Hoeppner: Do the best you can

It was a scene straight out of an IU athletics marketing poster. \nIU football coach Terry Hoeppner, clad in an IU track jacket, track pants and a red IU hat, walked toward the sideline at Assembly Hall. Only this time, he was not trying to get his audience to buy tickets. Instead, Hoeppner discussed leadership qualities in his "Building the Team" speech, sponsored by the Council for Advancing Student Leadership. \nFrom his choice of literature to his 19 years of coaching at Miami University (Ohio), Hoeppner's 40-minute speech engaged an audience of about 100 people, with whom he was often playful. \nHe opened by telling audience members they, like he, did not have to remove their hats. \n"I had a little cosmetic surgery a couple weeks ago," he joked during the speech, in reference to brain surgery he underwent at the end of December.\nToward the end of his speech, Hoeppner again joked that he needed to finish because he had yet to eat dinner. \nThough filled with moments of laughter, his speech rarely strayed from the message. \n"You are a product of the books you read and the people you meet," he said during the speech.\nAnd he reads a lot of books. During the speech, Hoeppner named and described some of the books that have taught him about leadership.\n"If we win the Big Ten and go to the Rose Bowl, I'm writing a book," he said during the speech. \nHis main point was teaching everyone to "do the best you can with what you're doing right now." \nBut he stressed that being a leader involves more than drawing up a game plan and calling timeouts. \n"Sometimes it's pretty lonely at the top, just so you know," he told the audience. \nHe then read a poem to the audience he said helps him deal with difficult situations. The poem reads "Bullfight critics row on row, crowd the plaza. But there's only one that knows. He's the guy that's in the ring, fighting the bull."\n"I think it's so applicable to the sport, whether it's (IU basketball coach) Mike Davis, me or any high-profile college coach," Hoeppner said in an interview after the speech. "Everybody has their opinion; there's only one that really knows."\nBut Hoeppner's wife, Jane, might have a good idea what it's like to fight in the bullring, saying it's often hard to keep up with her husband. Hoeppner's wife said last year he held 83 speaking engagements. \n"He always does well," she said of her husband's speech. "He's got a story to tell, and he has a real heart for the students."\nKim Valenta, president of CASL, said she appreciated having someone like Hoeppner participate in its speaker series. \n"It's great for us to have someone from the athletics department," she said.\nHer enthusiasm with the speech might only be outdone by Hoeppner himself.\n"Any chance I get to talk to our students, I don't care if it's two or 2,000, I always enjoy it," he said.