ALBANY FEATURE: Faith taking things one year, one month and one day at a time

“When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.”
— Hans Gruber, Die Hard, 1988

ALBANY — When he won the world chess championship in 1973 after pursuing it for much of his life, American Bobby Fischer woke up the next day and later reflected that “everything felt different.”  He soon vacated the title and never played in an officially sanctioned world championship match again. 

This sort of thing isn’t uncommon for those who spend decades chasing after a goal. Once it’s finally achieved, the question then becomes, how do I stay hungry? With the driving force behind all the hard work suddenly stripped away by success, where does one find additional energy? 

Albany football coach Denney Faith found himself facing this challenge over the offseason, after a 36-year pursuit of a state championship finally came to an end with a victory over Mart for the Class 2A DII state title last year.