Lets Move Mountains

I have been trying to keep a list of all the different topics I would like to write about. My very creative title for it is “The List”. Even though “The List” is at record length right now I will not be addressing anything on it in this post.

This is because I was inspired today by a commercial that I saw for the first time today, which ran in Canada this summer. Aliant Commercial

It stars my friend Dave Durepos. I have been honored to call Dave a friend for the past eight plus years. He is a great player, but that's not the thing I admire most about him. I admire the journey he took to become great. Dave does not take no for an answer and he finds a way to make opportunities for himself.

Dave lives in a relatively isolated part of Canada where there are very few players close to his caliber. This means quite a bit of time alone in a gym practicing by himself. It was also hard for him to find games on the domestic level that are challenging for him. Dave found a way to get more playing time by rostering with American teams and sometimes taking up to three connecting flights to get to tournaments.

Dave will always have a special place in my heart for the way he mentored me in my late teens and early 20s. Dave understood life is a team sport before I could even fathom the concept. I know Dave led some cheers for me when he was sitting on the sidelines while I would get in during the final minutes of a game that had already been decided and all I would do is hit a layup.

Once during my sophomore year of college Dave and I were working at the same wheelchair basketball camp for junior players after not seeing each other for several months. During the breaks the counselors would scrimmage. We were on the same team for the first scrimmage of camp. After the scrimmage Dave came up to me and said you have improved A LOT!

The way that Dave said it I knew I had just crossed the line of being a good player in Dave's eyes. I did nothing special, I made a couple layups and set screens so Dave could do his thing from downtown, but Dave understands the power of positive talk and he instilled so much confidence in me.

Dave is not the only thing that is so inspiring about the commercial. The song that is playing in the background is called Believe by Suzie McNeil. I highly encourage everyone to check it out because it is one of the most inspiring songs I have heard in a long time. As the lyrics say “You can move mountains with dreams” and “You can get through almost anything if you just believe.”

Lets believe, have some fun and move those mountains so we can all get to our dreams!

Thanks to Aliant for bringing together the brilliant work of Dave and Suzie! It inspired me deeply.

I hope everyone has time to check out the commercial and the song. It is well worth it!

Thanks for reading
Chris

Please be sure to check out my new website chrisrathje.com Everything will be moving over there once I get word press blogging down.