In Mandarin Chinese the word Weiji, means “crisis”, but hidden inside that word is the Mandarin word “ji” or “opportunity.”

Every crisis contains an opportunity. Some enterprising sorts will use that opportunity to exploit the fears of others and enrich themselves. Others will seize the opportunity to show who they really are.

I hope that when the time comes for you boys to face a critical moments that you approach the moment How you act in a crisis should show who you are, not make you what you want to be.

The title of this essay owes itself to Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Which, in addition to being an inventive and beloved retelling of American history, has a lot to say about the nature of people faced with the crises inherent in starting a new nation. Few characters summarize the ways of dealing with crisis better than the titular Alexander Hamilton and the show’s narrator Aaron Burr.

Hamilton sings one of the most recognizable songs in the show. At a moment of crisis, with the colonies on the cusp of independence or deeper subjugation in a losing fight with the British Empire, his arrival on the scene isn’t a saving grace for the nascent country. It’s just situation where a “young, scrappy, and hungry” immigrant is the right person in the right place at the right time to make the best of a situation.

The situation revealed Hamilton: bright, ambitious, talented, committed to his community.

That Burr instead decided “you spit, Imma sit, we’ll see where things land,” Isn’t an indictment of him. Some aren’t ready to act at the moment of crisis. Others simply don’t see the crisis as others do. The reticent are not reprehensible, but the opportunistic…

That is the path Burr opts to take. After establishing a theme about how he’s “willing to wait for” whatever his best opportunity is, Burr finally pounces to get his seat in “the room where it happens” by changing “parties to sieze the opportunity I saw.”

The situation revealed Burr: clever, cunning, calculating, and committed to himself.

Sports matters far less than nation building, but crises are every bit as full of opportunity. Nothing showed that better this month than the injuries to top choice goalkeepers Fatua Duda of Legon and Brice Mableu of Grenoble.

Any injury can create a club wide crisis. Goalie is especially nerve racking. There can be a steep decline from first choice keepers to second choices.

Mableu is a club legend, a top choice keeper for 6.5 years. Duda wore the gloves of Ghana’s national team just a few months ago. Their replacements were…not.

Esteban Salles stepped between the sticks in Grenoble having played about a quarter of the games Mableu had, in three stints at lower level clubs. Winfred Honu took over in Legon 13 years younger than captain and team leader Duda.

And yet, both Salles and Honu rose to the occasion. Salles has become a penalty kick magnet, and his only loss came to perennial big spenders/title contenders AS Monaco. Honu hoisted a floundering Royals side off the foot of the table without suffering a defeat yet.

https://twitter.com/legoncfcnews/status/1359115202764156930

These performances don’t mean that Salles and Honu are better than the men they replaced. Whenever the number one keepers come back, it’ll be back to a life of warm up suits and extra training reps. But it does show who they are: prepared, poised, ready to offer their all to a team in need.

Honu and Salles are what Hamilton reflects in its leads. They are men who meet the moment, showing consummate professionalism in their actions and sincere strength of character, prepared to be themselves at this opportune moment.

I hope you look to them, to all those who rise up in the crucible of crisis. Dang, you’ll amaze and astonish.