and it was him who taught her the importance of love and balance as well as value of accountability. As a lasting tribute to Kondos Field, during their last home meet in Pauley Pavilion this season, the bright blue competition floor was renamed Valorie Kondos Field Floor in her honor.

Throughout the 2019 season, the Bruins gave their fans so many great moments – the perfect 10s scored by Kyla Ross on each apparatus as well as Katelyn Ohashi’s floor exercise routine, also a perfect 10, which went viral – seen by YouTube viewers more than 117 million times – and turned the diminutive, former U.S. Junior National Team gymnast into an overnight sensation as she celebrated female empowerment while performing to music by Beyoncé, Tina Turner and Janet Jackson.

UCLA’s dance routines, all choreographed by Miss Val, were as entertaining as they were difficult to execute. Each of the core group of gymnasts who competed in floor exercise brought a sense of elan – an out-of-body experience that connected to their audience – to their memorable and enjoyable performances. Whether it was Nia Dennis portraying the Queen of the Nile, colorfully accenting her routine by air-signing her name; or Gracie Kramer’s “Hardley Sane,” whose escape from an insane asylum while wreaking havoc is completely believable and done in a “Twilight Zone” trance. There’s Margzetta Frazier’s ode to voguing runway models as she prances the floor to “Din Daa Daa,” by Kevin Aviance; and Pauline Tratz’s channeling of Coco Chanel possessed by an alien performed to Guns N‘ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.” Finally, there’s Felicia Hano’s 1920s tribute to City of Atlantis mermaids as “Lone Digger” by Caravan Palace sets the mood, and Ross as the 10.0 thief dancing to Throttle’s “Hit the Road Jack” with toes pointed and a big, radiating smile that lights up sold-out, 10,000-strong Pauley Pavilion.

“They can forget the fact they’re a gymnast and they’re simply performing,” said Kondos Field in a Los Angeles Daily News interview earlier this year, “and in that performance, there are flips and twists.”

There’s so many things worth mentioning about what was to like about UCLA gymnastics this season, but it all points back to Miss Val. Last year, she wrote a book, “Life is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance,” that was part autobiography, part self-help, part leadership, in which Kondos Field, a breast cancer survivor, shared her insights on how to use one’s uniqueness and authenticity to achieve success. Its principles are something which each member of her UCLA gymnastics squad embraced.

Although I’ve never met Miss Val, I’ve always admired her sense of curiosity, creativity and attention to detail – and above all, the unwavering care, love and well-being she showed for each of her student-athletes.

Last week, The Players’ Tribune published a 10-plus-minute video letter, “Dear Valorie,” in which Kondos Field poignantly detailed in a first-person essay how she became Miss Val. Watch it at least once and allow yourself to shed some tears.

The UCLA gymnastics season has been over for a little more than a week, but the tributes for Miss Val continue to pour in. After I saw the Players’ Tribune video, which I learned about via Twitter, I left a note for Miss Val that read:

Thank you #dearmissval for all you’ve given to women’s gymnastics and to UCLA athletics. Coach Wooden was a very good mentor. As a fan, it’s been a pleasure to see how you’ve touched so many lives in such a positive manner. Indeed, #lifeistooshortdontwaittodance #noregrets 👏❤️☮️

I’m happy to note that Miss Val liked my comment. Indeed, #lifeistooshortdontwaittodance

Photo: Courtesy of Google images. Video: Courtesy of YouTube and Players’ Tribune.

Thoughts on books: Leadership in turbulent times

Today is Election Day in the United States and throughout America, the mid-term elections serve as a referendum on the direction of our country under President Donald J. Trump. Are we content with the everyday chaos coming out of the White House or do we hearken for something better?

We’re reminded that when the U.S. has been at odds with itself, a born leader has come along to remind us of the common causes we share – and just as important, of our shared humanity. Think back to when Barack Obama became the first black elected President of the United States 10 years ago this week. It seems like such a long time ago, that chilly Election Night victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, when one voice changed the world.

