The New Hampshire Tomahawks lacrosse program was a revered and successful program long before I showed up. But when I took the high school head lacrosse coaching job at Bishop Guertin High School in my early twenties, I was aligned with the powerful soul who is Chris Cameron, who with his wife & mighty business partner Judy had started and stopped the idea of building the girls side of the program for years, but had not yet had the right circumstances come together that would make starting a girls program make sense. Then I came along. And I asked the question one more time…could we?

When we embarked on that program, I knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to help create an inspiring community that fostered success for these young ladies. I was hoping to see the connections build between young athletes such that when they fulfilled their dreams of playing in college—if they chose to—they would have a group of fellow teammates that they had traveled with and grown with who were lifelong friends.

I started out as both a coach and director, and over time moved into primarily a director role, where I was helping the girls find the right fit for college—something that truly lit me up. From time to time, I would jump in and coach where I was needed. On one particular weekend, one of our coaches needed to leave early. So myself and another coach stepped in to support in that coach’s absence

The team had just had a series of tough games, and had a relatively low morale. When my coaching friend and I got to the sidelines with them, we knew intuitively that we had to inject some fire into them. So we came up with a cheer. [I used to make up silly cheers all the time.] And this cheer was called the Heart & Hustle chant. This is how it goes:

Coaches: H-squared!

Players: Heart & Hustle!

Coaches: H-squared!

Players: Heart & Hustle!

Coaches: H-squared!

Players: Heart & Hustle!

Coaches: Tomahawks on THREE! Onnneeee Twooooo Threeeee

Players: TOMAHAWKS!!!!!

Coaches: Let’s Go!!

Simple, right? We instituted this little cheer and these young girls—about 7^th grade—got so fired up. They were leaping higher, running faster, defending fiercer, and scoring more. We celebrated all the little wins and got fired up after every big play.

They won. In more ways than one.

Fast forward about 5 years or so, and that chant is still shared by every team that comes through the Tomahawks Girls program—which has now expanded to about 400 girls playing any given year. There is a Heart & Hustle tournament. There is a Heart & Hustle t-shirt. And, in my last year in the program, I received a necklace from a group of players, of which the H² represents—you guessed it—Heart & Hustle.

I retired from the program after over 5 years of serving as the director, but I still watch from afar with such pride in each of those young women [and the coaches] who are making the program special. And it never ceases to amaze me that a simple cheer that we came up with to inject some positive energy into a team grew from just that team and spread out widely across the entire organization…even after I was gone.

There’s a great book called Made to Stick  by Chip Heath & Dan Heath that talks about why ideas stick. If you’re looking to get your idea to stick, I highly recommend it.

For purposes of this piece, these are my thoughts of why this idea stuck from that day forward. It was a collection of authentic desire, channeled energy, and receptive people.

First, authentic desire. My assistant coach and I had a sincerely authentic desire to help those young women that day. It came from a genuine place, and young people can feel that. They know when you truly care. So, to me, getting an idea to stick starts with not really caring if the idea itself sticks. But instead, fueling that intrinsic desire to be of service.

Second, channeled energy. The words of that cheer were one thing. The energy behind them was an entirely different source. We have all heard people say something, but we knew that there was no energy behind what they were saying. Because we had that authentic desire in us, the energy that flew through our mouths as we got the team going was infectious. And, the energy was focused. We were not thinking about anything else except getting that team ready to improve, and to win.

Finally, receptive people. Because we cared, and because our energy was so focused, the team was receptive. The right people met at the right time to make that collective spark happen. They could have thought we were silly and they could have been totally turned off because they were not winning, but they were decidedly receptive. Because of that, they spread the idea widely. It wasn’t the coaches that brought that cheer from team to team. It was the players—who, when they went on to other teams, brought that same authentic desire and channeled energy to those they connected with

Part of what makes ideas stick is having the perfect circumstances that allow all of those 3 components to come together. Which is part of the reason why not all ideas stick. It’s the perfect coming together of special focus, energy and people.

One idea that has stuck since the beginning of the program is this: community. Over this past weekend, I saw a special photo. It was of 2 young ladies who were part of the very first Tomahawks teams—one who started with us in 9^th grade and another who started in 6^th grade. The photo was of them playing college lacrosse, against each other. Both playing at dream schools, and both getting significant playing time, which we are certainly proud of. But, I think the biggest thing for me was that they had built a community with each other, and that they were proud of where they came from. That, to me, is heart & hustle.