Send a volley cheer on high …

Lou Holtz, football coach and motivational speaker, stepped on to the stage of the International Builders’ Show general session in a pretty tough situation. Just moments before, an IBS audience of enrapt thousands witnessed history as the inauguration speech of Barack Obama was broadcast live via a handful of massive screens in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The president’s address, heard by millions around the world, was by all accounts an instant classic. Now it was Holtz’s turn. It was his job to follow Obama and motivate the audience of home builders during a period of record lows in residential construction. (In fact, less than 48 hours after his speech, December starts would emerge at a seasonally adjusted annual rate 550,000—a new record low.)

Good luck, coach!

Holtz began in classic coaching style—casting himself in the role of the underdog. He explained that he finished in the bottom half of his high school class. He apologized for his lisp. He revealed that he has written more books—three—than he has read.

Then the motivation began.

“Titles come from above,” Holtz said. “Leaders are determined from the people below. Leaders have a plan. And most important of all, leaders have to believe in the future.”

A little bit here about Holtz’s background.

Holtz is the only coach in college football history to take six different teams to bowl games. Holtz earned fame as head coach of Notre Dame in 1986. (That’s where he was told he couldn’t earn more than the president of the university—a priest who had taken a vow of poverty.)

In his first-year as coach of South Carolina in 1999, his team failed to win a single game. “I had a kicker who said, ‘I can’t kick when you’re watching,’” Holtz said. But in the following two seasons, the team won bowl games, including an upset over powerhouse Ohio State.

For any successful team, organization or business, there are dark hours. When shorthanded, injured, fatigued or discouraged by headlines, there are always plenty of reasons to believe in failure.

The similarities to today’s housing environment needed no further elaboration.

Holtz continued.

His Arkansas team was a 24-point underdog to powerful Oklahoma. Two of Arkansas’ star players were suspended for violating team rules. Defeat was in the air.

“I walked in the locker room, and I said, ‘I know all the reasons why we can’t win. What I want you to do is tell me why we can,’” Holtz recalled. The locker room was quiet. Finally a young man raised his hand: “We aren’t going to get beat nearly as bad as everybody thinks.”

It was a step in the right direction. Other plays chipped in with more reasons for optimism. Final score: Arkansas 31, Oklahoma 6.

Let us look at our own industry. There are all kinds of reasons why business will suffer in 2009. The newspapers are full of them.

“Ladies and Gentlemen I wanna tell you: You’re down, but you will not stay down,” Holtz thundered. “Housing is not a fad. Housing is not something people will do without.”

Thousands of people cheered. Against the odds, once again, Holtz had done his job.