Tim Gavin

I tend to write most of my blogs about H.E.A.R.T when it pertains to sports, but in my opinion, life AND sports are the same thing.  You prepare to play, play to win and sometimes you lose.  But then again, sometimes you win.  Although statistically speaking you always have a 50/50 chance of winning or losing, preparation, skill, team, your opponents and various other factors come into play to create a derivative of this common known statistic (the 50/50 thing).  This brings me to the guy you see in the picture above you....Tim Gavin.  Without a doubt one of the people I have ever known to have one of the biggest if not most genuine and caring and tough H.E.A.R.T.

Attitude:

When people think of the word "attitude" they generally think of it in a negative sense.  I can see that, but in reality, your attitude is the only thing in this world that you can truly control.  You can't control your body temperature, emotions (don't lie to yourself) or peoples opinion of you.  But you can control your attitude.  If you think positive thoughts long enough, you will trick yourself into being positive (although it may be brief).  Timmy has been through some of the crappiest situations I have ever seen a person go through and he still keeps his head.  He may not be as happy as when the situation was more cheerful, but he's not an ass to be around.  Every time I was down in the dumps, I could always call on Tim to bring some sort of levelness to the situation.  The world could be going to hell in a hand basket and Tim would be cooler than the Fonz on a blind date.

Resilience:

The resilience level of Tim Gavin is incredible.  I think it's one of his greatest attributes.  Timmy is a very sharp individual although he's not been know to get straight A's (for the record, neither have I...moving on).  Tim accomplished something that most college students don't...HE GRADUATED.  Not only did he do so, but he did it with limitations that were beyond his control.  Did he allow this to be an excuse and just say, "ah who cares about school?"...no.  He dug in his heels and he worked his ass off to graduate.  I personally knew how hard he worked to graduate, that's why it was so important to me to watch him walk across the stage and get his diploma (I was living in Seattle at the time, Tim graduated from a western Maryland university).  He never gave up on his dream (since H.S. to teach P.E. and possibly coach) and all of his hard work paid off.

(Tim Gavin during a timeout coaching the Towson Generals)

Toughness:

Toughness does not necessarily mean how mean and bad ass you are, it can also mean how mentally tough you are as well.  Without getting too personal into Timmy's life, let's just say that he is a Maryland guy.  His entire family is from Maryland, his lovely wife Sarah's family is from there and all of their friends...are from Maryland.  When Timmy graduated he had to teach in Virginia and then moved onto teaching in West Virginia.  His passion was teaching and coaching, but he was only able to do this in these two states.  A much lesser individual would have most likely quit and moved back.  Tim stayed the course though.  Even though the situation looked bleak and he, his wife and unborn baby (who is now born and she's adorable...what up Casey!) probably would have had to stay in West Virginia, Tim kept on grinding to get back to MD.  All of his hard work paid off because he's now back in Maryland.  If he wasn't as tough as he needed to be when it was required, who knows where he would be today.

I know this post sounds extremely biased, and maybe it is, but I love this guy and his H.E.A.R.T is bigger than most people I have ever known.  He doesn't quit, cry or whine and completely genuine.  I haven't met a single person who doesn't like him, would do anything for him or believe that he wouldn't give you the shirt off of his back.