When most sport seasons end, numbers get crunched. As coaches, it’s easy for us to get caught up in this number crunching, especially as the media highlights our career wins, the titles we’ve won and the number of “Coach of the Year” awards we’ve received.

But any true coach knows that records are not what are important. Having the opportunity to work with athletes and make a difference in their lives is what is important. Coaches, like players, make a lot of sacrifices to develop winning teams, but most will tell you those sacrifices and successes are for the athletes—for the joy of watching players mature and grow.

Competition is an obvious part of the coaching life, resulting in either winning or losing. But God’s Word reminds us not to get so caught up in the results that we forget to take care of the flock—the athletes—who have been put under our watch.

Of course, we all want to win. Yet if we forget that we’re really working toward an imperishable crown (as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:25), then we’ve lost sight of why we’re coaching in the first place. In other words, just as we live our lives to please the Good Shepherd, so too should we coach our players with the same goal. In the process, we’ll serve as examples to the sheep.