Nayara Elvina
The modern era of collegiate athletics has fundamentally transformed the relationship between student-athletes and their respective programs. With the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) legislation, the widespread implementation of the NCAA transfer portal, and the increasing commercialization of university sports, critics and analysts have frequently questioned how contemporary coaches successfully motivate athletes who are operating in a multi-million-dollar professionalized landscape. Traditional narratives often suggest that the romance of playing purely for institutional pride has been supplanted by financial incentives and career positioning. However, Wake Forest University men’s basketball head coach Steve Forbes recently demonstrated that universal truths regarding human mortality, fleeting youth, and the inevitability of time transcend economic shifts.
As the Demon Deacons prepare for the upcoming college basketball season, a video distributed by the Wake Forest men’s basketball program captured Forbes delivering a preseason address to his players that has since resonated far beyond the confines of the Joel Coliseum practice facility. Utilizing a physical artifact that has sat on his desk since his arrival in Winston-Salem—a traditional hourglass—Forbes bypassed standard tactical or motivational tropes to deliver a stark, existential reminder regarding the finite nature of a collegiate athletic career. The clip, which quickly circulated across major social media platforms, sparked widespread acclaim from sports commentators, former players, and educators alike for its candid articulation of pressure, accountability, and the passage of time.
The Chronology and Setting of the Address
The speech took place during an early-autumn practice session as the Demon Deacons intensified their preparations for the upcoming campaign, which remains more than a month away from its official tip-off. Rather than addressing the team in a traditional locker room setting immediately following a strenuous workout, Forbes gathered his roster to center their collective mindset on the macro-level realities of their development.
Placing the hourglass—a fixture of his office decor since he accepted the Wake Forest head coaching position in April 2020—at the center of the discussion, Forbes turned the instrument over to visually demonstrate the relentless progression of time. The theatrical yet profoundly personal gesture served as a focal point for a multi-minute monologue that addressed the next six months of competition, the broader arc of their remaining eligibility, and the permanent closure of their formative playing days.
In a sport where media days, preseason polls, and tactical evaluations typically dominate the pre-season news cycle, Forbes chose to pivot the narrative toward internal reflection. By framing the upcoming season through the lens of an irreversible countdown, the veteran coach sought to inoculate his roster against complacency, distraction, and the various external pressures introduced by the modern collegiate sports ecosystem.
Core Transcript of the Preseason Address
The published excerpts of Forbes’s address highlight a pedagogical approach rooted in tough love, empathy, and professional responsibility. Addressing his players directly as the sand trickled through the glass, Forbes emphasized the irreplaceable nature of shared athletic experiences:
"You guys have seen that in my office. It’s been in my office since I got the head coaching job here. It’s a symbol of your career, and of your season. Turn over this hourglass and watch the sand fall. This is how quickly the next six months are going to go. For you, your teammates, and this team," Forbes stated to the assembled roster.
He continued by addressing the seniors and upperclassmen whose departure from the amateur ranks is imminent, urging them to find value in the daily grind of preparation: "For some of you, this will be the final grain of sand that falls for your college career, because it’ll be over. So embrace the hard, cherish the reps, enjoy the time in the locker room with your teammates, take advantage of the road trips on the bus and on the plane. These are things you’re never ever going to get back. Be where your feet are."
Forbes subsequently revealed his primary professional anxiety, framing his demanding coaching style not as an exercise in authoritarianism, but as a safeguard against future regret.
"When your college career ends, you don’t get to flip that thing back over to start again. That’s why I continue to tell you my biggest fear as a coach is ten years from now, five years from now, that you come to me and say, ‘Coach, if you just would have coached me a little bit harder, I would have been a better player.’ I refuse to let that happen," Forbes explained. "Because I know this: Your time is short. I know how important it is to you and your family. Before you know it, it’s going to be February or March. Practices will be gone, games will be over, and for some of you, your college career will be done. The sand is already falling. Don’t waste it. Don’t wish it away. Don’t leave any regrets… make every grain of that sand count."
