What's in a Name?
Ever since we named our sports teams, the Hustlers, I made it clear what that meant. Hustlers Hustle. This means they play in an alert aggressive manner. We built our organization around this concept. As we’ve grown as an organization we have become more organized and formalized and although we’ve kept our team name we have named our organization UnFettered Athletics. At some point I realized that people didn’t know exactly what this meant and, until now, I have not made the time to explain it. People know through experience, and our mission statement and values, who we are and what we’re about, but I wanted to explain our name for those who do not know.
I had someone ask me once if this was a play on words with our name. It is. Our last name is Fetter and our organization is UnFettered. This is why we capitalize the letter “F” in our name. However, the word unfettered is not commonly used today. Here is the definition and the application to what we do:
un·fet·ter
(ŭn-fĕt′ər)
tr.v. un·fet·tered, un·fet·ter·ing, un·fet·ters
To free from fetters or other physical bonds. To free from restraints or inhibitions.
Hopefully, few to none of us have ever been restrained by physical bonds, but we may have been restrained by an illness or have a pet we’ve kept on a leash of some sort. When one goes from being restrained to being unfettered their first inclination is often to run. They are so excited and ready to get out that they just go; as fast as they can. But, along with that they will often make the comment, “When I get out of here the first thing I’m going to do is…” Whether it is a place to go, people to see, or food to eat they have an ambition for when they become unfettered. There is a goal in mind. This is how we want our players to play, our coaches to coach, and our parents to parent. We want to play with an aggression of being unchained. We want a resolute focus and determination. We are uninhibited and unrestrained from mental limitations. There is nothing that can stop us as we work together as a team with one desire and one heartbeat. We want our goal to be the only thing on our mind and to be relentless until it is achieved. In other words we want to be alert about our mission and purpose and aggressive in our execution to accomplish it.
To play unfettered is to hustle. UnFettered Athletics is our organization, the Hustlers are our teams. UnFettered athletes are Hustlers. Hustlers are alert and aggressive, on the court/field and more importantly off of it.
Hustlers Hustle.
-Coach Fetter
