Well this is my first year back coaching after a two year hiatus. Though my language use was challenged a lot and I am not proud of the words used at several different points of the season, I see a similarity in coaching much to that of my Savior minus the cuss words!! You see Jesus was everything to his followers and this is what we are to our athletes. There are so many young men today who have become my friend… After the grind and tough physically and mental workouts I put them through. So here I am, now a head coach… I do not answer to anyone and these are my kids. When you stop and think … We are their coach , mentor, discipliner, nurturer, friend, counselor, pastor and more. A good coach puts this effort into each athlete that crosses his path or at least attempts to. Jesus gave his followers chance after chance to get it right and so do we. If coaches would have given up on me when I was younger I would be in Jail or dead. It was coaches who showed me giving back what I had been given by them is what mattered.

I would say most of my 20 plus years of coaching I’ve gotten it. I wanted to see these young boys become young men. Yes, I strive and want to be number 1 and win a State Championship… But ultimately I know that comes when every thing falls into place. Now back to the title Coach= Jesus.. We have SO much influence over each of our kids, I mean every kid we talk to and touch we can impact their very lives. I wonder how many coaches put that first over winning. I see coaches of all abilities struggle with their purpose, their identity is tangled in their profession. Its as a coach the kids see the sacrifice you make for them not to win but for THEM to win. My hope is to cuss a lot less, but really quick!!! I cuss because I get so mad that they don’t perform the way I know they can. They fall short of their greatness and it hurts…. It truly does physically and emotionally. In the end they know my heart is theirs and I would do anything for them and until the day I get married and have children of my own, these young men will be my family I raise in a Village of people willing to work together , but in the end I have to remember how much I need to pour into each of them and that in itself is amazing. I will finish with a letter I received from a teacher who said a student turned this essay in as their assignment. The letter wrote that No one had ever believed in him until he met me.. The hardest thing for him was to trust anyone but here we are and it changed his life literally because I believed in him!!

One Love, One King, All Christ!