Contextualizing the Modern Collegiate Basketball Landscape
To fully understand the resonance of Forbes’s message, one must examine the broader socioeconomic and regulatory environment in which contemporary college basketball operates. Over the past five years, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has undergone the most radical transformation in its history. The introduction of NIL policies in July 2021 allowed student-athletes to monetize their personal brands, shifting the financial dynamic of college sports significantly. Simultaneously, the implementation of the one-time transfer exception—which permits players to transfer schools once without sitting out a season—has created a hyper-transient roster-building environment.
In this climate, player retention has become a major challenge for coaching staffs across the country. Annual roster turnover routinely exceeds fifty percent at numerous Division I programs, leading critics to argue that players are increasingly viewing their time at a university as a temporary transactional stepping stone rather than a formative chapter of personal development. Furthermore, the immense physical and mental demands placed on student-athletes—balancing rigorous academic schedules, high-intensity training, media obligations, and the pressures of public scrutiny—frequently lead to burnout.
Against this backdrop, Forbes’s speech functions as a counter-narrative to the transactional nature of modern athletics. By invoking the finality of an hourglass, he reminds players that regardless of financial compensation or transfer flexibility, the actual window of athletic competition remains remarkably brief. A standard collegiate career spans a maximum of four to five years, a microscopic fraction of a human lifespan. By emphasizing shared team experiences, bus rides, plane trips, and locker room camaraderie, Forbes deliberately steered his players away from purely individualistic metrics of success toward collective accountability and presence of mind.
Biographical Background of Steve Forbes and Coaching Philosophy
Steve Forbes brings a distinctive perspective to these leadership challenges, forged through decades of coaching experience across various levels of collegiate basketball. Born in Iowa, Forbes built a reputation as one of the nation’s premier recruiters and tactical minds through assistant coaching stints at major programs, including Tennessee, Wichita State, and Texas A&M. Prior to taking over the Wake Forest program in May 2020, Forbes achieved notable success as the head coach at Northwest Florida State College—where he won a junior college national championship—and subsequently at ETSU (East Tennessee State University), where he compiled a dominant 130-43 record and earned multiple conference championships.
Throughout his career, Forbes has been characterized by colleagues and analysts as a direct, uncompromising communicator who places immense emphasis on player development and personal discipline. His tenure at Wake Forest has been marked by a steady revitalization of the Demon Deacons program, highlighted by competitive finishes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the development of professional-caliber talent.
The use of symbolic teaching tools, such as the office hourglass, aligns with established sports psychology frameworks that utilize tangible metaphors to combat present-bias—the human tendency to underweight future consequences in favor of immediate comfort. By grounding abstract concepts like time management and career mortality into a physical object that can be inverted and observed, Forbes translates philosophical ideals into actionable daily behaviors.
Broader Implications and Public Reception
The rapid dissemination of the video across digital media platforms highlights a public appetite for authentic leadership discourse. In an era where sports media is frequently dominated by highlight reels, contract negotiations, and analytical metrics, a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the psychological preparation of a collegiate basketball team captured the public imagination.
Sports psychologists and leadership experts note that messages concerning time scarcity and the elimination of regret resonate universally, extending far beyond the hardwood. The phrase "be where your feet are"—a common mantra among elite coaches and military personnel—serves as a core tenet of mindfulness, encouraging individuals to detach from future anxieties and past failures to fully engage with the present task.
For the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, the immediate implication of the address is the establishment of a rigorous cultural baseline ahead of the competitive season. As programs across the ACC and the broader NCAA Division I landscape finalize their rotations and scrimmage schedules, the psychological resilience of a roster often dictates performance during high-pressure conference play in January and February.
Ultimately, while the financial and institutional realities of college athletics will continue to evolve alongside legal and regulatory frameworks, Forbes’s address underscores a timeless athletic reality. Wins, losses, and contracts are temporary, but the manner in which athletes invest themselves into their craft and their teammates remains permanent. As the sand continues to fall through the glass in the Wake Forest basketball offices, the Demon Deacons enter the upcoming season under a mandate to ensure that every available moment is maximized without reservation.