However, with the U.S. becoming more deeply divided by the hate, fear, deviciveness and lies that have characterized the first two years of the Trump presidency, it’s worth looking back to some of our country’s past presidents – Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson – all of them leaders, to see if they have something to teach us about the challengers we face as a nation today.

In Leadership in Turbulent Times, published by Simon & Schuster in September, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely – Lincoln, both Roosevelts and Johnson – to show how each recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others.

Seven questions are explored in great detail in Leadership, which form the foundation of Goodwin’s book. They are: Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Do the times make the leader or does the leader shape the times? How can a leader infuse a sense of purpose and meaning into people’s lives? What is the difference between power, title, and leadership? Is leadership possible without a purpose larger than personal ambition?

The blogger meets the author.

According to Goodwin, “No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in background, abilities, and temperament, these men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships. At their best, all four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others.”

In a recent interview with The History Channel, Goodwin said that leadership is elusive because one size does not fit all. “In my book, I have sought to make the concept of leadership less abstract and more practical through specific stories that can provide a guide and inspiration to show how – with ambition, self-reflection and perseverance – leadership skills can be developed and strengthened.

“Through my study of leadership these past five years, I found a family resemblance of traits and patterns of behavior – among them humility, empathy, resilience, courage; the ability to replenish energy, listen to diverse opinions, control negative impulses, connect with all manner of people, communicate through stories and keep one’s word. ... They remind us of what is needed today.”

On Abraham Lincoln, Goodwin characterized the 16th President by writing: “Confident and humble, persistent and patient, Abraham Lincoln had the ability to mediate among different factions of his party, and was able, through his gift for language, to translate the meaning of the struggle into words of matchless force, clarity and beauty.”

We should be grateful for Goodwin’s book – she offers heartening examples of leadership from the past in the hope that “we will not accept our current uncivil polarization as the norm.”

Goodwin hopes that Leadership will provide reassurance through the study and stories of “my guys,” who set forth a template of shared purpose, collaboration and compromise – “the best of our collective identity in times of trouble.”

Leadership in Turbulent Times is timely – very timely – and it’s timeless at the same time.

A commentary: How long will we accept weapons of war being used to slaughter our nation's children?

On Wednesday, President Trump did not address the nation after the Florida high school shooting that left at least 17 dead. While his advisors recommended he say something in the aftermath of the latest horrific mass shooting in America, such as what President Obama did back in December 2012 in dealing with the Sandy Hook Elementary horror in which a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut – a moment he later said in a TV interview was the worst day of his presidency – this President opted not to. Mr. Trump remained silent, hiding behind his Twitter account.

While we have become tired of the empty gestures and platitudes which come with each new national tragedy, it seems that we as a nation should be disturbed by this President, who always wants to provoke, never reassure or commiserate like President Obama did so eloquently more than once during his eight-year stewardship of the White House.

Yesterday, before his team's NBA game in Portland, Oregon – just hours after the Florida shooting – Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who has always been open about his views on politics, addressed the matter of gun violence head on – unlike our current commander-in-chief. Kerr spoke out passionately about the need to find a way to curtail gun violence in the United States.

"It doesn't seem to matter to our government that children are being shot to death day after day in schools. It doesn't matter that people are being shot at a concert, in a movie theater. It's not enough apparently to move our leadership – our government – the people who are running this country to actually do anything. That's demoralizing," said Kerr.

Mind you, gun violence is a deeply personal issue for Kerr, whose father, Malcolm H. Kerr, was assassinated in 1984 by two gunmen outside his office in Beirut, Lebanon, where he was president of the American University of Beirut.

"We can actually do something about it. We can vote people in who actually have the courage to protect people's lives and not just bow down to the NRA because they've financed their campaign for them," said Kerr.

"Hopefully, we'll find enough people, first of all, to vote good people in, but hopefully, we can find people with courage to help our citizens remain safe and focus on the real safety issues. Not building some stupid wall for billions of dollars that has nothing to do with our safety, but actually protecting us from what truly is dangerous, which is maniacs with semi-automatic weapons just slaughtering our children. It's disgusting."

Video: Courtesy of YouTube.