Attention, young athletes.

Attention, parents of young athletes.

The following 198-word quote comes from Nick Saban, the football coach at Alabama, the man who has coached four national championship teams and two Heisman Trophy winners. (That means he knows what he’s doing.)

Saban was talking about kids and choices recently to footballscoop.com:

“They all think they have this illusion of choice,” Saban said. “Like ‘I can do whatever I want to do.’ And you kind of have a younger generation now that doesn’t always get told no. They don’t always get told this is exactly how you need to do it. So they have this illusion that they have all these choices.

“But the fact of the matter is if you want to be good, you really don’t have a lot of choices, because it takes what it takes. You have to do what you have to do to be successful. So you have to make choices and decisions to have the discipline and focus to the process of what you need to do to accomplish your goals.

“All these guys that think they have a lot of choices are really sadly mistaken. And I think, as we all have done with our own children, they learn these lessons of life as they get older, and sometimes the best way to learn is from the mistakes that you make, even though we all hate to see them have to make them. And we don’t really condone them when they do.”

Whoa.

Shall we pause to digest and discuss?

We should. Because truer words have never been spoken.

And it doesn’t merely apply to sports. It’s everywhere in life. You really don’t have a lot of choices, sayeth Saban, because it takes what it takes.

The crux of my job here at AMUMO (America’s Most Underrated Media Outlet) isn’t to write or instigate. It’s to observe. And as Yogi once said, “you can observe a lot by watching.”

Know what I observe? A sense of parental delusion that their children eventually inherit. It’s like this: Their kids are allowed to adopt the ‘I can do what I want’ mentality, never get told no, don’t work hard enough and aren’t taught about discipline and process. And then parents perpetrate self-entitlement borne of their own guilt for not being strong enough teachers.

Seriously. How many kids have you seen that aren’t good enough because they never cared enough … but it was all the coach’s fault? Au contraire. By the time the coach became relevant, the work habits, or lack thereof, had become habit.

I use two kids here as examples: Dev Ostrowski (East Lyme basketball) and Mikey Buscetto (Waterford basketball). Two kids who completely worked their buns off last offseason. Not just playing AAU or summer league. Like when nobody was watching. In and out of gyms. In the heat of summer. Always with the ball — their constant companion — in their hands. Getting better. The process. It takes what it takes.

The same holds true now. Which is why high school basketball around here next winter will be must-watch for anybody with even a hint of an affinity for local sports. Two kids on two rival teams who get it. Respectful and diligent. Who understand you can’t cheat the process.

Remember that one: You can’t cheat the process.

It takes what it takes.

Ah, but how many of you will heed the words of Saban, a four-time national champion? Saban may be dour and humorless, but he’s not wrong. He’s spot on. It’s not just kids and parents, either. I don’t care what you do: Lawyer, teacher, principal, mechanic, social worker, writer, ditch digger. You want to be good? It takes what it takes. You want a few plaques on the wall, bon mots from your colleagues or a PhD on your nameplate?

It takes what it takes.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro