Mike Gilleran, the Athletic Director at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, is also the Executive Director of the Santa Clara University Institute for Sports Law and Ethics. He previously served as the commissioner of the West Coast Conference, spending over 30 years in intercollegiate athletics. Earning his J.D. from Seattle University in 1975, he focused on Sports Law and has since been involved in almost every aspect of college and high school sports.

In this video, Gilleran discusses the lessons that high school athletics can teach, emphasizing that sports primarily teaches that life is always a work in progress. In sports, we sometimes win and we sometimes lose, but there is always a chance to get better and work through tough moments...just as in the rest of life.

Everyone faces adversity. Those who learn through sport how to handle adversity have an added advantage. Sports teach that in the tougher moments, all you can do is put forth your best effort.