from THE EDITOR Dwight Floyd Commentary: Trust the Process

DWIGHT FLOYD
COMMENTARY

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- When I was a first line supervisor and had to train some of the staff, I often found myself saying “trust the process.” I didn’t realize then that what I was really saying is “trust me.” It was hard for them to trust because they had never experienced what I was trying to get them to do. For me, the pleasure came from watching their reaction when they did trust the process and produce the desired results.

As Milton Overton leaves the position of athletic director at Florida A&M, one of the messages he is leaving is to trust the process. Beside leaving FAMU with the means to maintain a balanced budget, Overton began the process to elevate the program, so that FAMU can one day hire head coaches to match the direction of the program, rather than seek a Moses to take us to the promised land.

Those words, “Trust the Process,” bare repeating. You see, within that quote are the means to break the downward spiral that has been the fault of every Division 1 HBCU since integration. So much has changed within the universities and our communities since integration that HBCUs in the MEAC and SWAC have struggled to maintain. We have reached a point where we elevate coaches to genius status when they maintain a winning record, though the standard for so long a time was about being champions.

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