In this brief motivational talk delivered on the final day of a 2½‑week soccer camp in Salt Lake City, Travis reflects on the emotional challenge of transitioning from a hard‑fought semifinal to a friendly match against Costa Rica. He revisits a leadership analogy he shared with the players—comparing cows, which flee an approaching storm, to buffalo, which charge into it—to illustrate how the team should respond to adversity. He recounts a vulnerable moment when a player admitted that “running at the storm” is difficult, and Travis affirms the player’s courage, reinforcing the lesson that true resilience requires facing hardship head‑on. The talk concludes with an encouraging call for everyone to keep confronting their own “storms,” assuring them of his support.
Chapters
Hey, good afternoon everyone. This is Travis with your Moment of Yes for June 9th, Wednesday, June 9th. Today is the last day of our camp, our almost 2 and a half week camp. Game number 4 tonight against Costa Rica here in Salt Lake City, and then everyone flies home tomorrow. And so it'll be a challenge today emotionally getting up. for what is essentially a friendly after having a championship game a few nights ago. But that's, that's part of the reason that we, we are doing this, to, to be able to adapt and respond and, and to regain our intensity and focus after an emotional game. And so tonight will be an interesting test to see if we can do that. But one of the themes that we've been working with during this camp, especially with the players, Is how we respond to adversity. And so when I did a leadership session with the players before our semifinal game, I shared the analogy, and I've probably shared it here before, about the difference between buffalo and cows, how they respond in thunderstorms out in the plains. The cows, when the storm is coming, they try to run away from the storm, and the storm catches them and then pounds on them as they continue to try to run away from the storm. The buffalo, on the other hand, see the storm clouds coming and they run at the storm. So they're attacking the thing, they're attacking the challenge, the obstacle, the adversity. They're running at it instead of away from it. Therefore, they get through it and on the other side of it even faster. So this idea of run at the storm, that's how I ended my leadership session. And so we've kind of used that as a theme for the 2 games. And we obviously won a very, very difficult, challenging game. One of the players came up to me before training yesterday and said, hey Travis, he goes, it's really hard to run at the storm. And it was this very, very vulnerable moment for this player. And so he and I had a talk for a few minutes and I was able to share my appreciation for him and the courage and bravery that He expressed in that particular match and how I appreciated that in him and how he should be able to see that in himself. And I think for all of us, right? It's one thing to talk about running at the storm. It's another thing to actually do it and to be in the storm and to take a beating and to continue to move through it. And so it's a great story. It's a great analogy. It's tougher in practice, but it feels good to be able to do that and run through it. So that's your moment of yes for today. Just a real-life example from camp here. And to encourage each of you, whatever storm you are running through right now, to keep running through it. You know I got your back. Have a great day, everybody.
