Motivational Quotes for Players and Coaches

Words of wisdom from some of the great thinkers, players and coaches around the world.

"It's when you try to sprint down a ball that everyone thinks is going out of bounds and you think it is too. But you go after it anyway and you get to it. Maybe you don't make a great cross with it to win the game, but you pushed yourself beyond what you thought you could. That's what it will take to win the gold." Mia Hamm

"In the end, it's extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more that that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals. Then it takes desire, determination, discipline, and selfsacrifice. And finally, it takes a great deal of love, fairness and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don't win, how can you lose?" Jesse Owens

"I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." Michael Jordan

"Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you do repeatedly." Shaquille O'Neal

"Do not throw in the towel; use it for wiping the sweat off your face." Unknown

"I've worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down, and I will not let myself down." Mia Hamm

"The will to prepare, the guts to risk, and the desire to be the best…these are the trademarks of a champion." Unknown

"The country is full of good coaches. What it takes to win is a bunch of interested players." Don Coryell, exSan Diego Chargers Coach

"The more honor and respect among the players, the greater the team." Unknown

"Good coaches teach respect for the opposition, love of competition, the value of trying your best, and how to win and lose graciously." Brooks Clark

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself." Henry Ward Beecher

"There is no such thing as a great talent without a great willpower." Unknown

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." John Wooden

"How a man plays the game shows something of his character; how he loses shows it all." Tribune (Camden County, GA)

"Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character." T. Alan Armstrong

"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up." The Reverend Jesse Jackson

"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital." Joe Paterno

"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." Tom Landry

[written By Mia Hamm just after winning the World Cup] A letter to my team: Remember the night before the final World Cup game, when we all got together and wrote down what we felt about each other and then taped the notes to the person's back? Then we ran back to our rooms and read them. Mine said, "Kick me." The note under it said, "Kick me harder." Just kidding, but really, some of your phrases were unbelievable. Things like, "I love how hard you play," "I love how you play for this team," "You play with passion." I feel the same way about every one of you guys. In sports, we go through some absolutely wonderful times and some absolutely fearful times like when you've got that really easy sitter and you miss it, and everyone in the stands is looking at you saying, "Hey, come on! I could have finished that one!" And your teammates look at you and they don't judge you. In the tough times and the great times, they treat you just the same. That's what sports is all about. Sports isn't about awards or world championships, though those are great. It's about the relationships we have with one another. So that night, before the final game, reading all those quotes, I'd already won. I won because I'm part of a great team. We're players who believe in each other and work extremely hard for one another. From the bottom of my heart, you guys, we did it together. I love you. Mia Hamm

Never Give Up. Never Give Up. Never Give Up. Winston Churchill

"A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money, but practices it without any hope of doing it well". G. K. Chesterton

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them." Lady Bird Johnson

"A great manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are. He forces you to have a good opinion of yourself. He lets you know he believes in you. He makes you get more out of yourself. And once you learn how good you really are, you never settle for playing anything less than your very best." Reggie Jackson

"I never practice tricks. I play very simply. That's what it's all about. Playing simple football is the hardest thing." Johan Cruyff "

...the difference between making it and not making it is so small... it's about vision and other things." Johan Cruyff

"Problems are obviously there to be solved." Johan Cruyff

"The special thing about the Dutch team is movement. Everybody moves. That's the basis of it." Johan Cruyff

"If you can't accept losing, you can't win." Vince Lombardi

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's." Jean Paul Richter

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." anonymous

"Nothing is more certain than the defeat of a man who gives up. " George Sheehan

"The greatest pleasure in life is in doing what people say you cannot do." Walter Bageholt

The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters. Cus D'Amato (Mike Tyson's former trainer & guardian)

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!" Yogi Berra

"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else." Yogi Berra

"To consistently be the best means that you can never lower yourself to the level of your competition." David McGee

"Practice like a champion today, and practice like a champion tomorrow, and soon you won't have to practice "like" a champion, but rather "as" a champion." Author Unknown

"You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can't have it." Robert Anthony

"Winners are losers who got tired of losing." Author Unknown

"In order to get what you've never had, do what you've never done." Tockcey Smith

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it." Heywood Hale Brown

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, and the lesson afterwards." Vernon Sanders Law

"Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is." Zig Ziglar

"Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach." George Sheehan

Whether you believe you can, or you believe you can't, you are probably right. author unknown

Hard work will beat talent when talent doesn't work hard. author unknown

All it takes is all you got. Marc Davis

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best, know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can. Lowell Thomas

Life is about feeling someone pushing from behind and realizing that it's you. Gatorade Add

Everything is practice. Pele

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. Fred Shero

"Excellence is a journey, not a destination." author unknown

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky

Credit has been given where the originator was known. Please excuse any omissions. Special thanks to the Mandan Soccer Community, the Rochester (MN) Screaming Egyptians and the Logan Elm Lady Braves.