Finny's Fight

On March 20th, 2009, Coach Craig Finberg lost his battle with cancer. He was 51.


After realizing he wasn't built for running, he tried out for the basketball team. Despite his size he made the team and went on to be Montana State University's 7th highest all time scorer (1473 points). He chose to "extend" his basketball career by becoming the coach at Beaverhead County High School. He coached for 18 years.

Like any Good Coach, he improved the lives of those he spent time with; and his inspiration touched those he never met.

My fourth son, Finn, arrived at the Beaverhead County High School nervous but ready for his first wrestling tournament of the season. During one of the first practices of the season he rolled his foot and received what turns out to be a very common break in young athletes, called by our Pediatrist a "Jones Break".

Finn would spend the next four weeks watching practice from the sidelines, not allowed to do anything more than a little upper-body weight training until his foot was well enough to take off the protective "boot".

Not entirely heeled, his doctor showed Finn how to pad and wrap his foot so that he could practice and, if there was no serious discomfort, compete in the last two tournatments of the season (his first as a Middle School Wrestler).

Upon entering the gymnasium, my son was drawn to flags that hung everywhere honoring "Finny's Fight". Unaware of the coach with the similar name who was in a cancer battle he'd lose just a few days later, the signs encouraged my boy. He knew they weren't for him; no one in the small town of Dillon, Montana, would have ever heard of the boy from the only slightly bigger town of Bozeman. But still the signs took the edge off. He said his foot was "a bit tired", but he was inspired by someone he didn't know to not give up.

And he didn't.

In what was one of the most exciting matches of the day, Finn found himself wrestling for his weight's Championship in double overtime. With the clock rapidly winding down, a Jordan-esque look of determination washed over his face, extinguishing the fatigue.

Mustering all of his remaining strength, Finn threw the Head-and-Arm; not a complicated move, but one that only works at this level of wrestling if you have more strength available than your opponent. Take down; 2 points - Finn wins.

Fifteen minutes later his older brother handily one his Championship match, scoring all of the points awarded. When I asked Ty about it later he said: "after watching my little brother win, there was no way I was going to ride all the way home having to listen to that over and over again unless I won too".

Coach Finberg, through his commitment and dedication, has inspired people who've never been coached by him, who've never met him. Those people, in turn, have inspired others.

On Sunday, March 29th, friends, family, faculty and players past and present, gathered at the High School Gymnasium for a ceremony honoring Coach Finberg which concluded with the facility being renamed after Finny.

For those of you that have worked so hard to create a business, have you created an exit plan? Will your blood, sweat and tears live on to inspire and employ others, or will it die with your exit?

Whether your exit is in one year or thirty, you need to have a plan. Groom a successor; create a corporate identity that can stand separately from your own; get that stuff that's locked deep in your brain, the stuff that only you know, onto paper. A legacy that dies with you is dead; a dream that you release on its own can live forever.