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“That’s never been done here before.” “We’ve never been to the state playoffs.” “We’ve never beaten them before.” How many times have athletes looked at past seasons as the standard for the current season? The past can be a great thing when kept in perspective.
Sweaty palms, a racing heart and butterflies in the stomach were my Friday night enemies. The opening drive always made me nervous. I wanted our team to make a statement on the opening drive—to march straight down the field and score. But, at times the fear seemed almost paralyzing.
In those moments, my high school head coach would always remind us to “turn it loose and play.” I found great encouragement in that statement to let go of my fear and nervousness and just play the game.
When I exercise or warm up for a sports game, I love to blast contemporary Christian music through my headphones locked in my iPod. The music works as an energizer and motivates me to keep practicing. It makes me want to dance and sing. The great thing about music is that there are so many different styles of songs that there is something for everyone. For me, listening always lifts my heart and leaves me with a smile and a desire to get out there.
My junior year of college, a young man I knew for only a week came into my room and after 40 minutes broke down in tears. Men don’t cry, especially young, proud, college men like Shawn.
Later, after we talked through the issues of life and God, I realized there were more “Shawns” out there. Young men, old men — men of all ages — all bound together by similar challenges and struggles. And no matter where they are in life, the remedy is the same: today’s men are desperately in need of their heavenly Father.
Anyone who knows sports knows that turnovers and missed opportunities, especially in the game of basketball, spell disaster. This was never more apparent than in the championship game of our holiday tournament, when our starting point guard had 11 turnovers before halftime, and our team faced a 12-point deficit. The message for her was simple at halftime: “What could you do with 11 more possessions? Could you score the 12 points we need? Perhaps dish out 6 assists to overcome the deficit?”
One of my favorite baseball movies is A League of Their Own starring Tom Hanks. In one famous scene Hank’s character tells one of his female baseball players to stop crying. The reason behind his command is that in baseball there is no crying. There may be a few emotional Cubs fans who disagree! Handling emotions can be quite difficult for coaches. We want our team to be on edge and ready for a big game, but when athletes or coaches cry or display personal weakness, they are often looked down upon. Does this mean that in sports and in other areas of life it is acceptable to exhibit only tough-guy emotions? No, because Jesus was not afraid to express emotion.
It was a first for the two brothers, playing on the same Major League field.
Graduating from the childhood batting cages of their backyard, life had come full circle for Matt and Jonny Diaz. Their parents smiled from the stands; they couldn’t have been more proud. Each young man had followed his own individual calling, but this Saturday night they both found themselves delivering for Braves’ fans at Turner Field—one with a bat, the other with a guitar.
Coach Sleepy Thompson was one of those coaches that everyone wanted to play for. He not only knew how to win football games, but also how to develop young men. As my high school football coach, I remember him as an encourager—a coach that instilled life into his players. We walked a little taller as a result of his living out one of his favorite sayings, “Accentuate the positive.” A day would not go by without Coach Thompson reminding us of that principle. It was short and sweet and yielded powerful results. He stressed accentuating the positive at every practice and made it an essential characteristic of our team. He focused on the good in players instead of the bad; the future instead of the past. His words gave us purpose and meaning.
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